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The Rewatchables ·

A Few Good Men

year 1992decade 90sdirector Rob Reinergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Amanda Dobbins
All 13 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 6:24

The ending

Offered the ending, the lunch in Guantanamo Bay, or Cruise and Bacon meeting for a beer, one panelist calls the last scene the best last scene of a movie ever but, despite hating to be too cute about these answers, goes with the Guantanamo Bay lunch as the sneaky choice.

Another likens the question to picking the home run scene in The Natural, then, getting cute, names the favorite interaction as Jack and Caffey getting a beer that ends with 'you're a lousy fucking softball player'.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 53:14

"I like all you navy boys every time we got to go someplace to fight you fellas always give us a ride"

Nominees include 'these are the facts of the case and they are indisputable', 'I'm sorry I lost your set of steak knives' (prompting a Glenn Gary (as transcribed) and Ginsu knives aside), the 'you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall' speech, 'we live in a world that has walls', the softball-player line, a profane threat from Jessup, 'you, Lieutenant Weinberg' and 'thank you for playing'.

The film

A Few Good Men (1992)

Directed by Rob Reiner · Drama

138 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Tom Cruise Daniel Kaffee
Jack Nicholson Nathan Jessep
Demi Moore JoAnne Galloway
Kevin Bacon Jack Ross
Kevin Pollak Sam Weinberg
James Marshall Louden Downey
J.T. Walsh Matthew Markinson
Kiefer Sutherland Jonathan Kendrick
Christopher Guest Dr. Stone
J.A. Preston Judge Randolph
Matt Craven Dave Spradling
Wolfgang Bodison Harold Dawson
Xander Berkeley Whitaker
Noah Wyle Jeffrey Barnes
Cuba Gooding Jr. Carl Hammaker
Lawrence Lowe Bailiff
Josh Malina Orderly
Oscar Jordan Steward
Aaron Sorkin Man in bar
Al Wexo Guard2
Jan Munroe Jury foreman
Matthew Saks David
Harry Caesar Luther
Michael DeLorenzo William Santiago
Arthur Senzy Robert McGuire
Cameron Thor Lawrence
David Bowe Gibbs
Gene Whittington Mr. Dawson
Maud Winchester Aunt Ginny

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

6:24

Most Rewatchable Scene

The ending; the Guantanamo Bay lunch; Jack and Caffey's beer

The ending; the Guantanamo Bay lunch; Jack and Caffey's beer

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:24Read transcript
  • Offered the ending, the lunch in Guantanamo Bay, or Cruise and Bacon meeting for a beer, one panelist calls the last scene the best last scene of a movie ever but, despite hating to be too cute about these answers, goes with the Guantanamo Bay lunch as the sneaky choice.
  • Another likens the question to picking the home run scene in The Natural, then, getting cute, names the favorite interaction as Jack and Caffey getting a beer that ends with 'you're a lousy fucking softball player'.
  • In the bar, Cruise orders simply 'a beer' and makes a big show of refusing the frosted glass, which suggests he had never really done bar interactions on screen; the Vin Diesel beer tilt from the Fast and Furious films is the comparison.
  • One panelist agrees the ending is the best and the most rewatchable, but says you cannot sleep on the Guantanamo Bay scene.
  • The lunch makes them want the deleted small talk; Kendrick, whom Sean Phenasy (as transcribed) called 25 years early for what the alt-right looked like in 2016, is played by Kiefer Sutherland, hard to believe as the future Jack Bauer and the guy from The Vanishing, in a supporting part he was probably too big for.
  • Kiefer slummed it, and Bacon a little too; the hosts recall the Flatliners period and the collapse of the wedding with Julia Roberts, 'the all time greatest getting left at the altar story'.
  • Kendrick never cracks a smile, and when they ask to see the room where Santiago died he says the private died because he had no honor, no code.
  • A fourth alternative is Jessup reading Santiago's letter, asking who PFC William Santiago is and sarcastically proposing they surrender their position in Cuba; Josh Malina is in that scene too.
  • At the lunch Kendrick laughs only once, at Jessup's crude joke to Demi Moore's character about a superior officer, which TV prints cut; the hosts think it belongs because it shows how vicious Jessup is, and joke about a milder substitute word.
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11:05

What’s Aged the Best?

