Juror No. 2: Clint Eastwood’s film has the same buzz as the French thriller released 62 years ago!

Currently in theaters, Juror 2 is Clint Eastwood’s new feature film starring Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette. It tells how the hero, the future father of the family, finds himself on the jury and discovers that he may be a murderer. And that pitch resonates with a film that came out 62 years before Eastwood’s film.

Does this remind you of anything?

This square recalls another feature film, The Seventh Jury, made in 1962 by Georges Lautner (who made Les Tontons flingueurs the following year) with Bernard Blier in the title role. The film was a public success with 1.1 million admissions and brought together other famous actors of the time such as Daniel Delorme, Francis Blanche, Maurice Biroux, Robert Dalban and Albert Remy.

Written by Jacques Robert and adapted from Francis Didelo’s novel, its script reads:

As he walks, pharmacist Duvall sees a young girl sunbathing naked and sexually assaults her. She defends herself and starts screaming and Duvall chokes her, then runs off without asking for a rest. When he learns that a man is accused instead of him and appointed as a juror in his trial, exactly the seventh juror, he will do everything in order to acquit the accused.

In The Jury #2, protagonist Justin is called to be a juror in an upcoming trial for the murder of a young woman who was found dead under a bridge. Dubbed “Juror No. 2”, he realizes during the trial that he is undoubtedly the murderer and therefore decides to acquit the accused. The script is written by Jonathan Abrams, for whom this is his first screenplay in Hollywood.

Nevertheless, there are noticeable differences

However, the two films have differences, especially in their endings. in the seventh jury,
Spoiler:
Duvall confesses the truth to the acquitted defendant and their discussion ends: a shot is fired, killing an innocent man. Duvall incriminates himself in court, but they do not believe him and because of his stubbornness he is locked in an asylum.. In Juror #2,
Spoiler:
The criminal thinks he got away with it, but the assistant prosecutor rings the doorbell, which has been decided: he will probably go to trial.

Similarly, juror 7 Duval knows he is guilty from the beginning of the trial, and juror 2 Justin finds out during the hearings, and for example, the relationship between the main character and his wife really has nothing to do with it. Make watching from one movie to another. Moreover, Eastwood’s film is a film of trials and deliberations in the style of 12 Angry Men, while Blier’s film takes place mainly in the courtroom. In both feature films, only the principle of the film is the same.

The seventh juror underwent a remake

In 2007, a second version of The Seventh Juror was released for television with Jean-Pierre Darussen as the killer. It’s the same story, but moved to the context of the Algerian war and anti-Maghreb racism. The actor was chilling and his performance was captivating.