History Film / AFewGoodMen

** Later on when it looks like the case is slipping away from them)\\

** Also, one marine salutes Kaffee near the end of the movie. Indoors. And without any headgear. This one is forgivable, however. Indoor salutes are done during ceremonies and certain other occasions.

** Jessep, who despite his claims of toughness, was willing to throw two Marines under a bus to protect himself.

** Really, the entire movie, at least to people who have actually served in the military (especially the Marines). Uniforms are sloppily maintained, Marines in the movie often keep their hands in their pockets (a major no-no in the real Marine Corps), and nobody maintains bearing or decorum anywhere. Not to mention, as a ''naval'' base, the base commander of Guantanamo is always a navy officer; the Marine company on Guantanamo is primarily for base security and ceremonial duties.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Dawson and Downey. They are the direct co-actors in Santiago's demise and Downey relies on Dawson's judgement for pretty much everything.

** The subplot of Jessep arranging for the deletion of all records of a flight that could have taken Santiago off the base before he was murdered is complete and total nonsense. Bottom line, he's just a Colonel with a limited amount of authority, and trying to have tower records altered is something that would land him in more hot water than he could imagine. In addition, it was an ''Air Force'' flight, and in order to completely "erase" the flight, then the cargo manifest, list of passengers, flight plan, radio transmissions, fuel consumed, and the tower records for the Air Force base that the flight originated from, would ''all'' have to be erased. Isn't going to happen. There is some low-level muttering about the Marine brass covering for Jessep because he is on the fast track for promotion, but there's no way anyone would stick their neck out for him to that extent. Hell, just the act of contacting the Air Force base to try to have the tower records altered would trigger so many red flags and fireworks that he would be relieved of command and facing charges before the day was out.

*** The HandWave detailed above runs into ArtisticLicenseMilitary, full stop. Jessep is a full Colonel, he ranks below all the General Officer ranks and would have little-to-no political clout. If there was any, it would be held by senior Generals and Admirals. The only Marine on the Joint Chiefs is the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In addition, if Jessep was being considered for the NSC, the Marines wouldn't have him in Cuba, he'd be at the Pentagon in DC being groomed for the position.

-->'''Col. Jessep:''' You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for ''one second'' that you can come down here, flash your badge, and make me nervous.

* BluffingTheMurderer: Kaffee brings in a pair of {{Surprise Witness}}es to help pressure Jessep at the end. [[spoiler:They don't have any actual information.]]

-->'''Lt. Weinberg:''' Cmdr. Galloway, Lt. Kaffee is considered to be the best litigator in our office. He successfully plea bargained 44 cases in 9 months.\\

(later on when it looks like the case is slipping away from them)\\
'''Galloway:''' I'm sorry I cost you the steak knives.
** Also: "I got some oregano, I hear that helps."
** "So this is what the inside of a courtroom looks like."

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Kaffee, while legitimately undisciplined and a little lazy for a military man, is incredibly able to pick up on the smallest irregularities throughout the film to indicate something is off about the whole case, eventually uncovering the whole plot.
** Including the fact the case was assigned to him.

* DangerTakesABackSeat: Lt. Col. Markinson (the highly creepy J.T. Walsh) does this to Kaffee.

* DeskSweepOfRage: Kaffee, during his HeroicBSOD.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Done early, and it sets the stage for the critical plot point later. While discussing Santiago, transferring him off the base to just get rid of the problem comes up. This clearly pisses off Jessep, who starts saying they should just transfer everyone, shut down the base, and withdraw from Cuba completely. Taking it up a notch, he calls for one of the Marines in the outer office to come in and starts telling him to call the President and inform him that he's shutting the base down and sending everyone home. While his voice is dripping with sarcasm, the important part of the scene is that the Marine he is addressing ''does not bat an eye'' and turns around when Jessep is done, fully prepared to go call the President. Jessep has to stop him and specifically tell him ''not'' to call the President before he can let him leave the room. Bottom line, Jessep's orders are ''always'' obeyed. As everyone knows, this fact comes back to bite him in the ass hard.

** It still works if you consider Jessep's narcissism and ego making him treat the Cubans as if they are the greatest threat to the United States and that only he and the total discipline he instills in his marines are keeping an imminent Cuban invasion at bay.

* HamToHamCombat: The famous climactic scene between Kaffee and Jessep. Even Jack Ross gets in on the action.
-->'''Ross:''' Dammit, Kaffee!

* InterserviceRivalry: The good guys are all Navy while the villains are Marines. The good guys see the Marines as KnightTemplar fanatics who will endanger their own men's lives for the sake of reputation while the villains see their Navy counterpoints as weak and having no concept of what it truly takes to keep the country safe. Somewhat qualified by Col. Randolph, the judge, a ReasonableAuthorityFigure; Ross, who's friends with Kaffee and is at worst a PunchClockVillain; as well as the likable Corporal Barnes, who offers the visiting Navy officers friendly advice on how not to get shot.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Jessep has this in spades. He has no remorse for ordering a weak marine killed and only becomes angry when his validity as a soldier is questioned or his orders disobeyed.

