A Few Good Men Analysis

The movie I chose to watch was A Few Good Men directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. A few good men is about military law primarily. The case that the movie revolves around starts off with two marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. In the first scene of the movie it show’s marine Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and PFC Louden Downey beating up one of their fellow marines on base. The movie begins with the scene of the crime. The marine being beaten was PFC William T. Santiago a marine who was never good at being a marine in general. Santiago would fail miserably on runs and workouts which would only make the rest of the marine squad look bad as each marine depends on one another. The night that Dawson and Downey beat up Santiago they shoved a rag into his mouth. Santiago started bleeding and within hours died. Corporal Dawson and PFC Downey were

charged with murder of their fellow marine PFC William T. Santiago and both were at the risk of getting court marshaled.
After Dawson and downey were arrested their case was looked into by a navy lawyer Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway. Who investigated the case and thought it was suspicious. She believed that Dawson and Downey were beating up PFC Santiago from a command from a superior ranked marine at their base called a “code red”. The use of code reds was looked down upon in the marine core in the present day. However more often than not these code reds were done in secret. Commander Galloway pleaded with the men of the judge advocate general’s corps to look more into the case as well as to let her be lead council. The men agreed to look into the case more but assigned the case to Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee another naval lawyer who had an outstanding record of winning 44 cases in plea bargains. He is considered the best litigations lawyer in his office. To start the preparation for the case Commander Galloway briefs Lieutenant Kaffee giving him information of everything he needs to know. Santiago the marine who was murdered had been writing letters to anyone he could get to listen that he needed to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay. Kaffee also found out that Santiago was a witness to corporal Dawson shooting over a fence line that separated the base from the rest of Cuba. In one of Santiago’s letters he offered to give information about that shooting in exchange for a transfer. That a lone made it seem like Dawson had a motive to kill Santiago. Kaffee and his partner Lieutenant sam Weinberg head to the naval base to question Dawson and Downey where corporal Dawson explains to Lieutenant Kaffee the meaning of a code red which is “when a marine falls out of the line it is up to the rest of his squad to help him get back in place.” Dawson then admitted the attack on Dawson was a “code red” Dawson says the code red was meant for Santiago to think of the squad before him self. And go by the code of the marines unit, core, god, country.
Lieutenant Kaffee, Commander Galloway, and Sam all travel to Cuba to investigate the scene as well as talk to Kernal Nathan Jessep, Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick, and Lieutenant Kernal Matthew Markinson all the upper ranked personal of the base.

Kendrick showed Kaffee and the crew around where he was told that kendrick told the squad Santiago was not to be touched in a meeting at 1600 hours. According to Kernal Jessep Santiago was set to be transferred and there was paperwork to transfer him prior to the night he was killed even though there really wasn’t, when Kaffee asked for the paperwork Jessep made a big deal for Kaffee to ask him nicely. When Kaffee asked Dawson and Downey if Kendrick ordered them to preform a code red to which they both admitted it was true. After the meeting with the other men that kendrick had with the squad he went into the room of Dawson and Downey and told them to commit the code red. Dawson makes it clear to Kaffee that he does not want to plead guilty and take an easier punishment. He wants to fight in court because he feels like him and Downey did nothing

