Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently revealed that her decision to become a lawyer was partly inspired by the film "12 Angry Men." Sotomayor was asked to pick a film for a festival at Fordham Law School, and she selected the 1957 Sidney Lumet film about a jury deliberating the case of a young man accused of murder.
In a Q-and-A session that followed, Sotomayor said that she first saw the film when she was considering going to law school, and that the film reassured her that she was on the right career path. "This movie," she said, "continued to ring the chords within me." She was especially inspired by one character: an immigrant juror who expresses reverence for the American judicial system.
A N. Y. Times article provides more details.
You can check out the DVD of the film from the library’s reserve collection, or you can read the play on which the film was based. You can also view the film here.
