A Few Good Men The Rewatchables August 10, 2017

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Bigger impact in fewest minutes, Jessup or Lecter? What position did Caffey play? Did Sam Weinberg mail it in? Who is treated more like a subordinate? Can you make a flight disappear? Did Caffey and Galloway end up together? Which on-the-rise actor should have played Harold? What if Jessup never admits it? Was the code red scene Cruise's career highlight? Did Santiago kind of deserve to die?

In the discussion (17)

Approx. transcript time · 00:31:09Read transcript

Bigger impact in the fewest minutes, Nicholson's Jessup or Anthony Hopkins's Lecter: Jessup, since Hopkins is in jail most of that movie while Jessup has three scenes (the letter, the lunch, the ending); Lecter is put at about 18 minutes and Jessup at 11 or 12.
The usage-rate joke gives Nicholson a 12-for-13 line with eight threes, ten rebounds and nine assists in 12 minutes, very Iguodala game six.
Caffey's softball position: as player-coach probably shortstop, or second base, a middle infielder either way, while Herby (as transcribed) wants shortstop and the others grumble.
Did Sam Weinberg mail it in? Yes: nobody found out Downey was not there to hear the order, and while a spouse watching blamed Joe Galloway, preparing witnesses was Weinberg's one job.
That is a big hole in the movie; Sam is also dunked on hardest when, after Joe storms out and Daniel trashes the apartment, he starts tidying and is told to stop, like a houseboy.
A speech shortly after about Caffey's father, meant to be motivational, backfires, since the father is recalled as an attorney general who did Brown v. Board: with a life on the line one would pick the father over the son who settles every case; Cruise is weirdly casual in a military court, as in his 'just ain't so' opening statement.
The panel agrees Weinberg mailed it in: uncommitted until late in the trial, thinking the defendants were bullies, useful as a middle position that tempers Sorkin's ideology but useless as a lawyer.
Asked who gets sent for legal pads, pens and lamps and who is treated more like a subordinate, Sam or Joe, the answer is Joe; whether an entire flight can be erased from the logs without the internet never sits right.
Did Caffey and Galloway end up together or ever hook up? No; a third draft of Sorkin's script had him ask her on a date with a matching-socks callback, which one panelist prefers to 'The End' in big script letters.
The objection is that they have less than zero chemistry, which leads to asking who Cruise has chemistry with at all, even Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunders (as transcribed), before a joke that they hooked up once after a softball game.
Caffey's love life is floated and the answer offered is that he is asexual or too busy with work.
Which on-the-rise Black actor of 1991 would have been better as Harold: the role has about ten big scenes, Cuba Gooding could have done it, the actor had to be big because Dawson leads the troop, and Morris Chestnut would make little difference and was not known then.
What if Jessup never admits the code red: Caffey (transcribed as Kathy) goes to jail or is court-martialed and ends up coaching softball; in a real-life version the marshals come in, Bacon's character would not allow it, and it is game over once contempt is called.
Caffey almost does not go for it until Jessup taunts him about phone records and toiletries; the realization that Santiago did not pack, prompted by seeing his own shirts in the closet, is praised against the usual bird-across-the-sky light-bulb moments.
Was the code red scene the highlight of Cruise's career? He goes toe to toe with a multiple Oscar winner, Sean's view that Cruise beats Nicholson is held for later, and no single Cruise scene is better, not 'You complete me', Top Gun, the barman's poet in Cocktail or the Risky Business dance; it is called his career highlight.
Whether Joe Galloway set back the women's movement by one, three or five years is answered with 'Demi Moore might have' and pushed to Picking Nits.
Did Santiago (transcribed as San Diego) kind of deserve to die? Answers range from no to just a tiny bit; one panelist inches closer each viewing to thinking Jessup has a point, since the private could not keep up, ratted on his troop and broke the chain of command, and another goes that far but not to deserving to die.