Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose

7 reviews

sassmistress's review against another edition

inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

Really enjoyed this gripping courthouse drama! There weren't very many dated references, despite being written in 1954, and it's an exciting story. I see why this is a classic. To read the play, you do have to be able to keep track of characters by number instead of name, but it was pretty easy to follow as long as I kept 4 of those numbers straight. Definitely want to go see a production version at some point!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

- Being centered on the jury for a murder trial demanding the death penalty, death is discussed frequently, but not in a detailed way beyond the angle of the stabbing and the neighbor hearing the body hit the floor. The defendant is underage and facing the death penalty (electric chair is mentioned callously a few times).

- I counted 1 "a**", 2 "ba***rds" and quite a few occurrences of "he**" and "g**d***". Also, "Chr**sakes", "son of a b****", "load of cr**". There may be more that I missed. It picks up pace during the climax, when you're already invested.

- Very aggressive racism is closely depicted.

One juror votes guilty (for the death penalty) not because of the evidence, but because "These people are... gonna breed us out of existence." "They are--wild animals." "This boy, this boy on trial here. We've got him. That's one at least. I say get him before his kind gets us."

The race/ethnicity of the boy is never specified, but one of the jurors, an immigrant of unspecified origin, is subjected to the same vitriol. This is all confronted by other members of the jury. - The boy was subject to physical abuse by his father, the victim. It's repeated that he hit his son multiple times and the boy was used to it.

- "The father wasn't exactly a model citizen... He was in prison once. He was a compulsive gambler and a pretty consistent loser. He spent a lot of time in neighborhood bars and he'd get into fistfights sometimes after a couple of drinks. Usually over a woman. He was a tough, cruel, primitive kind of man who never held a job for more than six months in his life." Someone suggests he could have instead have been murdered by "a man he'd beaten up" or "a woman he picked up".

- Y'know, "Angry Men." The conversation gets heated, there are a few creative insults, near-fights that get broken up, and one man makes as if to stab another to get him to flinch

kwichris's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Murder and Violence

solid_circle's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

the_page_traveller's review

funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Racism

sssssoup's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Cursing

victor_gannon's review

emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Let me tell you something, the only reason I have scored this lower is because I was forced to read this story SO many times, I am slowly starting to get a burning passion of hating this story.
It's alright, a good short story that you can read quickly, some racism and stuff but that's expected.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Racism, and Violence

yellow_star's review

inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This just works much better when you watch it performed, it isn't as good read. Even though it's a short read it also felt horribly slow to read through it. Most editions also have a little lecture on the importance of civic duty at the beginning which is an even slower read and is also very preachy. Please don't be turned off by the content warning, it contains a prejudiced character but the others are against it so it's not a pro-prejudice piece.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism

they don't specify if a few of the jurors are racist or classist and the race of the accused isn't mentioned, but there is dialogue about a juror not caring if the accused is innocent or guilty because he is "one of THEM [and deserves to die for just that]." In the dialogue a few of the jurors disagree with that reasoning so it's not a pro-prejudice piece.