A Few Good Men Character Analysis

“You can’t handle the truth!” One of the most famous movie lines in the history of filmmaking stated by Colonel Nathen Jessep played by Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men. This movie starts as a couple of U.S. marines are convicted of murder at the military base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The two men receive a lawyer named Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee played by Tom Cruise. Together he and his team of lawyers save the falsely accused marines and convict the Colonel for ordering a “code red”. The second work of literature, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles is about a set of boys who attend a boarding school in New England. The greatest tension in the novel exists mostly between the two characters, Gene and Phineas (Finny). These two

are competitively opposites in the sense that Finny excels at athletics and Gene has superior academic intellect. The climax of the novel involves Gene as he jousts a branch which causes Finny to fall, and permanently damage his leg. Although the storyline of each story is too different to compare, the characters in the story are relatively similar. Several comparisons can be made in the character of Lieutenant Kaffee and Finny, the similarities between Captain Ross and Gene Forrester, the similarities in the conflicts between both of these sets of characters, and the astounding resemblance to character Leper Lepiller from A Separate Peace and Lt. Colonel Markinson from A Few Good Men.
The first comparison is obviously between Lieutenant Kaffee and Phineas. The similarities are seen easily through the fact that they can talk their way out of any situation, and the way they enjoy sports. Lieutenant Kaffee is known to be one of the best lawyers in his council and has won 44 consecutive trials. His slick tongue allows him to control the courtroom and express his thoughts in a persuasive and joking manner, but also in a demanding way. This is shown best in the third scene of the movie, as Kaffee is playing softball a rival lawyer intervenes, saying he was going to hang Kaffee’s client from a yardarm. “Do the Navy Seals still hang people from yardarms? ... If you file for jail time, you’re going to spend the next three months up to your nose in paperwork over $10 worth of oregano… ‘I don’t know why I keep agreeing to this,’ said the rival lawyer.” At Devon school, Phineas is the person who loves getting in and out of trouble. His impulsive actions are only matched with the low viscosity of his slick words. He is able to talk to disciplinarians and get them to disregard the fact that was doing something he was not supposed to, like going to the beach or using his tie as a belt. Page 27 “This time he wasn’t going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming more unexpectedly excited at that…Even Finny seemed to color a little, unless it was the reflection of his tie on his shirt. But his expression was composed and he said in a resonant voice ‘I wore this, you see, because it goes with the shit and it all ties in together-I didn’t mean it to be a pun, I don’t think they’re very funny, especially in polite company, do you?’… ‘I never heard anything so illogical as that in my life!’ He didn’t sound very indignant, though… He seemed pleased or amused in some unknown corner of his mind. Phineas was going to get away with even this.” Both of these two characters are masterly crafted to seem to enjoy the sport in life. Phineas loves to joke around and play, he enjoys very much to feel the exhilaration and excitement of playing and winning at any form of athletics. Page 35 “I noticed that he (Finny) did abide by certain rules which he seemed to cast in the form of commandments... But the one which had the most urgent influence in his life was ‘You always win at sports’” This quotation illustrates the high intensity at which finny excels, his love and devotion to athletics is only paralleled by Daniel Kaffee and his love of baseball. Several scenes show Kaffee playing softball, watching baseball, and he even carries a bat that supposedly helps him think. “Where’s my bat… My bat, I think better with my bat” Kaffee also loves the feeling of winning and finding justice, his perfect court record shows his devotion and superiority over his specialized field, as much as Finny dominates the Devon school at athletics. This comparison between two major characters is the most abundant and most obvious; however, the reciprocal of both these characters have several similarities as well.
Captain Jack Ross and narrator Gene Forrester both play the role of the antagonizing friend.

