Rrrrrrright time for another movie review and this one is a Hollywood court room drama which is A Few Good Men, which was originally play by Aaron Sorkin, so let's give it a shuftie...
Right the film basically starts with two marines, Lance Coporal Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Private Douney (James Marshall) who are stationed at Guantanamo bay in Cuba, who enter a young marine's room and tie him up and stuff a rag down his throat, however as a result of the attack the marine dies, and Dawson and Douney are arrested. The two marines defence counsel turns out to be the young, cocky and inexperienced Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) who is at first reluctant to take the case on, but he is assigned to naval investigator and lawyer Lieutenant Commander Jo Galloway (Demi Moore) who tells him she thinks that the two marines were acting on order known as a "code red" which is a form of disciplinary military punishment. Kaffee and Galloway along with Kaffee's assistant, Lt Sam Weinbeg (Kevin Pollak) travel to Cuba where they meet with the commanding officer, Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) who does not confirm or deny the practice of code reds on the base, and after a brief investigation of the base, the three of them fly back to the States.
However on their return Jessup's executive officer, Lt Colonel Markinson (J.T. Walsh) goes awol, and Galloway grows more convinced that the order was a code red. Kaffee and Galloway go and question Dawson and Douney who tell him that they were given an order to perform a code red on the young marine, Private Santiago. Kaffee then approaches the prosecution lawyer Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) and tells him the marines were given an order and he works out a plea bargain with him, where he will offer the marines involuntary manslaughter for which they would receive a reduced sentence of six months. Kaffee takes the offer to Dawson who turns it down as he refuses to admit he did anything wrong other than follow his duty and will not dishonour himself or his corps. As a result, Kaffee verges on quitting the case after having a row with Galloway, who insists they go to court and put the marines on trial, but he soon decides to take on the case. And from here this is where the court room drama begins....
As far as court room dramas go, A few good men definitely is one of the most entertaining. The story itself was actually based on a phone call the writer Aaron Sorkin had with his sister, who worked as a lawyer in the US Navy Corps for three years, where she defended marines who were accused of murder after a direct order from their commanding officer to carry out a hazing disciplinary action on a fellow marine. Sorkin's screenplay is wonderfully written and richly worded and the characters are all really well drawn out, and it lead toward a fruitful career as a screenwriter for TV and film, as Sorkin went on to write The West Wing for TV, as well as films such as The American President and The Social Network.
And it has to be said that what makes A few good men work so well is the performances from the cast, as the cast are all excellent. Starting with Tom Cruise, who admittedly is annoying at times in his role as the cocky young upstart who goes through his "journey" toward becoming a man and following in the footsteps of his late legendary father, who was a superb trial lawyer, but overall he delivers a really good performance. Cruise also get's his share of good lines, such as when he Galloway argues with him over his lazy attitude towards the case and he says after "Wow! I'm sexually aroused, commander!". Cruise also later on provides some good moments in the court scenes especially when thunders away at Lt Kendrick (played by Kiefer Sutherland) and Colonel Jessep. Another funny moment is where he argues with the prosecution lawyer and his friend, Captain Ross in a bar, and as Ross is about to leave, Kaffee is lost for a retort and instead he yells "you're a lousy fucking softball player, Jack!!".
Demi More is surprisingly also good in her role as Jo Galloway even though she is quite an unlikely choice to play such a part. Moore's numerous rows with Cruise are also quite amusing at times in the film, especially near the beginning when they first meet and he is about to leave her officer and she says "you're dismissed" and Kaffee replies "I always forget that part!". Later on Moore also has a good line whne Kaffee get's drunk and explodes at her and she says "I'm sorry I lost you you're set of steak knives" (referring to a quip from Kaffee saying that he will get a set if he wins another case).
