A Few Good Men (1992)

Two marines are charged with murder on the suspicion of their fellows. Believed to have committed the offence in order to prevent the victim testifying against them for an earlier crime. The two say they were simply following orders from their superior officer under the dictation of their unbending militaristic code. The perfect court drama, it encompasses every emotion necessary to craft the perfect case, loyalty, trust and a respectable sense of right and wrong. These themes are shown and clarified by impeccable characters all brought to rein beneath the direction of Rob Reiner. This movie showcases the skills of stars Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore in order to portray the high expectations of a militaristic court.

Probably the most prominent them during this film loyalty encompass both the accused marines and one of their (Antagonistic) supreme officers. Many men are loyal to many things throughout the expanse of this movie. The marine code, Christianity and even a primal gut feeling. Loyalty takes many forms before the eyes of the viewer through this movie, in one case something that compels one to find a dastardly loophole in a military court, another to gamble his life to uphold his code and one so torn between his code and human morals, a struggle that in turn takes his life. The first of said occurrences arrives in the form of a military witness in the court that is holding the trial of the accused. During said trial the witness swears on his loyalty to god that he shall tell the truth. And when asked a question that presses his integrity he loops out of it and in doing so severely injuring the accused chances of being titled innocent and preserves his own ‘purity’. The accused display their loyalty by turning down an offer to serve only six months jail time but to dishonour the code in order to serve a life’s jail time but to remain US marines. Not only does this show a strong belief in the marine code but also a strong will to carry out its dictations.

“Unit Core God Country,

To you these may just be words but to us they are a code, a way of life.”

- Lance CPL Harold W.

Another less shown but no less important theme is human moral. Shown in few cases this regards doing the right thing and doing to the best of your ability. It first occurs when a military officer runs from his duty after his leader expresses the laws of the code in an inhumane way. Unhappy with his life he disappears vanishing from the face of the earth. The second display of this is after an argument between the main defendant and the accused. Having been turned down on an offer to save a mans life the defendant feels lost perhaps ignorant to the justification of his clients actions but under the guidance of his peers and his simple morals he was driven to defend the accused. The final and probably most important display of this theme is the suicide of the military officer that had ‘disappeared’ begged to supply evidence pointing to the vile actions of his supreme officer he is torn between the morals driven forward by his lawyer counterpart and his military code a battle that eventually tore him apart.

“Why do you hate them so much?”

“They beat up on a weakling that’s all they did the rest is just smoke-filled coffee-house cr**. They tortured and tormented a weaker kid. They didn’t like him. So, they killed him. And why? Because he couldn’t run very fast.”

- Conversation between two defence lawyers.

Few characters display a fair share of trust. The clearest display of trust comes from the accused. Their trust in their lawyer and his morals is an asset to their morale throughout the trial as the strongly believe they will be defended well. The accused also show persistent trust in their code, as they believe that by assaulting their target they were upholding as he threatened to break the carefully crafted chain of command. On top of this undying trust they believed that the ‘truthful’ enterprise of the military court was set to bring them through unscathed. On the other hand CoL. Nathan. R Jessup is disgraced by the lack of trust and respect shown by the civilian world and is angered in court by the main lawyers demanding attitude for him to justify previously given orders that authorized the assault.

I want the truth!”

“YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!”

“Son we live in a world that has walls and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the Luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence while grotesque and incomprehensible to you saves lives! You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties you want me on that wall you need me on that wall. We use words like “honour” “code” and “loyalty”. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it!

- In-court conversation between lawyer and Jessup.