A Few Good Men (Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A great movie for those in the law profession
Review: I watched "A Few Good Men" many years ago, when I was much younger. I understood the story back then, but I didn't mind much the legal issues because I didn't really understand them. Watching "A Few Good Men" recently, I realized that it was a great movie, especially for lawyers and those in the military.

In "A Few Good Men", Tom Cruise's character was the lead counsel for two marines who were accused of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and conduct unbecoming of an officer. The facts were undisputed that the two marines beat up Private Santiago, killing him in the process. The government, led by prosecutor Kevin Bacon, wanted to convince the court that the two marines should be held accountable for what they did to Private Santiago. The defense team of Cruise, on the other hand, wanted to place the blame on the superiors of the two marines.

Cruise's character was excellent in plea bargaining. It seemed that if they went to court, the two marines would get life sentences. Cruise's character managed to convince Bacon's character to lower the charge to manslaughter, which would imprison the two marines for only six months. However, the two marines refused to bargain with the government by pleading guilty. They wanted to go to court because they believed that they were not guilty, even if it meant they would go to jail for the rest of their lives. Cruise's character was very frustrated. As a lawyer, he did them a favor by reducing their imprisonment to only six months. But the two marines refused because of honor.

Here we see the difference between being the lawyer and being the client. The lawyer's job is to prevent their clients from going to court, as much as possible. But there are some clients who want to fight it out in the courts to prove a point. As the lawyer for those clients, one must accede to their wishes while at the same time letting them know what they are getting into. Cruise's character originally wanted to be removed as counsel for the defendants. But then he realized that he had a duty to fight for the rights of his clients, especially since he believed that they were not guilty.

Cruise and his team prepared the witnesses before they went to court. This is a good example of what trial lawyers should do, since witnesses may say something incriminating, especially when they are badgered by the opposing counsel. A good witness must be prepared, relaxed, and must get all the details straightened out before testifying. He must also not be easily rattled.

It seemed that the defense would lose because they had no proof that the two marines were only following a superior order. This is applicable in many countries. When high ranking officials are concerned, a lot of times there is no proof linking them to the crimes. They are powerful enough to make witnesses lie and change records. As a last attempt, Tom Cruise subpoenaed Jack Nicholson's character, a highly respected colonel. The former ruffled the latter's feathers so much that the latter admitted in open court that he issued the orders to the two marines.

For lawyers and especially trial lawyers, the way Cruise's character did it was a brilliant example of how one can make witnesses admit things in open court. He was able to make Nicholson's character say that Santiago was to be transferred because he was in grave danger. He also boasted that his men always followed his orders. Cruise's character then asked the important question: "If they always follow your orders, then why was Santiago in grave danger?"

The movie is an example of how lawyers can greatly affect the outcome of a case. Someone who may seem guilty may in fact be acquitted because of his lawyer. Cruise's character was right when he said that the case was to be won not by the law, but by the lawyers. Demi Moore's character, in my opinion, represents the righteous layman. She said that people know that the two marines were only following orders. Tom Cruise's character represents the lawyer who knows that it's all about what you can prove. Being a lawyer is not all about knowing the rules. It's all about knowing the rules to one's advantage, making your case more believable and credible than the opposing side, and proving the facts. But, as was shown in the movie, it is important to use the law to your advantage when you truly believe in what you are fighting for. Tom Cruise's character truly believed that the two marines were only following orders. His conscience wouldn't allow him to let them go to prison knowing that he could help them. Lawyers, when they truly believe in their clients, should do their best to help them even if the case seems like an uphill battle. They should realize that lives may hang in the balance, but with their help, they can prevent a miscarriage of justice. In this way, lawyering becomes an honorable profession.


Rating:
Summary: COURT ROOM DRAMA/ENGROSSING TRANSFER!
Review: "A Few Good Men" pits a clean cut defense attorney (Tom Cruise) against a disreputable General (Jack Nicholson)in order to get to the bottom of a murder that has taken place on a military base. Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon co-star.
Columbia's original DVD release of "A Few Good Men" was a near pristine effort with bold, rich colors, exceptional contrast and shadow delineation, smooth deep black levels and an amazing lack of edge enhancement and pixelization. This DVD release is a carbon copy of that transfer.
EXCEPTIONS: The original DVD contained nearly 60 chapter stops, an ample selection by any standard. On this DVD we get less than 30 chapter stops, presumably so that the extra added features could be squeezed onto the same side of the disc. Extras included several featurettes, theatrical trailers, audio commentaries and a few throw away items. All in all this is a nicely packaged DVD with nothing really to complain about. If any complaint can be lodged its this - first, that Columbia should give us a special edition first and forgo the bare bones treatment of their initial releases and definitely ditch plans for a remastered Superbit version. The studio's theory behind multiple copies is merely a money-making venue. Second, upon seeing such a sterling presentation one pines after the fact that Columbia's transfer quality of late does not come close in comparison to its earlier efforts, like "A Few Good Men".
BOTTOM LINE: THIS ONE'S A KEEPER - IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Rating:
Summary: "A FEW GOOD MEN" WAS REINER/SORKIN'S SUBTLE MESSAGE OF THEIR
Review: "A FEW GOOD MEN" WAS REINER/SORKIN'S SUBTLE MESSAGE OF THEIR PERFECT LIBERAL WORLD
By Steven Travers

