A Few Good Men(1992)- User Reviews

Rob Reiner does an outstanding job directing this movie. Like with Misery, you really have to give him credit for how well it turned out (although the actors are truly excellent).

A Few Good Men has always struck me as being a difficult movie to make not just because of the subject matter, the topic being a hard one to bring across, but also because several key points of the plot turn on very subtle things (like a closet).

The screenplay is outstanding, and really makes you glad that Aaron Sorkin got the recognition for it.

The story begins at a Marine base in Guantamo Bay Cuba with two Recruting Poster Marines, Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall) enter the room of a Pfc. named William Santiago and are seen stuffing a rag down his throat.

In Washington, Lt Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) thinks the incident sounds a lot like a 'Code Red' (a disciplinary meassure recently banned by the military), and requests to represent the two Marines who (because of a motive,and the fact that the rag appears to have been laced with poison), are now being charged with murder, and are about to be court-martialed.

But Galloway's hopes of defending them are dashed when instead of giving the case to her, they assign Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) a notorious plea-bargainer, who's more interested in soft-ball practice than in doing his job as an attorney.

Within fives minutes of learning the situation, Kaffee puts together a plea bargain "without having talked to a witness or looked at a piece of paper", and maintains a flippant and careless attitude much to the exasperation of Galloway, and of Lt. Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollack whose been assigned to assist him with the case.

But when the three of them go to Cuba to investigate, and meet Lt. Jonathan James Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland), Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson (J.T. Walsh), and Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson), it's obvious there's more going on than meets the eye...

The supporting cast in this movie is really very impressive. And there isn't a single actor who's miscast.

Kevin Bacon does a great job of playing Lt. Jack Ross (the Prosecutor), and there's even a little cameo of Cuba Gooding Jr. before he was well known.

The stoy has scope and originality, and is very revealing as to the ways of the Military.

As always, it is the ending that makes the movie, and you will never forget Jack Nicholson's preformance.

The movie is impeccably done. Impeccably directed. Impeccably written, and impeccably performed.