If movies worked like real life, who would be Colonel Nathan Jessup’s lawyer? #IfMoviesWorkedLikeRealLife
This may come as a surprise, but I’ve never seen the movie A Few Good Men. Now that I’ve stated this far-fetched claim, I’ll qualify it. I’ve never seen the movie A Few Good Men in entirety. I’ve seen enough clips on YouTube that I think I might as well have seen the entire movie. Or at least the highlights.
It came on the community television the other day and I decided to plant myself near the screen and watch it through. I picked it up somewhere between the mid-point and the three-quarters point. The commercials added enough padding that I felt like I’d watched about half or more.
It was no spoiler for me, therefore, to see the Tom Cruise character finally score a case victory, to see the Jack Nicholson character crack and admit, You’re goddamn right I did! (ordered the Code Red that resulted in Private Santiago’s death). No spoiler to see Nicholson’s character get arrested following his admission. You’re under arrest, you sonofabitch.
I did get to thinking though, who would be his lawyer after he is arrested, presumably to be court martialed?
A speculation
I wasn’t planning to invest a lot of mental energy to figure this out. However, when the ideas started to flow on their own, I decided to honour the muse and capture them. Here are some thoughts.
Following his victory as seen in “A Few Good Men”, Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is feeling a renewed sense of passion for his role as defense lawyer. “I’m a lawyer, and an officer in the United States Navy.”
He still retains a degree of cockiness too. After a night of social drinks with JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollak) and Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) an idea is bounced around, in jest, that Kaffee be the one who defends Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) at his upcoming court martial.
Kaffee initially scoffs at the idea. Later, when he’s alone, he starts thinking about it and starts becoming obsessed with the idea. He is cocky enough to believe he could do it. There is more than just cockiness in his attitude however. He truly believes that Jessup, that sonofabitch, is just as entitled to a proper legal defense as were Dawson and Downey (James Marshall). After all, as Marines, they are supposed to defend those too weak to defend themselves. Despite Jessup’s “tough guy” persona, Kaffee sees him as being morally and legally weak.
Kaffee presents his idea to Judge Randolph. The judge dismisses the idea thinking it is nothing more than a show of Kaffee’s ego. However, Kaffee manages to plant enough of a seed of sincerity in Randolph’s mind that the judge agrees to think about it until morning, rather than dismissing the idea out of hand.
The next day Randolph summons Kaffee to inform him of the decision. However, before we find out what that decision is, we learn that Jessup insists on defending himself.
What do you think? Do you see this unfolding a different way? If so, leave your constructive thoughts in a comment.