Unlike other obviously partisan Hollywood films from the likes of Robert Redford and Oliver Stone, "A Few Good Men" (1992) delivered a subtler message from liberals Rob Reiner (director) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing"). It was also an example of how liberals sometimes shoot themselves in the foot in their attempts to demonstrate the goodness of their point and the faults of their political opposites.
This has happened on more than one occasion. In 1964, radical screenwriter Terry Southern ("Easy Rider") penned "Dr. Strangelove". The film attempted to make fun of bombastic military figures, lampooning Air Force General Curtis LeMay through George C. Scott's comedic General "Buck Turgidson". It succeeded as a great film, but not as a political statement. Ronald Reagan loved it.
A few years later, a '60s peacenik named Francis Ford Coppola, fresh out of UCLA Film School, wrote "Patton". He attempted to portray the World War II general as a mentally unbalanced warmonger. Scott's performance was one of the best in history. The result was the greatest, most patriotic war film ever made. Coppola (who won the Academy Award), could not have foreseen that Richard Nixon, after viewing "Patton" several times, would be emboldened to invade Cambodia, and that generations of West Point grads would consider the film a virtual primer.

Set right after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, "A Few Good Men" tries to show why officers from the "Patton school" were out-dated. The beauty of the script is in the character arc of Lieutenant Daniel Caffey (Tom Cruise). His father is the former Attorney General of the United States, and in this capacity he was a civil rights hero. Caffey never lived up to his dad's high expectations, although he graduated from Harvard Law School. He is skating by in the Navy JAG corps to satisfy family tradition. Demi Moore is a dedicated JAG lawyer who wants to do great things. Kevin Pollack (Lieutenant Sam Weinberg) is the guy who got picked on when he was a kid. The three of them get assigned to a case involving two "poster" Marines accused of murder at Guantanamo Bay. The Commander at Gitmo is Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), in a role he did not win the Academy Award for, which is unbelievable. Jessup is about to be Assistant National Security Advisor, so he is very high up the Pentagon food chain.
Cruise is a slacker who pleads his cases, and is offered a sweetheart deal by the prosecutor, a Marine buddy played by Kevin Bacon. If the Marines plead out, the case goes away and after six months they are out of jail. The Marines are straight up and down, and say no. Demi, a so-so actress who rises to Oscar performance in a role she was born to play, takes Cruise to task. Normally a sexpot, she is not portrayed as anything but a professional officer and lawyer, and she wears it well. There is sexual tension with Cruise, but nicely underplayed. The elephant in the corner is the "code red" that everybody knows Nicholson ordered, but nobody can ask about. If he ordered the "code red," the boys are free, which leaves a slight fact discrepancy because a Marine died because of a hazing they administered. It is fair to ask why they are free if they were ordered, hung if not, since their actions are still the same.
Demi gets Cruise to stage two of his character arc by committing him to the case and to get Nicholson to admit to the "code red," which Cruise plans to do because he knows Jack does not like "hiding" from him. Pollack has been shuffling along with his "I have no responsibilities here whatsoever" act, but his role in the script is made clear. He backs up Demi's earlier faith in Cruise, and for the first time Cruise realizes he has special talent and can win. The finale is a doozie with Nicholson thundering away with a speech that Sorkin and Reiner must have really agonized over.
Nicholson represents Plato's "warrior spirit," protecting America's liberal peaceniks like'Reiner and Sorkin. He gives an incredible dissertation on what it takes to do the heavy lifting that protects our cherished freedoms. Reiner and Sorkin resisted the chance to demonize Nicholson into the tired old conservative boogieman; the racist white officer (one of the Marines is black), stupid, a war glorifier. Instead, they let Nicholson make a speech that has been memorized and made into legend by'conservatives and military officers. But Jack makes a mistake and lets Cruise lead him one step too far, admitting to the "code red" that wins the day. The twist, and the message, is in the final verdict in which the Marines are declared "not guilty" but are dishonorably discharged for "conduct unbecoming Marines." The black Marine gives the film its intended meaning by saying their conduct was unbecoming because they were not supposed to follow an illegal "code red" order (given to them by a Southern racist Christian, Kiefer Sutherland), against a weaker man, despite the consequences. Cruise tells them they do not need a patch to have honor, a line of pure gold. Pollack, who identified with the weaker man and did not like the macho Marines, melts because he sees his childhood tormentors symbolically apologize to him. Cruise has now earned his spurs and is no longer just Lionel Caffey's son.
"A Few Good Men" is a barnburner. The Sutherland role is its most heavy-handed bias. When he is told Cruise's father "made a lot of enemies in your neck of the woods" - Dixie - by letting "a little black girl" go to an all-white school, the subtle message is that he is a racist. Sutherland is further painted as a Bible thumper, the kind who have little patience for those who are not. Hollywood just brutalizes Christians. Nicholson also sneers at Pollack's screen name, Lieutenant Weinberg, a point that probably worked more against the Sorkin/Reiner message than for it. Nicholson is pointing out that Jews tend to be lawyers, while the Anglos do the fighting. The effect of the reference, however, causes people to make mental note of the fact that he is not entirely wrong. Reiner and Sorkin's "mistake" was in making Nicholson's character the real deal. In so doing, Jack thunders away with some of the best lines ever written.
"'You both rise and sleep under the very blanket of freedom that I provide, then criticize the way I provide it," he tells Cruise. "I'd just as soon you said 'thank you' and went on your way, or picked up a weapon and stood a post. Either way, I don't give damn what it is you think you're entitled to."
The producers, like Coppola before them, likely failed to recognize that by not demonizing Nicholson enough, they left the door open to a point of view that runs counter-productive to their own. Nicholson speaks about "honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something'"
Stone was horrified to discover that after excoriating "Wall Street" (1987), corporate hotshots for years thanked him for making a film that inspired their careers in high finance. Similarly, Reiner and Sorkin created a "monster" (Nicholson) who has inspired many to hear the words of Nathan Jessup and say, "Right on!"

