{"id":3769,"date":"2021-10-02T21:37:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T21:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=3769"},"modified":"2023-01-22T22:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T22:18:35","slug":"film-a-few-good-men-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=3769","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: A Few Good Men, 1992"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"257\" height=\"386\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/img_1687.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3768\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/img_1687.jpg 257w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/img_1687-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"155\" height=\"30\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/stars_07_threehalf.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3767\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/stars_07_threehalf.jpg 155w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/stars_07_threehalf-150x30.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 155px) 100vw, 155px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Essentially a court room drama, <em>A Few Good Men<\/em> is also a David vs Goliath type thing, and a reassuring sop on American idealism vs establishment corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As entertainment it works pretty well: Cruise is as charismatic as ever, as cocky young US Navy lawyer, Daniel Kaffee. We want him to win, and he does. It\u2019s well directed, by Rob Reiner, and it captures certain aspects of US martial and civic culture rather beautifully; from the precision choreography of the US Marines in the opening scenes, to various moody shots of beautiful locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As docu-drama it\u2019s pure fantasy. Reassuring feel-good fantasy, in which arrogant corruption is humbled before the law. Demi Moore\u2019s role is a bit weird, nearly but not quite Cruise\u2019s love interest, and more the voice of his conscience. Kiefer Sutherland and Jack Nicholson are solid as the \u2018villains\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kevin Bacon is Cruise\u2019s legal adversary, for the prosecution. The heart of the film is about whether or not Cuba Gooding Jr and his accomplice are guilty of murder in the death of fellow (and unhappy\/unsuccessful) Marine, Santiago, who dies during an unofficial but sanctioned \u2018Code Red\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Issues of pragmatism vs idealism, and loyalty vs independent thinking are part of the meat of the plot. But it\u2019s such a prettily shot star-studded affair that any moral heft is rinsed out in a celebrity glare. And the denouement, whilst narratively satisfying, is total hokum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not a great film, but enjoyable Saturday evening fare\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Essentially a court room drama, A Few Good Men is also a David vs Goliath type thing, and a reassuring sop on American idealism vs establishment corruption. As entertainment it works pretty well: Cruise is as charismatic as ever, as cocky young US Navy lawyer, Daniel Kaffee. We want him to win, and he does. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=3769\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;FiLM REViEW: A Few Good Men, 1992&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-YN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8164,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions\/8164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}