Can you handle the truth?
A Few Good Men would have absolutely killed in the YouTube era.
25 years ago, people had to settle for excitedly quoting the film’s biggest moments, so it’s little wonder that it boasts such a strong status in pop culture today.
Clip via YouTube Movies
The trailer alone provokes goosebumps, despite it leading with the kind of pivotal moments that you’d prefer to avoid nowadays.
A Few Good Men premiered on December 9, 1992, going on general release in the States two days later.
Written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) – adapted from his stage play of the same name – A Few Good Men focuses on the court-martial of two marines charged with murder, and the trials and tribulations of the lawyers involved.
Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson head up a stacked cast, with supporting turns from Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak and the late, great J.T. Walsh.
This was real box office stuff, two heavyweights in their prime going toe-to-toe in exhilarating fashion. Cruise gets a lot of flak for his personal life, and so it can be easy to forget what a terrific actor he is when he chooses to inhabit a role.
The first time you meet his Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, you’re unlikely to be on his side. He’s cocky to the point of arrogant, dismissive to the point of possibly careless. By film’s end, you want to be the first one to buy him a beer.
Jack Nicholson is known for chewing the scenery, and his bulldog aggression in the guise of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup is arguably as iconic as his manic turn in The Shining.
Quick spoiler alert – if you’ve not seen A Few Good Men, don’t watch the below clip. If you have, you know why we’re including it.
Clip via MovieClips
So good, The Simpsons had to pay respect:
Clip via ThingsICantFindOtherwise
Rob Reiner’s film was a hit at the box office and with critics. It currently boasts an 81% ‘certified fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though back in the day legendary film critic Roger Ebert was disappointed, describing A Few Good Men as a “lesser pleasure” in which “good actors do good work.”
He surmised that it is “one of those movies that tells you what it’s going to do, does it, and then tells you what it did.”
Ebert was famously difficult to please, and while he has a point, the genius of A Few Good Men is just how watchable it is. This is a Hollywood version of a courtroom drama; full of fireworks, shocking plot twists and beautiful people winning and losing the day.
If the adage that a great film is only as good as its script is true, A Few Good Men should be one of the go-to examples.
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