America has allways been a place of pluricultural and plurilingvistical relations, based

of the notes on the statue of Liberty Give me your tired, your poor your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free, where all men are free in spite of their race, gender,
culture, nationality etc, and this is the reason why we have chosen as a theame the
movie 12 Angry Men, a production under the view of Sidney Lumet, that capured in
essence the social realism which made this movies to be real mirrors in which the
viewers saw themselves and their society, their inner and outer relations, how they are
and how they really appear.
This movie, like others directed by him, does this exact fact it caputes the reality of a
common daily activity of the New York Courthouse, where a Porto Rican boy is on
trail for murdering his father, trail that is presided by the Judege and 12 jury members,
that will chose which destiny the boy will have.
The film debutes with the faade of the Courthhouse that has ascribed above the
pillars the words of George Washigton The True Administration of Justice is the
Firmest Pillar of Good Government, above which lies in the center the iconic face of
Justice, and on her right depicting a pair of figures of historical cutures important to
law, form anicet empires like eygpit, assirian, roman, greek, etc six in number, and on
the left porataits of six lawgivers like Hammurabi, Moses, Solon, etc.
The stage is set and the 12 men enter the jury backroom, where they are supposed to
chose the fate of the boy, each of them representing a sterotype of social urban culture
that manifested in that time in America.
The first is the foreman that is an assistant football coach.
The second is a bank clerk.
The third is a business man, that had his own business and that he has a bad relation
with his son, to whom he is now not speaking.
The forth is a stock broker, that takes himself with a very serious air
The fifth is a hospital worker that lived all his life in the slums of the city.
The sixth is a house painter that doesnt enjoy his work so much, and is over hesitant.
The seventh has to go to a ball game and does not care to mush about the fate of the
defendant.
The eight is an architect by trade and is the only one that takes the role of jury as is
meant to, meaning to analyze the case in a more professional way.
The ninth is an old man that backs up eights view, on the matter.

The tenth has a problem with the kind of the defendant condemning him on many
occasions as one of them.
The eleventh is a German immigrant watchmaker that manifests his admiration for the
American justice.
The twelfth works at a agency that deal in marketing that he need to point out
frequently being constantly distracted from the debate.
All of these people represent in essence the American society, all of them are coming
from different areas of activities and lifestyle; while the boy, the Porto Rican,
represents the outer culture, that pariah, that they - the society, doesnt accept; thus
they manifest a detached and indifferent attitude towards him and implicit the culture
he represents.
There are several themes that act inside the courtroom and the backroom. One of them
is justice, a man is accused of murder and it is up the them, the jury, to judge his case
and come out with an unanimous vote.
When they enter the room the camera swifts to the boy that gazes innocently at those
that have his life in their hands.
Once inside the room the first remark is how hot it is one of them stating that its
the hottest day of the year, and tries to turn on the fan, but fails, the weather inside
representing their inner selves, as regarding to the task at hand.
Beside justice prejudice is another major theme, on various level, the most obvious
being the racial prejudice, other of the age and other compare him to his relation with
his son.
One against many, another theme, the central one we can say, begins with juror eight
that votes not guilty against all the other members, thus creating an antagonism
between their views. The theme flips at the end when all proclaim the boy not guilty
except juror number 3. In this plays there is a cross-section of American life, putting
in the same room a rich stock broker with a one that lived in the slums.
Intercultural communication is a key concept in this movie, on both sides: one
regarding them that represent the American society versus the boy of porto-rican
origin, this is the centre conflict; and second the one regarding the relation between
the 12 men, that came from different types of urban culture each of them with his own
particular life style.

When we talk about inter cultural communication, we talk about social psychology,
the tradition of language and anthropology.1 In our case intercultural communication
is essentially interpersonal communication where interactants may not be using the
same set of social and communication rule and secondly that if interactants acquire
the relevant skills and knowledge competent and effective communication will
follow2.
This being so intercultural communication is primarily intergroup communication,
determined by the motivations and behaviours in an encounter.3 In our case the group
is formed out of several individuals, each being a stereotype in the American society,
that dont share the set of social and communication rules, each of them possessing
different skills and level of knowledge, that gather up in their own set of values. For
example juror number 5, that grew up in the slums, is offended by the attitude of juror
number 10 towards the people he grew up in his neighbourhood, point out that not all
people in the ghetto are bad and social status means nothing, more than that he
possesses knowledge one how to stab a man, never using it physically but
intellectually by helping the case, explaining how a common knife fight take place.4
Another example is the relation between juror number 9 and 8. Juror number 9 is the
victim of ageism discrimination in spite the fact the he is the most experienced of all
the members there.
A driving factor in all intergroup communication is the inclusion of motivation, what
motivates both parties. Giles notes that the capacity of speakers to change
sociolinguistic style depending upon whether they liked and admired their
interlocutor (or disliked the other person);5 exactly the relation the 12 men have,
juror number 8 persuading them and gaining their admiration, in the final act drives
them, on at a time, to change their attitude towards the case.
Psychological work has always been based on the assumption that the attitudes,
interactional goals and motives of interlocutor determine their choice of language and
non verbal behaviour.6
Juror number 8 begins with a remark that something doesnt add up remark from
which he remotivets the other members. None of them wanted to be there. As we
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2

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5
6

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know jury duty is mandatory in the USA and luck made it that they where called
there. Their attitude is one of disregard towards jury duty and that they where obliged
to be there, note towards the boy on trail. Some of them had their own issue in the
matter due to their personal way of being. All in all is added to the fact that they
perceived this encounter as something that is imposed and because it was against their
own will refused to have any emotional part in the case.