A Few Good Men (1992)
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A Few Good Men Movie Review
A Few Good Men is a 1992 courtroom drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. It’s a highly overrated movie.
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“I want the truth!
You can’t handle the truth!“
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Daniel Kaffee, a US military lawyer, defends two US marines charged with murdering a fellow marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The suspicion points to a colonel. This is one of those movies that are iconic for one scene and one scene only – the famous “You can’t handle the truth!” moment. And it’s a very strong scene, there is no denying that. It’s superbly performed by its actors and quite electrifying.
But one scene does not make a movie great and this is the case of a movie that otherwise would have faded into obscurity had it not been for this sequence. It’s a solid flick, don’t get me wrong. And it’s reasonably diverting. However, it lacks subtlety and sophistication in its approach, leading to what is one rather pedestrian and populist piece of filmmaking that had no business being nominated for Best Picture at the 65th Academy Awards.
The tone here is one that is very straightforward, predictable, repetitive and almost condescending. It’s one of those American movies that represent everything that I find annoying about their cinema, which is cheesiness and a lot of didactic speechifying. Admittedly, sometimes the dialogue here is excellent and very effective emotionally speaking, but often times the movie resorted to inspiring and/or moving its audience in a very over-the-top manner.
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There are many performances here that are worthy of singling out for praise. Jack Nicholson stole the show for me personally. It’s a supporting role, but one that is a scene-stealer. The cinematography in this movie consists of extreme close-ups, which led to the camera being in the actors’ faces throughout. That did not stop any of them to deliver a terrific performance, Jack being the best with particularly strong facial expressions and emotiveness displayed.
Tom Cruise is also terrific. This is one of his most serious roles and he delivered in spades. The confrontation between the two was very engaging to watch. My issue is that his character is quite unlikable and annoying, resembling his cocky turn in ‘Top Gun’. A more likable person here is the Demi Moore character and she is a welcome female presence in an otherwise male movie. Among the others, it is actually Wolfgang Bodison who delivered the best and most effective performance. He is quite underrated in this film.
A Few Good Men is way too long. It clocks in at almost two and a half hours, resulting in a lot of padding. The movie could have been more involving. What I did appreciate was the way it was filmed as it looks great and the movie is also very well developed in its characters, surprisingly so in a film like this.
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But Rob Reiner’s directing is not great, the movie became way too cheesy toward the end and it has that overly inspirational tone to it that I just despise. It certainly did not deserve a Best Picture nod, though the nomination for Nicholson was highly deserving. It’s one of those films that are best remembered for a scene or two, but otherwise when you really sit down to watch it, you end up feeling disappointed.
A Few Good Men is a very overrated movie that is best remembered for its iconic dialogue exchange toward the end, but otherwise it fails to register most of the time. The characterization is strong, sometimes the dialogue was quite effective and the performances from Nicholson, Cruise and Moore are phenomenal, but the movie is otherwise full of 90s cheesiness – it’s overly inspirational, predictable and lacking in subtlety and/or sophistication.
My Rating – 3.5
