Chicago-Kent Law Review Volume 82 Issue 2 Symposium: The 50th Anniversary of 12 Article 21 Angry Men April 2007 The Banality of Evil: A Portrayal in 12 Angry Men Nancy S. Marder IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Nancy S. Marder, The Banality of Evil: A Portrayal in 12 Angry Men, 82 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 887 (2007). Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol82/iss2/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. THE BANALITY OF EVIL: A PORTRAYAL IN 12 ANGRY MEN NANCY S. MARDER* INTRODUCTION Popular culture thrives on a portrayal of evil as murder, mayhem, and violence. Today's movies try to "outdo" predecessors with gruesome acts committed by egregious monsters.I Unfortunately, this media depiction of evil has lost its power to explore the much greater evil that humankind faces when societies destroy, impoverish, and enslave on a massive scale as a result of small actions taken by ordinary citizens. Hannah Arendt cap- tured this evil in her phrase "the banality of evil."'2 Ironically, the phrase and its meaning have become banal-too often repeated to form the basis for depictions by the media, which must always strive for the new and dif- ferent.