November 4, 2010: A Few Good Men
Continuing in my effort to re-watch and review older movies that I have seen many times and want to be able to play without any further burden of writing about, I took another look at A Few Good Men (1992). It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen this film, but I saw it many many times back in the day. I don’t think the full weight of it struck me upon first viewing, beyond the obvious “you can’t handle the truth!” broad strokes. I came to appreciate the film for its narrative symmetry, the performances from a number of actors several of whom were still fairly young at the time, and for its fluid watchability.
A Few Good Men is directed by Rob Reiner, who was known to many as “Meathead” on the All in the Family TV series in the 1970s. He established himself as a comedic director with This is Spinal Tap in 1984, a reputation cemented with the legendary The Princess Bride in 1987 and When Harry Met Sally in 1989, but he is no slouch in the drama department either, as the polished yet imperfect A Few Good Men demonstrates. I do identify a certain sentimentality in his films, but usually it’s hard to resist loving them.
A Few Good Men comes from a time when Tom Cruise must have had a contractual obligation to have father issues in his movie roles. Yet again, he is a talented but uncontrollable youth following in his deceased father’s footsteps, in this case a military lawyer. Still quite green, he is handed his first murder case and slowly comes around to the realization that he has a moral obligation to do things the right way instead of the easy way. Facing the military machine and hard-nosed proponents of the old school customs, it’s not easy to make a stand and insist that the truth be told.
A Few Good Men is still as crackling and engrossing as ever, but I was noticing some chinks in the armour that I haven’t really noticed before. It’s more melodramatic than I remember, which betrays its roots as a stage play, but there’s no reason it couldn’t have been better adapted to this medium. Cruise and Kevin Pollak do their best to make it natural. I was distracted by glaringly obvious musical cues which popped up at moments of emotional gravity, which struck me as amateurish, but maybe they are just representative of that era in filmmaking. And it could be argued that at 2 hours and 20 minutes the film runs a bit too long, though it certainly isn’t a major flaw. On the other hand, this flick has a lot going for it. The way the possible and likely sentences for the two defendants keep jumping around is carefully constructed so as to look good on one hand but bad on the other, and it helps to demonstrate Cruise’s building confidence as what once seemed like a good deal becomes unimaginably bad. The final verdict is just, but not entirely joyous, which is appropriate. There’s some great courtroom sparring as Cruise takes on the likes of Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and the immortal Jack Nicholson. Gender is at play between Cruise and Demi Moore as a fellow lawyer, but the story wisely stays away from romance. The widescreen cinematography is amazing, including a bunch of great shots during the opening rifle drill, and some great courtroom compositions. And there are just a bunch of great little gestures and moments of acting from all the players, from Cruise’s vigorous wiping of his hands after eating an apple, to Kevin Bacon’s weighty nod as he accepts Cruise’s victory, to Nicholson’s eyes darting quickly to Moore and back as he realizes how she fits into the picture. This is a movie which should be seen, providing great entertainment from a cast and crew working at their peak. It has maybe lost a bit of its punch in the high-octane cinematic years since its initial release, but it’s still a great way to kill a couple of hours.
Quotable classic revisited. Still has it.
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