Authority In A Few Good Men

In A Few Good Men, by Rob Reiner, both Demi Moore’s character, Commander Jo, and Jack Nicholson's character, Colonel Jessup, outrank Tom Cruise’s character, Danny, yet he only obeys to Colonel Jessup. Why is this? In the article, “Obedience” by Ian Parker and movie, A Few Good Men, both discuss the concept of obedience to an authority figure. An aspect of obedience they both analyze is the idea that the gender of an authority figure produces a different level of obedience in their counterparts.

In A Few Good Men, Danny is completely respectful and obedient towards Colonel Jessup, but not towards Commander Jo, who also outranks him. This can best be explained by gender roles. In the mid-1990’s at the time the movie was created, women weren’t

allowed to serve in units whose primary purpose was ground combat. As a result of this, Danny doesn’t feel the need to obey Commander Jo because he feels she hasn’t earned the position of authority that she is currently in. Parker offers an explanation for this case when he talks about a social psychological truth, “People tend to do things because of where they are, not who they are”(103). In the situation that Danny is in, which was not being able to have the opportunity men have to fight in the hand-to-hand combat, he doesn’t obey to Commander Jo, but did with Colonel Jessup who’s a male that has experience in hand-to-hand combat. Danny feels it isn’t necessary to submit to Commander Jo because of who she is a women without hand-to-hand combat experience. But he will submit to Colonel Jessup, who is a strong, experienced man whose been in the army for a good amount of time.
Overall, Reiner and Parker both establish a connection on the varying levels of obedience in their fellow peers. On one hand, women can out rank someone but not receive the equal level of obedience that a man with the same rank would receive.