Daily Dialogue — January 12, 2015

JUROR #4: What actually happened is this. The boy stayed home, had another fight with his father, stabbed him to death and left the house at ten minutes after twelve. He even remembered to wipe the knife clean of fingerprints. Now, are you trying to tell me that this knife really fell through a hole in the boy’s pocket, someone picked it up off the street, went to the boy’s house and stabbed his father with it just to test its sharpness?
JUROR #8: No, I’m just saying it’s possible the boy lost his knife and somebody else stabbed his father with a similar knife. It’s just possible.
JUROR #4: Take a look at this knife. It’s a very unusual knife. I’ve never seen one like it. Neither had the storekeeper who sold it to the boy. Aren’t you asking us to accept a pretty incredible coincidence?
JUROR #8: I’m just saying a coincidence is possible.
JUROR #3: And I say it’s not possible.

Juror #8 stands, produces another exact replica of the knife and stabs it into the table next to the evidence knife. Pandemonium from the other jurors as they marvel at the new knife.

JUROR #4: Where did you get it?
JUROR #8: I went out walking for a couple of hours last night. I walked through the boy’s neighborhood. I bought that at a little pawn shop just two blocks from the boy’s house. It cost six dollars.

— 12 Angry Men (1957), story and screenplay by Reginald Rose

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=5npA

Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Revelation.

Trivia: All but three minutes of the film was shot inside the bare and confining, sixteen by twenty-four foot “jury room”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “One of my favorite dramas. There are no fight scenes, no chase scenes, no special effects. All the tension comes from one source: the dialogue.”

If you have any suggestions for this week’s theme, please post in comments.

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