In this week, I watched a movie named A Few Good Men. The film covers the court-martial of two U.S. Marines, Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private Louden Downey, who killed a fellow Marine, Private William Santiago, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

First of all, I will discuss the tension between the way civilians ultimately have control over the military and the risk if the military drifts too far from our nation’s values. In my opinion, military should have own order; however, they can not do whatever they want. In the film, commander Jessup thought that he did right thing, and if government arrest him, America will have dangerous. However, it is not a right thing which conforms with nation’s value. Government wants him to protect country.

Now I will have a brief introduction of this film. Naval lawyer Kaffee was commanded to defend Dawson and Downey who are arrested for Santiago’s murder. He came to investigate the case. And the base commander Jessup tell Kaffee that Santiago had conflicted with Dawson and Downey; therefore, they gave Santiago code red and caused the death of Santiago. The defense also suffers setbacks when a cross-examination reveals Downey was not actually present when Dawson and he supposedly received the “code red” order. Markinson reveals to Kaffee that Jessup never intended to transfer Santiago off the base, but commits suicide rather than testify in court because he feels that he had failed to do the right thing by protecting a Marine under his command. Galloway convinces Kaffee to call Jessup as a witness despite the risk of being court-martialled for smearing a high-ranking officer. Jessup initially outsmarts Kaffee’s questioning. Under heavy pressure from Kaffee and unnerved by being caught in one of his own lies, an enraged Jessup extols his and the military’s importance to national security, and eventually reveals that he ordered the “code red”. As he justifies his actions, Jessup is arrested; Kendrick would later be arrested for his perjury.