The shared traits between these two characters exist in their superior knowledge and the way they harm or attempt to harm their competition. Capitan Ross is a lawyer from the Marine Corps who represents the United States of America. He has been working out of law school much longer than Kaffee has. His time with the marines and the experience he has in a courtroom gives him the superior intellectual knowledge of how military trials work. His affiliation with the marines also gives him knowledge of terms such as “code red” and the consequences of question a respected officer. Scene 7 “What do you know about code reds? asked Kaffee, Ross replied with “Are we off the record… good well let me tell you something before you go get yourself in trouble over there (Cuba)”. Gene Forrester is the narrator in the story, and the reason for the untimely demise of Finny. Gene feels his only way to compete with finny is his superior academic intellect and Gene tries to express that as much as possible as shown on page 54. “ I became quite a student after that. I had always been a good one, although I wasn’t really interested and excited in learning itself… Finny had no way of knowing this, because it all happened so far ahead of him scholastically.” Although the characters being compared do not have the same degree of intellectual superiority, the similarity still exists. The next contention for the similarities between these two characters involves the way they hurt their counterpart. In A Separate Piece Gene jounces the limb of a branch and causes Finny to fall tens of feet to the ground where he shattered his leg, causing permanent damage. ”Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny his balance gone, swung his head around to look at e for a second with extreme interest and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the

little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud” (page 60). Capitan Ross similarly threatens Kaffee in A Few Good Men by telling him he could be subject to court martial. Scene 20 “If you accuse Kendrick or Jessep of any crime without proper evidence you are going to be subject to a court martial for professional misconduct, and that is going to be stabled on every job application you ever fill out.”
The conflict matchups between all of these characters can also be noted as relatively similar. Gene’s statistical analysis includes his strength in smarts his advantage throughout the story when Finny broke his leg, and Gene’s psychological color, between yellow and green. Finny runs down as impulsive, extremely witty, and his main color is clearly orange. The same exact thing can be said about Kaffee and Ross. Ross has the advantage in the court trial, he also has the superior smarts and his personality color can be seen as yellow or green. Kaffee identically has the superior wits, is very impulsive, and his personality color is clearly orange as well.
The final comparison between characters no longer exists in either the protagonist or antagonist, but more between two supporting characters. Lieutenant Colonel Markinson and Leaper Lepellier both mirror each other in resemblance of character and mental view of the world. These two military men, both decided to run away, both were called crazy or psychotic, and several context clues show that the personality of the two characters are one and the same. Starting with the simple context similarity between Leaper and Markinson, both of these characters ran away from the military. Ultimately, the reasons for their departure from the service were completely different, however the way they disappeared for a set amount of time and then reappeared only to the eyes of one of the main characters displays suspense in almost an identical style. These two characters were subject to the sticks and stones of words throughout each work. Lt. Colonel Markinson was verbally attacked by Colonel Jessep early in the film and later called crazy by Kaffee and his legal team, when Markinson was too afraid to take the stand. Scene 5 “We are in the business of saving lives Lieutenant colonel Markinson, don’t ever question my orders in front of another officer”. Leper himself causes Gene to believe fully that his mental capacity was gone, and that he had become psychotic as illustrated on page 143. “You’re not thinking I’m normal, aren’t you? I can see what you’re thinking-I see a lot I never saw before”- his voice fell into a querulous whisper- “you’re thinking I’m psyco.” The final characteristics between the parallel characters are their personality colors. Several context clues in the movie show how Markinson was deeply affected by the words of others and ashamed of his own actions, his suicide note also displays several of his viewpoints on his role in the death of William Santiago and he took his own life from that grief. Leaper is clearly a blue keeping mostly to himself and his collection of butterflies. He takes the words of others to the heart, such as the words of Brinker, and is usually in a constant state of tears. These characteristics of both of these two silent and exclusive characters are pieces of a mirror that reflect each other.
A Separate Piece and A Few Good Men have quite a different plot but characters, which seem to be identically made. The similarities between Lieutenant Kaffee and Phineas, the resemblance between Gene and Captain Ross, the relationship in the personality match up of each character, and the parallel views of Leper Lepellier and Lieutenant Colonel Markinson. Specific quotes show that John Knowles and Rob Rainer had the same character building mentality. “I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend”