A Few Good Men

Name: A Few Good Men

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery/Thriller

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Rob Reiner (Director)

Synopsis: It starts with the way that two U.S. marines are being charged for killing the fellow marine. Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and PFC Louden Downey are charged with the murdering a fellow marine named PFC William Santiago at Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba which is under command of Col. Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson). Santiago was not able to compete with the training of Navy as compared to his fellow marines and was not able to earn respect of others. Santiago went outside the chain of command and went to superiors directly asking a transfer from that base and in due for exchange information about how Dawson fired an illegal shot at his opposite Cuban counterpart. When Jessup came to know this information through their superiors, he called a meeting between Lt. Col. Markinson and Lt. Kendrick which is Santiago’s commanding officer. Meeting turned into a heated argument as Markinson was in favor of transferring Santiago but Jessup ordered Kendrick that Santiago will not be transferred from base and it is now Kendrick’s responsibility to train him otherwise he will deal with Kendrick in his own way. Later Dawson and Downey were arrested for charges of murder. Naval Investigator and Lawyer Lt. Com. Joanne Galloway (Demi Moore) think that it is a “Code Red” case and request her superiors that let her deal with this case But the case of given to Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) another Naval officer and Lt. Sam Weinberg to assist him. During the initial stages Kaffee and Joanne didn’t went along well but later on they went with each other for the case very well.

Kaffee tried to strike an out of court deal with the prosecution captain Jack Ross but Dawson and Downey didn’t approved as they tell Kaffee that it was Kendrick who gave them order to give Santiago a code red even though in the meeting with other men of the company Kendrick order them not to touch Santiago at all. As the case precedes Kaffee who was defending Dawson and Downey starts proving in the court that his clients were given a code red by his superiors but they suffered a major setback when Jack prosecuted them and Downey admitted that he wasn’t there when Kendrick ordered them to give code red. Meanwhile on other side, Lt Col. Markinson told Kaffee that Santiago was never to be transferred from the base and it was orders given directly by Col. Jessup. On the day when Kaffee and his team suffered the setback of Downey concealment of such information, Joanne asks Kaffee to use Markinson’s testimony as their defense but Kaffee told them that he also had committed suicide and Kaffee was in a pure drunkard state and cursing himself why he fought this case. Joanne asks Kaffee to call Jessup in the court and make him say that he was the one who ordered code red. Kaffee initially didn’t accept this request as he will directly be court martialled for making elegations on such a high rank officer but later on agrees to do so. Jessup was called in the court to be prosecuted by Kaffee. Initially Jessup outsmarted Kaffee’s every question and make a joke out of Kaffee’s questions but Kaffee finds loop hole in his testimony where Jessup said that Santiago was transferred from the base for his own safety but Santiago was not to be touched by the other members of the platoon then why he has said earlier that Santiago’s life was in danger. As Jessup couldn’t handle the pressure given by Kaffee on this point of his own testimony, he finally agreed that it was him who ordered Kendrick to give Santiago a code red which under his understanding a right decision as to national interest and security at right hands which led to arrest of Col. Jessup. The court cleared the charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder on Dawson and Downey but found guilty of “conduct unbecoming” a U.S. marine and will be dishonorably discharged. Downey asks that Jessup accepts himself that he was the one who ordered court red and they did nothing wrong but Dawson told him that they were suppose to fight for Santiago who couldn’t fight for themselves. When Dawson was about to leave the court, Kaffee told Dawson that he doesn’t need a patch on his arm to have honor and in response to that Dawson Salutes Kaffee.

Review: One of the very good films of Tom Cruise. Story of the movie was brilliant. Tom Cruise performance in the movie was with full of energy and enthusiasm. Rest of the cast performance was also very good. Movie holds its story line together all the time. The seriousness shown in the movie regarding the developments happened in the movie by Rob was very appreciable. Movie contains good amount of thrills and mystery that will make u sit till the end. No doubt first half of the movie was little slow and stretchy to but it was very well compensated by the second half of the movie. As a whole, the movie is very well made with a very good script, brilliant and energetic performance by Tom cruise and is full of thrills and mystery.

Stars given: 4 out of 5