(Screenwriter Steven Travers studied in the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. He is the author of "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman" and "God's Country: A conservative, Christian worldview of how history formed the United States Empire and America's Manifest Destiny for the 21st Century".)

Rating:
Summary: "What do you wanna discuss now? My favorite color?"
Review: "A Few Good Men" isn't a perfect movie. It doesn't have the greatest plot, nor does it have the greatest script. It also can be melodramatic and it tends to pretend that its plot is a lot more clever than it really is when it all comes down to it. So, that doesn't sound like a very good movie, right? In most cases, yes. However, the film is saved by superb acting and an impressive cast. Therefore, it proves to be an entertaining film despite being somewhat flawed.

Two soldiers are accused of killing one of their own in a beating gone wrong. A Navy lawyer and his team is their only hope as they set out to prove that they were ordered to give the beating to the soldier due to him falling behind and snitching on another soldier--but never intended to kill him. All of the evidence points to murder, but when looked at through a magnifying glass there tends to be more to the picture than meets the eye. This all makes for an interesting courtroom drama--while not perfect or original--that has top notch performances.

As I said in the beginning, the movie is very flawed. There are a lot of weaknesses that can be spotted within the blink of an eye, but the film is saved by stellar performances from Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon. While his performance isn't a major role, the late J.T. Walsh is also great to watch. As good as Cruise and company are, the real show stopper is the one and only Jack Nicholson, who delivers a chilling and flawless performance as he is in one of the most memorable scenes in film history. Since this is based on a play, the film is over-the-top at times and is very melodramatic. The use of dramatic music tends to get tiresome as well, as it appears that people behind the movie do not think we're smart enough to notice when a moment is somber or crucial. I don't mind music in movies, but they really overuse it at times. Still, I must repeat that this is a good movie.

I don't have the special edition, I just have the first edition that came out on DVD. As much as I like the movie, it's nothing I need to re-buy. The version I have is fine. The picture and sound quality is good enough and I really don't need any special features for this movie. The special edition is only recommended for hardcore fans. If you already have the older DVD and only like the movie, then there's no need to re-buy it.

"A Few Good Men" is a good movie that is saved by excellent acting. The outstanding cast makes up for the flaws in the film. Just keep in mind that this movie can get a little over-the-top with the dramatics, but if you love these actors then that will make up for that. If you haven't seen it yet, then I do recommend that you check it out. It is one of those movies that everybody talks about, and for good reason. -Michael Crane

Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: "You can't 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 going to do it? You? You Lt. Weingerg? I have a more difficult job 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 appearance here, while grotesque to you, saves lives. You don't care about that, because deep down inside you don't talk about at parties. You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, and loyalty. We use these words as a backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the 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. I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Or pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way... I don't give a damn... what you think you are entitled to!

Need I say more?

