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Saturday, August 30, 2014

I Can Handle the Truth

Film: A Few Good Men
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

Once upon a time, Rob Reiner was one of the best directors working. A Few Good Men comes right at the end of that period in his career—right before he directed the colossal stinkbomb North, as a matter of fact. A Few Good Men has a lot going for it. In addition to a top-of-the-line cast, including Jack Nicholson in one of his best and most iconic roles, it also has a screenplay from Aaron Sorkin at his best. This is a smart film. It’s one I’ve seen multiple times before, and settling into it today was like putting on a pair of comfortable slippers. I always remember that I like this film. I don’t always remember how beautifully written it is.

At the military base in Guantanamo Bay, two soldiers unexpectedly attack another soldier. Cut to Washington D.C. where Lieutenant JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) brings the incident to the attention of her superiors. The soldier who was attacked died in the attack. While it seems like a cut and dried case, it is her opinion that it sounds like a “code red,” an unofficial disciplinary action. She advocates for the case to come to trial and a lawyer be assigned to the two soldiers, Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Louden Downey (James Marshall).

Enter Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), son of one of the great trial lawyers in American jurisprudence and relatively recent graduate from Harvard. Kaffee has entered the Navy to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he isn’t much of a trial lawyer. In fact, he plea bargains everything and is far more interested in his softball team than in actually entering a courtroom. He is assigned the case and given Lieutenant Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollack) as an assistant, and soon begins the investigation.

This investigation brings a number of important players into the mix. First is Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon), the prosecuting lawyer. Ross is a friend of Kaffee despite their positions in the upcoming trial, and he is more than willing to cut a deal on the futures of Dawson and Downey. While Kaffee is tempted, he still heads down to Gitmo to investigate. It is here that he meets the other three important players for this story. The direct commander of the soldiers on trial is the aggressively military Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland); the base’s XO is Markinson (J.T. Walsh). The whole base is overseen by Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), an up-and-comer on the scene, recently tapped for a major post after his time at Gitmo.

A Few Good Men doesn’t shirk on the trial part of the film. The trial starts with well over half of the running time to go. We get plenty of courtroom theatrics and the case goes back and forth. Both sides make points. Things get strange when Markinson suddenly disappears, then reappears, telling Kaffee that everything he’s heard from Kendrick and Jessup have been lies. But before Kaffee can put Markinson on the stand, Markinson kills himself, setting up the final day in court, which is absolutely the most famous moment in the film.

A Few Good Men trades entirely on its screenplay and the performances. Underneath all of this is a complicated but not mind-blowingly devious legal battle. Where this film shines is in the characters and the dialogue, not the plot. The plot is just engaging enough to be worth watching. It’s the sharp writing and the fully realized people on screen that keeps the audience in its collective seat.

Tom Cruise plays the stereotypical Tom Cruise character here. He’s just a step away from Maverick in Top Gun, and not a full step. He’s brash, he’s conceited, he’s sure of his abilities, and he’s really good at what he does. My favorite character in the film is Lt. Weinberg, although I’ll admit that a big part of that is that I love Kevin Pollack in films like this one. Pollack is fun to watch.

The real star here, though, is Jack Nicholson, who turns in one of the great performances of a career filled with them. He didn’t win Best Supporting Actor for this role, but it was a well-earned nomination for the man. Jessup is a stereotype, but Nicholson plays him as more than just a stereotype. It’s a good role improved by a near-perfect performance.

I probably like this movie more than I should. This was my introduction to Aaron Sorkin, who I think is a damn fine writer. He has an ear for realistic dialogue, which is really the strongest point of this film. Better, it holds up extremely well. A remade version might feature cell phones and rely less on fax machines, but this is a story that hasn’t lost a beat in 22 years.

Why to watch A Few Good Men: One of the best courtroom screenplays going.
Why not to watch: Because this is the last time Rob Reiner did anything worth watching.

10 comments:

  1. I find the character of Colonel Jessup interesting. My initial feeling, after a couple of viewings, was that Jessup, despite being the principal bad guy in the film, makes certain undeniable points about the need for people like him—hard men, crass men, men not afraid to get dirty—to exist. And so for a while, I almost felt that Jessup, though unpleasant, wasn't necessarily a true baddie. After a few more viewings of the film however, my opinion changed, and I began to realize that Jessup was a hypocrite and a coward hiding behind his subordinates while he cynically angled for a higher social position. Far from being a hardened warrior speaking "grotesque and incomprehensible" truths, Jessup was a puny little bitch doing nothing more than covering his own ass. This isn't to say that the harsh martial realities he outlined in the courtroom were any less true, but I finally saw Nathan Jessup for who he really was, and I had to wonder how such a man would really act when under fire.

    Liked and agreed with your review.

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    1. I like this read on Jessup's character a lot. Having no military background myself, I have no idea if he's based on a particular stereotype of military leaders in that respect,

      One thing that is true of Jessup is that he absolutely believes himself in a position where the rules don't apply to him. He considers it his job to enforce and establish rules, but sees no reason to apply the same sort of standards or rules of conduct for himself.

      It's a fairly nuanced performance from Nicholson.

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  2. This movie belongs to Jack Nicholson. It is as you say Nicholson at his very best and I can watch this movie simply to enjoy that bastard.

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    1. I look forward to every time he shows up. He's so easy to hate.

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  3. I really liked A Few Good Men when it came out, though it's been a while since I've seen it. From what I recall, I think Cruise deserves more credit for carrying a lot of the movie. Nicholson gets the big moments, but we only get there if we care of the leads. I agree that Pollack is fun in this type of role. I should probably watch this again sometime.

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    1. Cruise is good, but it's Cruise being the same guy that we see from him at this point in his career. When he did The Firm the next year, he was playing the same guy.

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  4. The quote you referenced in your title is probably better known now than the film it came from.

    Another line from Nicholson's character that I loved, but which for obvious reasons does not get repeated as much, is "Have you ever gotten a blowjob from a superior officer?", referencing the fact that Demi Moore's character outranks Cruise's. In addition to simply being provocative the line also shows exactly what he thinks of both Moore's and Cruise's characters and how little he fears them. He's just playing with them to amuse himself, almost to kill time.

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    1. In a lot of ways, that's Nicholson's best scene. He also baits Kendrick by mentioning that Kaffee's father was the one who helped bring integration to Kendrick's neck of the woods. He says it as if it's a positive, but it's so evident that it's intended to turn Kendrick further against the Navy lawyers.

      Everyone in the film is as good as the script. Nicholson is the exception--he's better than the script.

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  5. Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise is what ruins this for me. I just hate watching that cocky, smug douchebag (the character) doing his thing.

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    1. I can see that. It's his persona in a lot of his films. I think the screenplay here is strong enough that I accept Kaffee for who he is in this. That said, this is a smug douchebag movie--Nicholson's character is no different.

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