A Few Good Men

Emmy Award winning script writer Aaron Sorkin wrote A Few Good Men in 1989 and within three years the successful stage play was re-created into the immensely popular film of the same name starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore.

A Few Good Men wrestles with age old human questions of weakness and power, right and wrong, greater and lesser morality. It is ironic that A Few Good Men has become more popular in the years since September 11 2001 and the US-led invasion of Iraq. The issues are as relevant today as they ever were.

When two Marines, Pfc. Louden Downey and Lance Corporal Harold Dawson are accused of murdering fellow marine, Pfc. William Santiago, Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee thinks the case will be like so many others he has handled – easy and quick. He is jolted out of his complacency when Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway insists that there is more to this case than meets the eye.

As the defense team probe more deeply into the life on NAVBASE Guantanamo Bay Cuba their suspicions are realised when Downey and Dawson admit that Santiago died during a bullying session gone wrong – the “Code Red” treatment administered to marines who are judged to have let the side down. The moral dimensions deepen as the web cast by Code Red snares more men further up the chain of command through Capt. Matthew Markinson, who eventually crumbles with guilt, and Lt. Col. Nathan Jessup – a man who believes his moral code is superior to anyone else’s – who does not crumble.

The courtroom drama reveals the complexity of good men and women who sincerely believe they are right. All the major characters discover layers within themselves, and discover the terrible truth that even the most just and good of men and women can fall into a blindness that leads them to believe that wrong is right.