Rating:
Summary: The Most Riveting Military/Court-Room Drama
Review: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" With the backdrop of the military, A Few Good Men stands alone - in my view - as the best character driven movie to take place in a courtroom. By far, this is my favorite movie of all time; a movie which I paid to see four times in the theatre and once on pay-per-view. All performances in this movie are worthy of oscar notoriety, especially Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Moreover, Keifer Sutherland brings a fiesty jar-head edge to the table worth mentioning. Having spent four years in the Marine Corps, I can honestly attest to the military accuracy of A Few Good men and the originality to the legal aspect of the script. I highly recommend this film to anyone who considers themself a movie-buff. If you haven't seen it, then you ain't a movie-buff. The courtroom finale between Col. Jessip (Nicholson) and Lt. McKaffey (Cruise) is second to none in acting and dialogue and will keep you on the edge of your seat. You want the truth? Well, you just got it!

Rating:
Summary: Over rated!
Review: 1992 was a bad year for movies. For that reason, perhaps it is somewhat justifiable that a movie as poorly written as "A Few Good Men" would be nominated for best original screenplay. This movie misses it's target of "honor over moral judgment" at every turn. This movie could have been good but it trades intelligence for Hollywood predictability.

Did anybody buy that scene where Jack Nicholson bursts out that he gave the order?

This movie even actually has the audacity to cast Jack Nicholson in a movie with Kevin Pollack, (The gretest Nicholson impressionist I have ever seen.), and then allow Tom Cruise to do the movie's only Nicholson impersonation.

Rating:
Summary: A Cheap Immitation of James Webb's A SENSE OF HONOR
Review:

LTJG Kaffey (Tom Cruise), the scion of a legiondary lawyer, is put on a legal defense team of two Marines charged with manslaughtering a substandard Marine in the squad. The lazy green Navy lawyer would rather plea bargain, but he is only one of the many problems presented in the plot.</br>

The two stubborn Marines claim that they administered the disciplinary "CODE RED" as ordered by their officers, Lt. Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland) and Col. Jessup (Jack Nicholson). The key witness to the abuse (J. T. Walsh) puts a bullet in his mouth the night before he was to be subpoenaed. The highly-decorated martinet Colonel not only flatly denies having ordered the disciplinary action, but insists that he had ordered the deceased troublesome Marine to be sent home.</br>

This movie has its moments, thanks to the memorable acting by a great cast. But the main problem with the flawed movie, aside from the terrible script, is its pretentious claims to honor and moral courage.</br>

This movie is somewhat reminiscent of James Webb's A SENSE OF HONOR (1981), a great novel based on the author's experience as a midshipman at the Naval Academy. Like A SENSE OF HONOR, it attempts to address the moral dilemma of administering discipline versus condoning a maladroit in an operating unit for the sake of political correctness. Like the great novel it attempts a claim to the military code of honor and courage. Where Webb's novel successfully achieved both, the movie failed to juggle with the two. The problem seemed to be that it leaves no room for the audience to decide who was right in the end. Instead of presenting moral ambiguity as did Webb's novel, the movie went on great lengths to smear the displinarian Colonel Jessup as an unstable villain incapable of making sound judgment calls.</br>

A fair movie for trial lawyer-wannabes to be sure, but the plot needed to be reworked. The horrible plot stemming from its pretentious claims to moral courage and honor makes the movie dull and predictable. A steamy sex scene between Moore and Cruise might've spared the horrible plot, but even that was absent.</br>

Rating:
Summary: you gotta ask me nicely
Review: A few Good Men and a woman, that's right you have Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Kevin bacon & Pollak,Kiefer Sutherland,Cuba and Demi Moore,a brilliant cast WOW!Jack is riveting,Tom shines the acting is outstanding,phonomenal you don't want to miss one second of this one. A rememberably courtroom drama that will stick in your mind for years to come. Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: A Few Good Men
Review: A Few Good Men released in 1992, Directed by Rob Riner, and starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and AAN Jack NIcholson is a powerful film about a arogant navy attorney who is scared of the courtroom and must face his fears to try to save two marines from facing murder charges. Tom Cruise who places Kaffety the Legal Aide,who is apponted to defend the two marines,and Kevin Bacon,the DA, go head to head to prove the difference between right and wrong in the military. Demi Moore, the Chief Councel plays Cruises right hand woman in the case. When two Marines on the Guatanimo Bay marine base performe a Code Red on a Marine who performes below average the prank backfires and the marine ends up dead. Nicholson who is the CO Jessup plays the Marine mixed up in the whole ordeal. Cruise, Nicholson, and Moore display powerful performances the almost make the film seem like a real life military trial. Just when you think you have it all figured out the tabels turn for an ending that you just have to see to believe.