In what is probably the Coen Brothers' best film, The Man Who Wasn't There, the moody noir climaxes in a court case in which sought-after defence attorney Freddy Riedenschneider tells the jury: "The more you look, the less you really know. "It's a fact, a true fact.
In a way, it's the only fact there is." Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men is an optimistic examination of this idea. A teenager is accused of murdering his father, and the whole jury retire to consider the case.
They're all convinced he did it... except one. Enter 'Juror Number 8', memorably played in Sidney Lumet's 1957 film adaptation by Henry Fonda, who is determined to convince his fellow jurors to examine the case more thoroughly.
But this noble task is not an easy one. It's a hot and stormy afternoon, tempers are short and prejudice and personal vendettas are slowly unpicked within the room as spirited debates and petty squabbles drone on.