preview

Movie Review - a Few Good Men Essay

Good Essays
Open Document

The movie “A Few Good Men” was a great story of a young attorney who was in the Navy, called to defend some Marines who were suspected of murdering a fellow Marine. During the investigation, it is discovered that the Marines practice something called a “Code Red”. The 'code red' is an unofficial disciplinary measure, imposed by a marine squad when a member offends against the unit's esprit de corps. Having been gagged, bound and beaten, the marine dies at his colleagues' hands. The argument of the suspects was that it was a direct command that they carry out this code red against a fellow Marine who was not living up to the stringent agenda of the Marine Corp. and they were following the command. Eventually it came out that the person who …show more content…

While there, they met with the Colonel in charge of the squad that the dead soldier was a part of. The Colonel (Jessup) played by Jack Nicholson was fully cooperating until he was asked about the code red and some flight records. He got very defensive and angry. When the trial began, he was called to testify by the defense. One other soldier, a Lt. Col. who worked under the Colonel, told the attorneys that the Col. was the one who called the code red. The lawyers knew they would have a hard time getting him to confess and to directly ask him in open court could get them in trouble. They took a chance and after several questions, he was asked if called the code red. He flat out admitted it and the mystery was solved. Unfortunately for the men on trial, they were dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corp. The younger of the two men, Pfc. Downey, did not understand why he was dismissed because he had followed a command from his superior officer, Lance Cpl. Dawson. It basically went through a chain of commands and although Downey did not get the command directly from Col. Jessup, he did not distinguish the difference between his superior officer and that of the Col. The Marines are trained to fight for those weaker than themselves and Dawson and Downey did not fight for the dead Marine. They were the cause of his death. The ethical framework in this movie follows that of utilitarianism. The lawyers in the case were defending the Marines for

Get Access
Related
Get Access