wrong.
At the arraignment the following day Kaffee pleas Corporal Dawson and PFC Downey not guilty so the trial is scheduled and the real preparation starts to begin. The main defense that Kaffee and his team are leading with is the fact that Dawson and Downey are stationed in a place where they have to follow orders and they have no choice not to follow it. In order to make sure there case goes perfect they begin studying and prepping one another of how they are going to defend and use their strategy during the trial. Also they prep Dawson and Downey for taking the witness stand. To start the case Captain Jack Ross the defense attorney for the state says his oppening statements and the facts of the case. Dawson and Downey went into the room of Santiago tied him up and shoved a rag soaked in poison down his throat which created a chemical reaction and killed him. Ross goes onto tell the jury that Kaffee will try to wow the court with stories and fancy terms like code red but to not look away from the facts of the case. For Kaffee’s opening statement he says their was no poison on the rag and no intent to kill. He goes on to say Dawson and Downey went into Santiago’s room not for fun or because they wanted to do but because they were ordered to. He emphasizes the word ordered to catch of the attention of the jury. In the marine’s an order is not taken lightly and if you do not follow an order you will be in trouble. Kaffee says that Dawson and Downey are sitting in the court because they did their jobs.
After the opening statements Ross calls his first witness Robert McGuire a naval investigator. He was asked by Ross about the letter from Santiago about the fence line shooting and what he found when he went to the base. The investigator found that it was Corporal Dawson’s weapon that was used for the shooting but he did not have enough evidence to charge Dawson with illegally firing because the eye witness Santiago was now dead. The next witness was another corporal in the squad who was asked about the meeting kendrick had with the men where he confirmed kendrick said not to touch Santiago. Kaffee asked if the corporal was in Dawson and Downey’s room after the meeting at 16:20 to which the corporal said no. So he had no idea what kendrick said to Dawson and Downey. Ross tried to bring up more witnessed but was stopped by Kaffee who asked if any of them were in the room after the meeting at 16:20 and if they weren’t there was no point in them testifying to which he agreed. They agree to meet again the next day. In the morning Ross has a Dr as a witness who said that the poison was the reason Santiago died. Kaffee objected saying the Dr was not an expert and was speculating. But the judge over ruled the objection and said the doctor was qualified. The Dr said Santiago definitely died of poison. Kaffee asked if a person having a serious coronary condition would make start the acidosis process at a more rapid pace than someone with a clean bill of health to which the Dr answered yes. Kaffee pulled out a form that the Dr. Wrote to Restrict Santiagos exercises because of his condition. Commander Galloway tries to object again on the same matter that the Dr. was not an expert which the court denies again and it creates a big seen that doesn't look good for there council.
Corporal Barnes was a witness from the same squad that Dawson and Downey are in. He was questioned with what code red was and why someone would get a code red. He told the court that you would receive one if you fell behind on a run or if you were late or fell asleep in meetings. He was asked if he wanted to give Santiago a code red and if he was ever given one before and he responded that he wanted to many times but Dawson never let anyone give Santiago a code red. Ross cross examines Barnes and asks him to show in the handbook where the term code red is. He then finds out that there is no book that says you have to do code reds. Kaffee re directs it and asks how he knew where the mess hall was if it wasn’t in the book. To which the corporal responded he just followed everyone at chow time. Just because it wasn’t in the book doesn’t mean you don’t learn to do it from everyone else.
After the trial case that morning Kernal Matthew Markinson finally showed up in Kaffee’s card to provide him with information of what happened and how Santiago was never going to be transferred from the base. Kaffee wants to question Kendrick and Jessep but jack warns Kaffee that if he questions him he will be in big trouble if he accuses a high ranked marine without evidence. Kaffee started to question Kendrick in court the next day. When asking him if he ever ordered a code red he had declined. One marine in the squad was placed on restriction and was not allowed food but was just given supplements to stay in health when Dawson snuck food to the marine he was given a below average grade on his exam because he didn’t follow the order to not give the marine food. Kendrick said he committed a crime of disobeying an order. Kaffee asked kendrick if Dawson on his own could determine whether or not he would follow an order. To which the Lieutenant responded no he could not.
PFC Downey was on the stand and was being questioned by Ross who asked him about post 39. Downey said there was a flat right at 39 and he had to run back to the base. They ran back in 45 minutes. He made it back to his room at 16:25. Ross made the point that he was not in the room to hear kendrick say to give Santiago a code red but he was given the order by Dawson. With this information it makes it seem like Dawson who may have had a motive to kill Santiago. They ran out of witnesses to because Kernal Matthew Markinson killed himself. Without another witness the only thing they can do is call Jessep to the stand and try to make him admit that he ordered the code red. But if he can’t get him to admit that he ordered the code red Kaffee will be court marshaled for accusing a highly ranked marine of perjury. Kaffee believes that Jessep wants to admit that he ordered the code red. To start the questioning Kaffee asked why Santiago was being transferred to which he responded he was in danger. Kaffee wonders why Santiago wasn’t packed even though he was being transferred which brings up the question was he even being transferred. Santiago also didn’t call anyone when he was supposedly being transferred. The kernel responded that he is smart but doesn’t know the travel habits of Santiago. Kaffee began to ask the kernel if any of the marines wouldn’t have followed the orders they gave him. He responded no if you don’t listen to an order you die. Kaffee said if you gave an order to not have Santiago touched why would he be in danger? And why would he have to be transferred? Kernal Jessep goes on a rant about how Santiago’s death saved lives. Kaffee asks him again if he ordered the code red. Kernel Jessep responds “you’re damn right I did!!” Which retires the case. Captain Ross reads Jessep his rights and he is arrested. The verdict for the case is read by the judge for Dawson and Downey. Charge of murder not guilty, charge of conspiracy of murder not guilty, and conduct un becoming of a united states of marines guilty as charged. Ordered to be honorary discharged from the marine core. The reason they were guilty for conduct un becoming of a US marine was both Dawson and Downey should have known better than to kill someone unjustly like that.