Movies
‘A Few Good Men’ Doesn’t Question the Military
The conflict of ‘A Few Good Men’ is not that Colonel Jessep had the power to order the code red, or even that he did. The problem was that someone died under a code red, and Jessup tried to cover it up to save his own ass. The problem isn’t the system itself — the system that fosters complete and full compliance to authority at all levels. The problem is that Jessup tried to cover it up and lied.
“Unit, Corp, God, Country” is the phrase quoted by Dawson, one of the two Marines (Dawson and Downey) under investigation for having tortured and — intentionally or not — killed another marine (Santiago) under direct orders — or through their own volition. The film spends an awful lot amount of time presenting the reasons as to why the code red was called, focusing on a mis-shooting over the border wall between America and Cuba, leading to Santiago requesting a transfer off base, which lead to his subsequent torture and murder.
The conflict at the core of ‘A Few Good Men’ centers around finding out the truth. This pursuit of truth is singular and does not stop to question any aspects of the truth it finds. The film focuses on the two lawyers placed on the case of Dawson and Downey; Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) and Galloway (played by Demi Moore). They must learn to work together to figure out the truth about…
