A Few Good Men

Neo military lawyer Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder; they contend they were acting under orders.

• Director:Rob Reiner
• Genre:Crime / Drama / Thriller
• Runtime:133 minutes

Cast

Tom Cruise : Lt. Daniel Kaffee
Jack Nicholson : Col. Nathan R. Jessep
Demi Moore : Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway
Kevin Bacon : Capt. Jack Ross
Kiefer Sutherland : Lt. Jonathan Kendrick

Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), son of a former Attorney General and Navy Judge Advocate General, is an inexperienced U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer who leads the defense in the court-martial of two Marines, Private Louden Downey (James Marshall) and Lance Corporal Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison), who are accused of murdering a fellow Marine of their unit, Private William Santiago (Michael DeLorenzo), at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Santiago compared unfavorably to his fellow Marines, had poor relations with them and failed to respect the chain of command. He went above his superiors to bargain for a transfer in exchange for blowing the whistle on Dawson for firing a possibly illegal shot towards the Cuban side.

In a flashback, Colonel Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson), the Commanding Officer of the accused, reads the letter detailing the incident to two subordinates: his executive officer Lieutenant Colonel Markinson (J. T. Walsh), and Lieutenant Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland), Santiago’s platoon commander. Jessep and Kendrick are incensed at Santiago’s actions, but decide not to transfer him despite the objection of Markinson. After giving Markinson a dressing-down for questioning his views on the matter, Jessep calls Kendrick in in order to discuss “young William’s training”.

When Dawson and Downey are later arrested for Santiago’s murder, Naval investigator and lawyer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) suspects that they, who were top-class Marines compared to Santiago, were carrying out a “code red”: a euphemism for a violent hazing procedure.

Galloway requests to defend them but the case is given to Kaffee, who has a reputation for arranging plea bargains. She successfully argues her point of view to Kaffee after Dawson and Downey state they were ordered by Kendrick to shave Santiago’s head, minutes after Kendrick ordered the platoon not to touch the would-be victim. Read more

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