A Few Good Men

In class, we've been watching the film A Few Good Men. It has been a very interesting story so far and not quite what I expected. I had anticipated a very clear hero and a very clear enemy in the movie. Unfortunately, I think that's more accurate to how real life works. It is not cut and dry. It is not always clear who is guilty or to what degree they are guilty. In this movie, for example, the two men accused of murdering another soldier are debatably good or debatably bad. They did kill Santiago, that I'm not denying. However, they were ordered to do so by their marine officer. At first this did not seem too significant of an excuse. How could a man just kill another man because he was "ordered" to do so. Anyone could say, "hey, Lauren, go kill that guy over there," but why would I ever actually listen to them and commit such a crime? After the lawyers presented their arguments, however, I began to wrap my mind around what these soldiers are trained to do and trained to believe. An order is an order. Following orders are what these men are trained to live for once they become soldiers. To understand who is guilty and who is innocent in a court case is not always going to be black and white. I wasn't sure how Tom Cruise and Demi Moore's characters could possibly be representing the good guys if they were representing the murderers. But sure enough, these men were good men. These killers were not killers at heart, just soldiers. I am not saying that they should be forgiven and let off the hook completely, but they clearly were not the most malicious of the characters in this situation. This film has allowed me to gain a new perspective into the court system and to better understand why not to judge at the first impression. A lawyer, or really anyone in this world, must try to fully understand where another is coming from before we can assess their character and pass judgment on them. Life is far from black and white. In fact, it's mostly gray. That is what this film has pointed out to me. These lawyers had to make clear the difference between how regular men understand an order and how soldiers understand in order for me to comprehend who these men were inside. And when I finally did begin to understand the difference, it was clear that these two men were not murderers, they were just taken advantage of by their superior officer. He was the true murderer in the case.