A FEW GOOD MEN
[Spoilers]
A film review by Michael S. Huang
Copyright 1992 Michael S. Huang
Directed by Rob Reiner Starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Bacon
The past few years have been lacking genuinely well-told stories that are there for the essence of the yarn -- tales that make people think and feel. Movies of late have relied on special effects, sex, violence, controversy, and big names to bring in audiences, and this is the first movie in a while which I've seen that doesn't use any of these except the big names and doesn't rely on *any* of them to keep your attention.
The story starts out with the brutal beating and murder of a Private First Class at the United States Naval Base, Marine Barracks in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Moore, as the officer in Internal Affairs finds out about this case and wants to pursue this as a case of "Code Red," illegal hazing and beating of marines who are not up to par for some reason.
Her superiors deny her request to press this case, and forward it to Tom Cruise who plays a Harvard Law School graduate who has been out of school for nine months and in the Navy for only seven. He's had a history of brilliant plea-bargains, and has never actually defended a client in court.
Enter Nicholson, who is the Colonel in command of the Marines in Guantanamo Bay, and Sutherland, his right-hand man (well, once removed. :-) Nicholson's character ordered the "Code Red" which eventually led to the killing of the Private.
This is the premise for the story of getting to the truth, and Cruise and Moore's battle through Marine Code of Platoon, Corps, God, Country. They must dig out the truth through a group of highly disciplined soldiers who are trained to obey orders, and to put nothing above the word of their superiors.
Reiner did an outstanding job with the movie's direction, and Cruise was brilliant in a few courtroom scenes. Moore gave much of herself in her role as a very self-determined, stubborn, headstrong Naval Officer, and Nicholson played an unbelievable courtroom scene near the end of the movie.
Cinematography was well-done, and music was moderately-well-done.
This movie is a definite gem among today's common movies being released. Unlike others like BASIC INSTINCT, and TERMINATOR 2 it doesn't rely on gratuitous sex or violence to convey an extremely well-told story. There isn't any gore or "skin," although there is a bit of language spread through the film, although done well with the type of story being told. An extremely well-done story. A definite must-see.
Ratings: (A+ to F...hmmm :-) Direction: A Writing: A- Acting: A+ Music: B Plot: A- Special Effects: B-
Overall: A
-- Michael S. Huang hunter@rat.csc.CalPoly.EDU
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews