Obedience is a concept that many people have instilled into them in some form from a young age. This act of listening to someone that is in a higher standing than oneself takes many different forms in a person’s life, but obedience can quickly evolve when in dangerous territories such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The role that obedience plays in this becomes much more important when faced with life or death situations. The film, A Few Good Men, directly explored and elaborated upon this topic. This movie features characters such as Lt. Daniel Kaffee, Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, Capt. Jack Ross, LTJG Sam Weinberg, and Colonel Nathan R. Jessep who were played by: Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, and Jack Nicholson respectively. Directed by Rob Reiner, this film centered around the court case of Lance Corporal Dawson and Private First Class Downey when they supposedly acted upon orders in punishing a fellow officer with a “code red”, which resulted in the man’s death. This incident occurs at a military base that is stationed within yards of the border. In A Few Good Men, the setting plays a major part in how the events of the crime play out: the danger that the men feel, and the authority which the situation places upon men all play into the factor of how obedience lead to this man’s death.
Finding oneself in the face of danger is something that many people experience throughout their lives, though the levels of danger range drastically from person to person.
One tends to meet someone who seems to be in charge of everyone around him or her. The grandmother in Flannery O’Conner’s A Good Man is Hard to Find is an extraordinary, scheming character that is extremely unrelenting in her actions to control people. On the contrary, she may have been a person just trying to attempt to save her own life without trying to be controlling. Maybe the fact that she was raised in a time when woman wore dresses to go out and never did anything unlady-like, made her think that her way of thinking and acting was the only acceptable behavior, even till the very moments before she was killed by the Misfit. The grandmother was trying to change her killer’s outlook on life and his position on holy grace and
If you were to ask someone what their definition of a happy life would be, they would probably give you an answer like, “having fun.” This is completely untrue in Aristotle’s terms. According to Aristotle, for a man to lead a happy life he must learn each of the intellectual virtues, and practice each of the moral virtues throughout his life. These moral virtues are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, and wisdom. With so many virtues to constantly abide by, a man cannot know if he has led a happy life until his life is nearly finished. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’ Connor, the question is
The motion picture A Few Good Men challenges the question of why Marines obey their superiors’ orders without hesitation. The film illustrates a story about two Marines, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey charged for the murder of Private First Class William T. Santiago. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who is known to be lackadaisical and originally considers offering a plea bargain in order to curtail Dawson’s and Downey’s sentence, finds himself fighting for the freedom of the Marines; their argument: they simply followed the orders given for a “Code Red”. The question of why people follow any order given has attracted much speculation from the world of psychology. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist,
Should The Misfit be perceived as an evil, psychotic hoodlum as portrayed in the story, or does he save us from hearing any more religious rhetoric from the grandmother? “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” repeatedly preaches morality while giving readers the illusion that the Misfit is possibly a dark angel, in fact, the Misfit simply kills the family in order to prevent the family from giving away his route of escape. Ultimately, the act of saving one’s own life by killing cannot be judged as being wrong, the Misfit saves himself along with his supposed criminal counterparts, Bobby Lee and Hiram. The story provides no evidence or background on what crimes the Misfit and his gang have committed, therefore, the reader must
Since the beginning of mankind there is been an unsolved issue of good verses evil. We see this controversial issue in everyday life, Such as Television, Newspaper, etc. " It is not difficult to label the agent of evil in Flannery O' Connor's signature story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", says John, Desmond. The family is described as a typical modern family, which has all type of problems. Agreeing with each other is one of the biggest problems the family faces. The story starts of where Grandma is in disagreement with her son about where they should plane there next family trip to. After much discussion they decided on going to Florida. The story makes a twist when their car gets into an accident and they have an encounter with Misfit,
Whether Socrates is portrayed correctly or not, he certainly was a great man. His contribution to western thought cannot be denied. For even if his teachings were different from what they are known to be at present, his influence on Plato is immense. And so, it is no small matter to describe the tragic passing of such a man as Socrates was and remains for philosophy today. Yet in all the indignation which is expected to arise at the death of Socrates, the panache with which he departs is captured excellently in Plato's “Apology.” Specifically, at the end of the "Apology," Socrates makes a very important statement that has had great impact on philosophy ever since its original proclamation. The
“You don't need a patch on your arm to have honor.” Lt. Daniel Kaffee, portrayed by Tom Cruise, says at the end of the movie to Lance Cpl. Dawson after the final ruling is read, stating PFC. Downy and Lance Cpl. Dawson are innocent but are dishonorably discharged from the military. A Few Good Men portrays the negative impact on military personally from strict obedience. Lt. Daniel Kaffee, along with Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway and Lt. Sam Weinberg; played by Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack, must defend PFC. Downy and Lance Cpl. Dawson from being charge of committing a Code Red. However, Lt. Kaffee believes that PFC. Downy and Lance Cpl. Dawson committed the ‘Code Red’, but because it was a direct order
A Few Good Men is a 1992 American legal drama directed by Rob Reiner. The story follows the court-martial of two U.S. Marines, who are charged with the murder of a fellow marine and the problems faced by the lawyers, of the accused, while preparing their defenses. The Marines are on a murder trial for carrying out a “code red” order. The movie refers to “code red” as a type of extrajudicial punishment used for an alleged crime or offense, which is carried out without a legal procedure.
