A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men (1992) is a courtroom film in which two marines are tried over the death of a third. At a marine base at Guantanamo a private dies during an unofficial punishment carried out by his own unit. Two marines are charged. The defence falls to a young lawyer who has never been to trial and settles everything by plea bargain. The real question is where the order came from. Did the two act alone, or was there a spoken instruction from above. The source is real. Aaron Sorkin's sister Deborah joined the Navy's legal corps after law school and was sent to Guantanamo to defend exactly such a case. Sorkin heard it from her on the phone. Where he wrote it is stranger still. He was tending bar at a Broadway theatre; while the audience watched the first act he wrote most of the play on cocktail napkins, then went home and typed it up. The result is almost entirely talk and yet it works like a thriller. Jack Nicholson's final examination scene produced one of the most quoted lines in cinema. Rob Reiner directed. It runs 138 minutes. Good for: courtroom drama, Sorkin dialogue, and character conflict. Less good for: it is long and dialogue driven, and the military hierarchy material can weigh on you.