12 Angry Men - American Culture

[This post may contain spoilers; please watch the movie here before reading]

There are many parts of the movie that I find interesting because they are representative of a culture much different from ours today.  Much has changed in America since the 1950's, and in many ways it makes me feel much fonder of the culture from back then.  Besides many obvious technological advances, there are many other slight differences, especially in the actions and behaviors of the men themselves.  To start out, all of the actors are white men.  This would be nearly impossible for a movie today because of the societal necessity to include minorities and women.  However, the group of men they choose does represent an extremely large variety of people, especially for the time period.  Next, in an early scene, Juror #7 has a piece of gum, and instead of keeping the wrapper in his pocket or throwing it into a trash can, he simply tosses it out of the open window.  Just the fact that I noticed this shows how concerned we as a nation have become about littering, and it shows almost how ridiculous our heightened care is.  Same goes for the smoking, it is rare for people to smoke now, especially inside a confined room.  Possibly the largest difference is the initial respect all the men have for one another.  Although they come from different backgrounds and don't know each other at all, they have an established respect that a lot of people simply don't have today.