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A Few Good Men



1992's A Few Good Men is the blistering drama that puts an additional layer on to the accustomed courtroom drama by placing it in a military setting, producing a drama of such complexity and powerful emotions that it did earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind the TV drama The West Wing, adapted his own play in this story of a cocky JAG attorney (Tom Cruise) who teams up with the head of JAG internal affairs (Demi Moore) to defend a pair of marines who are being tried for murder. This richly layered story is not just about the work behind defending these two men, who are actually guilty of the crime, but the real question that takes center stage here is the fact that the soldiers claim that they did what they did because they were ordered to do so from a superior officer. We then see said superior officers close ranks and pretty much hang these two soldiers out to dry, while the attorneys learn that these soldiers are pawns in a conspiracy that takes the investigation all the way to the base commander, a Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack NIcholson).

In addition to the courtroom drama, the film is also a character study revolving around Cruise's character, Daniel Caffee, a relatively inexperienced attorney trying to crawl from under his father's legacy as an attorney and his lack of actual courtroom experience. Caffee is the king of negotiating plea bargains but appears to be at a loss when the prosecuting attorney (Kevin Bacon), an old of friend of Caffee's, and his clients have no interest in a deal and want their day in court.

Director Rob Reiner has provided a lavishly mounted drama where the high gloss of what we're watching allows us to overlook contradictory elements of the screenplay, primarily that the screenplay makes a big deal out of the fact that Caffee lacks courtroom experience but what happens when Caffee actually enters the courtroom belies that...Caffee rarely makes an incorrect move in getting to the truth, but spends a majority of the story talking about the fact that he doesn't know what he's doing and how he's going to lose.

Reiner, per usual has gotten first rate performances from his hand-picked cast, Cruise is solid and Nicholson is electrifying as Jessup, a performance that earned him a richly deserved Oscar nomination. Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Keifer Sutherland, and JT Walsh also score in supporting roles. It should be noted that in the stage play, the entire cast was male, including the role played by Demi Moore here, a gender change made I'm assuming to make the movie a little more viewer-friendly but I was pleased that Sorkin and Reiner decided to stick to business and not throw in a superfluous romance between Cruise and Moore's characters.

A compelling story, despite some tiny lapses in logic, and terrific performances combine to make this film appointment viewing.