Cruise's 'why the two orders' brainstorm; the mess hall cross-examination; Harold and Caffey at the end

Cruise's 'why the two orders' brainstorm; the mess hall cross-examination; Harold and Caffey at the end

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:05Read transcript
  • Nominees: the ending, the 'galactically stupid' tirade when a drunk Cruise loses it on Demi Moore, the mess hall cross-examination that Bacon later praises as a great redirect, Cruise's Nicholson impersonation, Harold's 'ten hut' with Cruise, the 'why the two orders' brainstorm in the Jessup cross, and Jack Ross's face at Jessup's code red admission.
  • Like a decanted wine, the subtler moments should age best, which rules out Cruise doing Nicholson, since people their age have spent their lives watching others imitate Nicholson.
  • 'Why the two orders' always gets one panelist, and another answers 'me too'.
  • Picks the mess hall cross-examination: rewatched it last night, it is subtle and lands every time, and the way Cruise grabs the notebook back from Kevin Bacon is peak Cruise swagger. — Amanda Dobbins
  • The scene has an early Noah Wiley (as transcribed), later important on ER, and shows the cleverness of the script solving problems without being showy or straining plausibility.
  • Another pick is Harold and Cruise's character finding common ground at the end, which still gives chills on the 557th viewing: 'Harold, you don't have to have a badge to have honor' and the 'Ten Hut'; Harold is never seen again.
  • The actor playing Harold appeared in a couple of nineties action movies and is believed to have been Rob Reiner's assistant before being thrown into the film.
  • The ending leaves the film dying for a coda: it is unclear how much trouble Jessup is in, unlike the court-martial that follows the submarine battle in Crimson Tide, and the two Marines are still dishonorably discharged.
  • A small flaw: after the code red admission Bacon's character later says he has to go arrest Kendrick, prompting the question of why he waited a week.
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14:45

What’s Aged the Worst?

The token black newsstand guy; Cruise zoning out during the Jessup examination; the gay slurs; JT Walsh's farewell sp...

The token black newsstand guy; Cruise zoning out during the Jessup examination; the gay slurs; JT Walsh's farewell speech; Joe Galloway; Cruise rehydrating with Yoohoo

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:45Read transcript
  • The token black newsstand guy, just shouting, is rough, and 2017 barely has newsstands.
  • Cruise melting down during the Jessup examination, with about ten extra seconds of zoning out while the water glass shakes, is too long; not even Christopher Darden did that in the OJ trial, he is already in contempt, and an edit could save it.
  • The gay slurs reflect 1991 and are rough in the unedited version, less so on TNT.
  • JT Walsh's farewell speech as Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson, the letter saying the son is dead because 'I wasn't strong enough to stop it', is a tough farewell that is done in ten seconds before he shoots himself.
  • Joe Galloway is nominated but tabled as a major conversation; a sixth nominee is Cruise rehydrating with Yoohoo after softball practice, with a joke about Paul George chugging one in the playoffs and his diet of Yoohoo, Cocoa Puffs and Jack Daniels.
  • Cruise's D.C. apartment shows a TBS Padres-Braves game and then an Orioles game, each with amazing plays such as an inside-the-park home run; one panelist personally thinks Joe Galloway has aged the worst.
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21:08

Apex Mountain

JT Walsh; Wolfgang Bodison; Tom Cruise; Kevin Bacon; Jack Nicholson (late career)

JT Walsh; Wolfgang Bodison; Tom Cruise; Kevin Bacon; Jack Nicholson (late career)

