Obedience In The 1992 Film: A Few Good Men

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit’s characteristics are often opposites of each other or contradictory to each other. For example, at times he is gentle, while at other times in the story, his words and actions are harsh. Some of the statements he makes and actions he takes show him to be intelligent, but others also show him to be clueless and out of touch with reality. Similarly, he treats the family in the story with respect, yet in no way values their lives.

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 1997 indie drama film Good Will Hunting, the protagonist, Will Hunting, is a young man of genius intelligence that chooses to work as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A victim of child abuse, Will takes his past and uses it in a form of self-sabotage. He works labor jobs, deters himself from women and any form of love, and spends time with his low-life friends. One night at a bar, a Harvard student named Clark brags of his comprehension of the market economy evolution to Will’s best friend, Chuckie, and attempts to make him appear ignorant for not knowing of such. In Chuckie’s regard, Will steps into the conversation. Through a strong sense of pathos, he makes Clark feel guilty and small for how he treated his

In the movie Do the Right Thing(1989) Spike Lee showed the world how many people struggle everyday to make money, and also showed how racism comes with how you grew up, who raised you and who you hang around. He showed racism in many different forms such as Sal’s Italian pizzeria and the Chinese grocery store and the drama that comes with both. Do the Right Thing is a movie with racial politics added with comedy and drama. Spike Lee shows fear and power with different camera angles. He also used lighting to describe the mood of each scene in the movie. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing is one of the most powerful and controversial films of the 80’s. Spike Lee changed the way many people see the world in just 2 hours and 5 minutes.

In tough times, it is easy to forget what is right and wrong. The movie Twelve Angry Men is a very clear demonstration on right and wrong. The film is about twelve jurors who are deciding the fate of a young man accused of killing his father. These twelve men all vote for guilty, except for the eighth juror, who votes innocent. It seems very clear that the suspect is guilty, and the eighth juror goes against everyone to give the young man a fair chance. Although all other jurors try to pressure him into voting guilty, he sticks to his gut and eventually proves the suspect innocent. In the 1957 film 12 Angry Men, the eighth juror, Mr. Davis, sticks to his core values of honesty, fair judgement, and hard work to prove the young man accused of killing his father to be innocent.

Flannery O’Connor applies many similar components in a lot of her work such as violence. This is an aspect primarily attributed from her religious background as a Catholic. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and A View of the Woods the violence is very prominent and efficient way to give them an eye-opening moment. The brutal events and most evident deaths, such as those of the betrayal faced by Joy-Hulga, the murder of Mary Fortune or the shooting of the Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find demonstrates that in Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, she utilizes violence to give her character’s an epiphanic moment and brings them back to reality, to register their current situation.

The theme of obedience to authority has even greater significance in the military environment. The issue has been explored in the recent popular cinema through films such as The General’s Daughter and more significantly in the 1999 court-room drama A Few Good Men. The film, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, presents both sides of the need for absolute obedience versus the right of individual conscience in the military. The issue of following orders versus human rights in the military has been intelligently handled. The film does not treat the issue in a one-sided or black and white manner but gives both sides of the subject. (“A Few

Do The Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee is a film that acts as a call to action for the audience to differentiate what doing the right thing actually means. New York City in 1989 was filled with issues of race and class. Crime rates were high and one of the highest recorded in history only second to the preceding year of 1990. Cases like the central park five where african american youths and other minorities were falsely accused of crimes, caused for unjust views of the justice system designed to protect these people as opposed to persecuting the innocent in the most blatant and obvious ways. Along with false accusations within the system, New York City was also filled with police brutality stories. “The organization has collected information

Abstract: The movie “Good Will Hunting” (1997) by Gus Van Sant depicted an intelligent man, Will Hunting, with issues fitting in society and maintaining relationship connections and the therapists who successfully changed Will’s outlook at the world . However, it wasn’t without certain technical flaws and possible crossing of certain code of ethics. This paper raises the issue of the potential erroneous counseling depiction in movies and certain ethical principles that may have been violated in such depiction, discusses connection problems of the main character, Will Hunting, and possible reasons why one particular therapist was able to assist him with his problems whereas other counselors have failed, as well as a reflection based on the author’s own opinion.

There are many themes that can be found within William Shakespeare’s works of literature. In the play Hamlet, it is evident that there is a prominent theme of obedience. Throughout the course of the play obedience is shown numerous times and involves many characters. These instances can be divided into three categories of reasoning to be obedient: obedience through family, obedience through an authority figure, and obedience through friendship and trust. These characters include Hamlet, Ophelia, Fortinbras, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Horatio and Marcellus.

2. In the film The Power of the Situation, various social experiments that examined human conformity were shown. Of these experiments, the Milgram Experiment, was conducted with a focus on obedience to an authority figure, and one’s own conscience. This experiment was brought about in order to attempt to confirm Nazi soldier’s testimonials that “obedience,” or “following orders” was the reason they committed their crimes. Within the experiment itself, Milgram had three people involved, the learner (working with Milgram) who was supposedly hooked up to a machine that was to deliver shocks when the switch was hit by the teacher, who was a random person selected for the experiment.

The 1992 film Unforgiven, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, has a central theme that is one of good versus evil in which good overcomes evil by bringing justice to those who are evil. Munny has changed from the vicious murderer he was in the past and now wishes to bring justice to evil men who harmed the innocent prostitute Delilah and his friend Ned. The film is not quite the traditional Western film by any means as Eastwood’s character Will Munny has not always been a moral man. Nevertheless, Will Munny through the use of violence sets out to balance out the battle of good and evil by seeing that evil men get what is coming to them, even though Munny is no saint himself.

Good Will Hunting is a film which conveys many interlocking themes and messages to its viewers. One of these nicely woven themes is placing trust in the people we care about as well as people we have only recently become acquainted with. Another message, arguably more significant than the last is finding and pursuing the potential one has and bringing meaning into our lives in any form we choose. I believe the potential and success this film demonstrates is that success, growth, and meaning in a person’s life does not always have to come in the form of advancing in a career or social status but rather in the form of overcoming hardships and developing close reciprocating relationships.

The word “justified” comes up in almost every discussion of morals, but what does it truly mean? To determine if something is right or wrong everyone must be on the same page of what is justifiable. Thus, the definition will come into play while making laws, in court, and when contemplating your own morals. For an action to be justified, it must be understandable and have good intentions. The action must be balanced to the situation, and they must have expected a somewhat positive outcome from it.