For years, many have questioned the so called “evil” that seems to be inside of people. There have been multiple experiments set to find the answers to these questions. Although, the real question is, why do people act the way they do? Rob Reiner, director of the movie A Few Good Men is about Daniel Kaffee, a military lawyer, who is assigned to defend two US Marines accused of murdering Pfc. William Santiago. With the help of Lt. Sam Weinberg and Lt. Cdr. JoAnn Galloway, Kaffe brings the accused Marines, Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey, into court to prove that they are innocent of murder because they were “just following orders” (Reiner). However, why did Dawson and Downey follow the orders, if they knew the result would be hurting another? Maybe it was because of the situation, or how obedient the two Marines were, or many it is just the plain and simple evil at work. Nevertheless, two articles that mention the experiments to test this is “The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip Zimbardo and “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram. The results gathered from these experiments confirms the belief of hidden wickedness inside human beings. Plus Zimbardo himself made an hypothesis that good people can become evil in the blink of an eye. He based this hypothesis on his prison experiment. Both of these authors addresses how their experiments determine how obedience and the situation can determine the outcome, which just supports
“In the heart of nation’s capital, in a courthouse of the U.S government, one man will stop at nothing to keep his honor, and one will stop at nothing to find the truth.” This tagline helps to sum up the tone of the film A Few Good Men. Two soldiers caught in the middle of right and wrong will keep there hope and loyalty high as they wish for the best. Will the instigator of it all be pressured through his own anger to reveal the truth? Rob Reiner presents Col. Nathan R. Jessep as having an exaggerated self opinion while using his power for evil, based on dispositional factors.
Obedience. Most have learned this from a young age, the idea of listening to those who are of a higher standing than oneself and acting according to their wishes. Obedience takes a much different form when it means life or death for those involved, such as in high stakes areas as Guantanamo Bay. This topic was directly explored and elaborated upon in the 1992 film, A Few Good Men. This movie features such actors as Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, and Jack Nicholson. These men and women played Lt. Daniel Kaffee, Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, Capt. Jack Ross, LTJG Sam Weinberg, and Colonel Nathan R. Jessup respectively. The film, directed by Rob Reiner, was centered around a court case of two men, who was supposedly acting on
The Causes of Resistance to Obedience Resistance to obedience is affected or influenced by many contributing factors but can be defined as “The act of defying an order from an authority figure despite pressures to obey. The same factors that reduce obedience can be used to explain increased resistance, for example the proximity of the victim.” There are numerous ways in which people resist obedience which are determined by changes in circumstances in which they deal with authority. A situational factor has an influence on resistance to obedience
The movie I’ve chosen, a courtroom thriller, is A Few Good Men. This movie is staged to confront moral issues in society. These moral issues will create legal dilemma. Not only create dilemmas, also questions of the United States Navy are raised. The questions occur because of a scandal that hurts the reputation of the United States Navy. This courtroom thriller stars Tom Cruise, Kevin Bacon, Cuba Gooding Jr, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson. Each actor plays a significant part for their character. The characters in A Few Good Men face moral dilemmas. Lt Kaffe is played by Tom Cruise; he is a young lawyer who has to defend two Marines who are
A few Good Men is a movie that presents strong a strong ethical dilemma. The story is about two Marines Pfc Downey( James Marshall), and Lanc Cpl. Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) who are charged with the murder of another marine PFC Santiago. The legal team representing is comprised of Lt Kaffee (Tom Cruise) who seems to be more interested in playing baseball, his friend LTJG Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollack), and Cmdr Galloway (Demi Moore), who believes there is more to the story behind the death. The legal team starts by talking about the accusation with the marines who appear to be less then enthusiastic to cooperate with their representation. Despite Kaffee’s frustration at their reluctance to give any details regarding the event he still contuse to pursue answers. His investigation leads him to the base where the incident happened at Guantanamo Bay. He is faced with a different reality on the base at Guantanamo Bay where the enemy is waiting outside the fence waiting to shoot any officer they see. He is reminded of the increased dangers by the base commander Col Jessup (Jack Nicholson). Jessup is an egotistical and arrogant man who, while appearing to cooperate with the legal team, still seems to be hiding details surrounding the young marine’s mysterious death. The legal teams growing curiosity helps them uncover further details that point to the guilt of not only the marines, but also Jessup. Jessup ordered the marines to give a code red, which is an
In The story a good man is hard to find, a southern family takes a vacation trip to Florida. As the story progress the female characters are seen as the naïve and the weaker sex. While men are given powerful personalities and important roles. On the family’s journey they a take a turn down a dirty road which cause them to meet in an accident and they are found by the misfit and his henchmen’s. The misfit and his crew killed the entire family they spared no one, but an innocent cat. Before being killed by the Misfit the grandmother starts to have a moment of redemption at the hands of this powerful male character. This brief moment brings up on of Connor’s theme redemption, but it also hides the way how females are treated in the story. The female characters in the story are surrounded by a patriarchal system and feministic setting which concludes that they need the help of “a good man” to reach self-reflection and redemption.