Movie Review - a Few Good Men

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 asked for the code red to be carried out was the Colonel. Jack Nicholson’s character as the Colonel had committed a crime and what he did was unethical in the eyes of both the law and the United States Marine Corps. The question here was whether or not what he did could be proved. A very long and thorough investigation ensued to find out the truth about what happened the night that the Marine died. One of the observations made was that the man who died was suffering from a heart ailment and because of that ailment, it caused his death. It was argued that what was done would not have killed someone normally, but because of his bad heart, he was not able to survive the punishment. Expert witnesses were brought in, including doctors, who testified that a man in his condition should not have endured the physical tests he had. Marines are expected to be a part of a team and each member of that team has a specific responsibility to his or her fellow soldiers. If one member of that team does not live up to his or her responsibilities, the rest of the team will suffer because of it. His squad was suffering and wanted to make him pay. They did not think that the outcome would be death. The characters (who were lawyers) played by Tom

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