As for the other cast members, Jack Nicholson is great as the devious and manipulative Colonel Jessup, who you can see is dirty from the get go (sorry if that is a spoiler!) and he has an intimidating and commanding prescence throughout. Jack has quite a few highlights, and the ones that stand out are his scene at the Gitmo base where Kaffee casually asks for Santiago's transfer order, but Jessup says firmly "you have to ask me nicely! You see I can deal with the bombs and the blood. I don't want money or medals, but what I do want is for you to stand there and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy!". Also later in the court room scene where (PLOT SPOILER HERE!) Kaffee thunders away at Jessup and tries to get him to admit he ordered the code red, and Kaffee shouts "I want the truth!" and Jessup replies "you can't handle the truth!". Also another amusing line Jessup has is when he refers to Jo Galloway as being Kaffee's superior officer and "there is nothing sexier on this Earth than having a woman you have to salute in the morning. Because if you haven't gotten a blow job from a superior officer, you are just letting the best in life pass you by!". Nicholson apparently also loved the script so much that he would willingly do multiple takes for the director Rob Reiner, and even read in his lines when he didn't need to, and overall this is one of the finest performances.
Next up there is J.T Walsh as Markinson, who is great in his part, and Walsh was always a very understated actor and his performance is very sutble here and he had a great of conveying much without having to do much at the same time. Kiefer Sutherland as the young Lt Kendrick, who is the commanding officer in charge of Dawson and Douney, is also very good in his part. Sutherland's highlight is of course his court scene where he is questioned by Kaffee, who get's him pretty riled, and Sutherland perfectly highlights the marines fanatical qualities for the corp and religion. Sutherland also is given one of the film's best lines where he says to Jo Galloway "Commander, I believe in Jesus Christ, and I can say this that Private Santiago's death was a tragedy. But he is dead because he had no code, he is dead becasue he had no honour and God was watching!". Kevin Pollak as Kaffe's friend Sam Weinberg is also very good, and he provides some amusing moments in the film as well as an informer for Kaffee's ignorance in all matters to do with the marines. Pollak has quite a few good lines but one of my favourites is when he pushes his baby in a pram and he says that she said her first word "Pa" while pointing and Kaffee says "she was pointing at a mailbox, Sam!" and Sam replies "that's right, as if to say "Pa, lookl! A mailbox!". Also briefly Wolfgang Bodison gives a fine performance as the marine Dawson, who has a good scene with Tom Cruise who offers him a lea bargain which he turns down and says "I will not dishonour myself, my unit or the corps just so I can go home in SIX MONTHS!! Sir!". And at the end of the scene when Kaffee asks "what happened to saluting an officer when he leaves the room?" which leaves Dawson to stand up grumpily and thrust his hands into his pockets defiantly!
And finally I cannot finish without mentioning Kevin Bacon as Captain Ross, who provides an excellent performance as the professional prosecution lawyer. Bacon delivers a solid and efficient performance throughout, and he has some good moments, especially his scene where he meets with Kaffee in a bar, who tells him that he has Markinson, and Ross says to him that Markinson won't hold up and he reminds Kaffee that "he was bullied into that courtroom by the memory of a dead lawyer" (i.e.Kaffee's father).
As for any flaws well there are one or two niggles, starting with Kaffee's character, who despite Cruise's largely fine performance, there are times when he really comes across as the annoying callow cocky youth, who you would love to slap, and at times you just think of him as having just wondered out of the set of Risky Business or Cocktail, as it was a mode of acting he was yet to escape. Aaron Sorkin's screenplay while it is great and richly written, it is also very wordy and there are times where you feel certain scenes could be a bit shorter if it wasn't for Sorkin's insistance to extend sentences and you wish at times he would just get to the point quicker in a scene. But apart from that its all pretty good.
Direction wise Rob Reiner (director of Spinal Tap and When Harry met Sally) does a fine job with such a big cast, and he paces the film really well and keeps the courtroom drama sequences interesting, and he also provides a nice balance of drama and humour. Reiner also starts the film really well by showing the JAG corps officers perform their match with their rifles just before Jo makes her appearance. Marc Shaiman also provides a good music score for the film which is mainly syntheizer based and there are some good passages in there to be found.
So that's it for my look at A Few Good Men, which still remains and entertaining and engrossing court drama, which is well worth watching if you haven't already.
And I will leave it right there.
P.S. this will be my last post for a few days as I will be heading off to London for the weekend. Yeah baby!! (sorry about that bit!). Until the next time bye for now!
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