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:08Read transcript
  • JT Walsh gets an 'Apex for me for sure' and a second yes calling it his most infamous role, prompting a joke about how seriously the question was taken.
  • Aaron Sorkin is close but not the apex, a nice view but not the top; the first season of The West Wing and The Social Network are his apex, this film is likened to his 63-point Michael Jordan game with not a bad scene in it, and Moneyball is set aside because he rewrote somebody else's script.
  • Kevin Pollack is a no because of The Usual Suspects, which another agrees with.
  • Kevin Bacon is a no from one panelist, who calls him great and underrated here but notes how many films he has made, with The River Wild mentioned; another says no too, theorizing his bad haircut was deliberate so he would not distract from Cruise, like Kiefer's haircut, and puts his apex at Footloose, also liking him in Mystic River.
  • A third panelist disagrees with both and says this is Bacon's apex: not a meaty part but memorable, likable, with a dash of unintentional comedy, and hard to imagine anyone from that era, such as Matt Dillon, playing it without competing with Cruise.
  • Bacon was taking smaller parts in bigger movies then, as in JFK; though he is on the prosecuting side backing Jessup, he has some morality, saying he does not think the guys deserve jail but does not make that call; after an aside that his leaving the pickup game is unforgivable, a 'yes' for him is restated, possibly by the same panelist.
  • Wolfgang Bodesen (as transcribed) is a yes: 'that's the Apex for Wolfgang. I wish him well.'
  • Jack Nicholson's career overall draws four 'No' answers; then 'Late Jack Nicholson. Yes.' is offered, with one voice naming As Good as It Gets, and challenged over The Departed the late-career yes holds, because the Departed performance with its accent as a Whitey Bulger figure is called out of control and the weak link of that film.
  • Tom Cruise gets two yeses, with this chosen over Cocktail and a 'this or The Firm' aside; no one else in 30 years could bring this mix of unintentional comedy, good acting, sarcasm and bravado, Leo DiCaprio could not, though Matt Damon ten years later might have.
  • A TV version is planned for next year with Alec Baldwin, who is called amazing, but Caffey has not been cast; James Franco was rumored, a terrible idea, since the part needs an airhead who is really smart, a lawyer who plays softball, attractive but not a romantic lead; Demi Moore is left off the list as the nadir of her career.
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55:20

Who Won the Movie?

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:20Read transcript
  • The question draws four quick 'Cruz' answers and 'That easy', for how much time he spends on camera running the gamut while physically doing little: funny, panicked, cool, sad.
  • Asked which athlete performance it compares to, the answer is a quarterback performance, cool and going for it when everything is on the line, followed by 'I think Cruise too'.
  • As a last question, who won the code red scene: Sean Phenasy (as transcribed 'fantasy') thought Cruise did, and one panelist agrees, citing how Cruise walks around and quietly approaches the camera while Jessup is stuck in a chair, so Nicholson works at a disadvantage.
  • Says Tom Cruise wins the movie largely because of this scene and calls it his best performance, but Nicholson owns every inch of the frame: the 'entitled' speech drips with contempt only Nicholson could deliver, and his quiet, growling, low-register power is the most powerful. — Amanda Dobbins
  • 'I think Nicholson wins. Go Nicholson' is offered with evidence from an interview in which Cruise marvels at the subtle things Nicholson did, while the reverse never happened.
  • One panelist rides or dies with Nicholson; the case made is that Cruise gives the platonic ideal of a Cruise performance, while this and The Shining are atypical late-career Nicholson unlike Chinatown and Fizey's pieces (as transcribed), catching him past his prime after Terms of Endearment, known from Lakers games, tan and clearly having fun; the section closes with 'I think Nicholson first when I think of this movie' and agreeing to disagree.
  • Asked whether the late Bacon appreciation means going rogue for Bacon, the reply is no, since he has about four scenes and is like a table in most, despite the softball line, the basketball scene and his shell-shocked look at the end; 'I just can't get off Cruise Island'.
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