A Few Good Men (1992)

A Few Good Men one sheet movie poster image courtesy Columbia Pictures

Director Rob Reiner and Columbia Pictures delivered the gripping A Few Good Men to movie theaters in 1992. Tom Cruise stars as the Navy defense lawyer, with Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson and Kevin Pollak also on deck.  

Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men is based on the Broadway play of the same name by Aaron Sorkin, creator of TV’s The West Wing (1999-2006). Sorkin had garnered the idea for his play from a sister, a military attorney who had experienced a similar incident while serving at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In the real-life episode, a soldier had been badly beaten by nine of his fellow servicemen at Gitmo, but had survived the attack.

A Few Good Men, starring Tom Hulce and Stephen Lang, had first been staged at the University of Virginia’s Heritage Repertory Theatre. It later opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on November 15, 1989, registering 497 performances before closing on January 26, 1991.

Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men

Rob Reiner and his Castle Rock Entertainment had secured the movie rights to A Few Good Men prior to the play’s official premiere. Aaron Sorkin adapted his own play for the big screen, with Reiner (Misery, The American President, Ghosts of Mississippi) directing. Marc Shaiman created the original music score and Robert Richardson served as cinematographer.

Tom Cruise (Lt. Daniel Kaffee), Jack Nicholson (Col. Nathan Jessep) and Demi Moore (Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway) head the strong cast. Other players include Kevin Bacon (Capt. Jack Ross), Kiefer Sutherland (Lt. Jonathan Kendrick), Kevin Pollak (Lt. Sam Weinberg), James Marshall (Pfc. Louden Downey), J.T. Walsh (Lt. Colonel Matthew Markinson), Christopher Guest (Dr. Stone), J.A. Preston (Judge Julius Randolph), Wolfgang Bodison (Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson), Noah Wyle (Cpl. Jeffrey Howard), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Cpl. Carl Hammaker) and Aaron Sorkin (Attorney at Bar).  

A Few Good Men Budget and Filming Locations

Budgeted at $33 million, A Few Good Men was filmed in California and Washington, D.C. Three California locations served as the setting for Guantanamo Bay: Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Crystal Cove State Park and Fort MacArthur in Los Angeles.

When producers learned that military courtrooms are routinely dull and featureless, they made the decision to create a more interesting setting for the climactic trial scene, using a colorful, ornate civilian courtroom instead. 

Texas A&M University’s Corps of Cadets Fish Drill Team was used to great effect, impersonating a U.S. Marine Corps Drill Team whose rifle precision wows tourists, onlookers and viewers in the movie’s opening scenes.

A Few Good Men: Justice at Guantanamo Bay

A Few Good Men opens at the American military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where two marines assault a fellow marine named Willy Santiago, stuffing a rag into his mouth, duct taping his mouth and eyes and binding his hands and feet. “You’re lucky it’s us, Willy,” one of the attackers tells the terrified kid.

Private Santiago later dies, with a pair of marines, Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private Louden Downey, charged with his death in a suspected Code Red. Given the task of defending Dawson and Downey is Lt. (j.g.) Daniel Kaffee, a young Navy attorney just 15 months out of Harvard Law School. Joining Kaffee as co-counsel are Lt. Sam Weinberg and Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway.

Initially offered a plea bargain negotiated by Kaffee, the accused marines refuse the deal, insisting that they have done nothing wrong and were simply acting on orders. That forces Kaffee and his team to dig deeper, where they discover that Colonel Nathan Jessep, Marine commander at Guantanamo Bay, may have ordered the illegal Code Red.

A Few Good Men Release and Reviews

A Few Good Men was released on December 11, 1992.

“A Few Good Men is a big commercial entertainment of unusually satisfying order,” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times (12/11/92).

“The movie doesn’t quite make it, because it never convinces us that the drama is happening while we watch it; it’s like the defense team sneaked an advance look at the script,” observed Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (12/11/92).

Film Analysis: I Want the Truth!

In the sub-genre of the courtroom movie drama, A Few Good Men ranks as one of the very best. Tom Cruise is at his finest, playing the son of a legendary Navy Judge Advocate and former Attorney General of the Untied States who is biding his time in the JAG Corps until his three years are up and he can get a “real job.”

But egged on by Navy lawyer Demi Moore, Cruise eventually finds himself, taking on the obscene, reptilian Jack Nicholson. The interaction between Cruise and Nicholson is what makes the film. Nicholson, as the hard-nosed, old school Marine officer, draws first blood down in Gitmo, pointedly telling Cruise, dressed “in that faggoty white uniform” and with his “Harvard mouth,” that he must ask him politely for a copy of Private Santiago’s transfer order.

Cruise eventually evens the score and more, breaking Nicholson on the witness stand with a barrage of pointed questions and a legal bluff. The climax comes when Cruise finally pops the big question, “Did you order the Code Red?” An angry Nicholson blurts out, “You’re goddamn right I did!”

The engagement between the two has one final act, however, as a restrained Nicholson threatens to tear out his interrogator’s eye balls. “All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee. That’s all you did,” Nicholson declares. ”You put people in danger. Sweet dreams, son.”

But Cruise is having none of it, telling the colonel, “Don’t call me son. I’m a lawyer, and an officer of the United States Navy. And you’re under arrest you son of a bitch.”

Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak and Kevin Bacon all deliver excellent performances, as does Kiefer Sutherland in a small supporting role as a young, fanatic lieutenant who derives his life mission from two books only, the Marine Corps Code of Conduct and the King James Bible.

A Few Good Men Box Office, Oscar Nominations, Notes, DVD

• A Few Good Men grossed $141.340 million at the American box office, earning the #5 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1992.
• Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson), Best Sound, Best Film Editing.
• Pvt. William Santiago was given the disciplinary Code Red because he was going to report on Corporal Dawson’s illegal fence line shooting at Guantanamo Bay.
• Lionel Kaffee, Daniel’s father, had brought the civil rights case Jefferson vs. Madison County School District, in which he sued in order to allow a little black girl to attend an all-white school in the South.
• On DVD: A Few Good Men Special Edition (Columbia Tristar, 2001).

Nicholson: “You want answers?”

Cruise: “I want the truth!”

Nicholson: “You can’t handle the truth!”

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