* KnightTemplar: Colonel Jessep. He reiterates several times throughout the movie the phrase "We're in the business of saving lives," indicating that he truly believes he's doing the right thing. The view in his courtroom speech might be a reasonable statement of the unique role of the military in protecting a free society and the compromises that come with that. [[spoiler:When that turned into ordering assaults on his own men and covering it up...]]
** Jo has shades of this as well. She is so hell-bent on exposing the abusive practices at Guantanamo Bay that when Jack Ross offers a plea to involuntary manslaughter (which the defendants are actually guilty of) she immediately rejects it and insists on going to trial, risking her clients getting the death penalty. This is another example of {{Hollywood Law}}, in real life, rejecting a plea bargain without consulting the client would get an attorney disbarred.

* LyingToThePerp: See BluffingTheMurderer.

** PsychopathicManchild: This is ultimately what Jessep is, an immature man who believes he has the right to act however he wants and shows no respect for anyone else.

* MotiveRant: Jessep's rant is all about why he feels his actions were necessary.
** The original stage production followed it with a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* {{Narcissist}}: Jessep goes ''beyond'' even having a massive god complex. He disobeys his superior officers because he thinks he knows better than them, loves to hear himself talk, rather flippantly exploits others for his own gain, has a '''colossally''' overblown sense of self-importance, seems to think he and he alone is somehow 'special,' ("I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom.") demands excessive admiration and unquestioned obedience he clearly doesn't deserve, displays arrogance and haughtiness to his peers as well as his underlings, is an EntitledBastard, displays a clear LackOfEmpathy, and is seemingly incapable of even ''considering the mere possibility'' that he is ever wrong about ''anything.'' Even when confronted with irrefutable evidence that he is, he simply blames everyone else.
** Kaffee lampshades this the morning that followed his decision to call Jessep in court: he knows, after having met Jessep only ''once'', that the guy qualifies, mentioning Jessep's speech about the fact that he doesn't need medals (something he seems to take an even greater pride in than actual medals) and his BadassBoast; that's also how he knows Jessep will come in court, he just love to tell others how important he and his duty are.
** "You have to ask me nicely. See, I can deal with the bullets, the bombs and the blood. I don't want money and I don't want medals. What I do want is for you to stand there, in that faggoty white uniform, and with your Harvard mouth, extend me some fucking courtesy". Self-obsession and pride seems to be the only things that keep Jessep going.

* NoodleIncident: The Curtis Bell incident is mentioned several times throughout the film but never explained.

** Turns out to be a ChekhovsGun. The trial discusses details about the incident[[note]](a Marine named Curtis Bell being confined to barracks and being given only water and vitamin supplements)[[/note]] driving the point home to Dawson to never disobey an order[[note]](after he tried to provide Bell with food)[[/note]].

* OhCrap: Played with: after [[spoiler:Jessep confesses]], the look on ''Kaffee's'' face is a mixture of righteous indignation and shock. It takes him a moment to recover. Understandable, considering what he just pulled off.

* PetTheDog: During questioning, Colonel Jessep answers questions about [[RuleOfThree three phone calls]]. The first two calls are about the military. The third one turns out to be a call to his sister asking her if she wanted to have dinner. For all his flaws as a soldier, he seems to be a decent enough brother. Additionally, when the defence team are down in Cuba Jessep presents himself as an admirer of Kaffee's late father for his work defending civil rights. He's also NiceToTheWaiter.
** The first example becomes a case of extreme MoralMyopia when you consider that [[spoiler:his longtime comrade Markinson just killed himself]], not to mention that he's scheming to pass the buck for his morally bankrupt actions onto his underlings.

* PunchClockVillain: Ross is a minor version of this trope. He's opposing the heroes of the story because he is representing the US government and it's his job to do so. It's well-established that otherwise he's on very friendly terms with Kaffee. Their good-natured banter after the trial shows that, despite the often heated proceedings, there are no hard feelings on either side.
** Ross even reveals he doesn't think Downey and Dawson should go to jail but he still has a job to do. He also seems to really dislike Kendrick and Jessep as much as Kaffee does, as at one point he tells Kaffee, "Don't you dare lump me in with them just because we wear the same uniform." He even seems happy to be [[spoiler:heading off to arrest Kendrick at the end.]]

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The original stage production had Kaffee respond to Jessep's MotiveRant as follows:
-->'''Kaffee:''' You trashed the law! But hey, we understand, you're permitted. You have a greater responsibility than we can possibly fathom. You provide us with a blanket of freedom. We live in a world that has walls and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns, and nothing is going to stand in your way of doing it. Not Willie Santiago, not Dawson and Downey, not Markinson, not 1,000 armies, not the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and [[YouBastard not the Constitution of the United States]]! [[CallingTheOldManOut That's the truth isn't it Colonel]]? I can handle it.
** Thanks to the film's omission of the above response to Jessep's MotiveRant, many people miss the point of the film's most famous scene: Yes, Jessep thinks he's justified in doing what he does-- but '''he isn't'''. Not by the honour-code of his organisation, nor the legal system of his country, let alone most personal moral codes.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Markinson quietly objects to Colonel Jessep's hardline attitude and actions towards his men, but is too spineless to stand up to him or call him out when he causes the death of Private Santiago.

* SarcasticWellWishing: Col. Jessep does this as part of his VillainousBreakdown: after trying to outright attack Kaffee, he then sarcastically compliments him for his getting him arrested with as much restraint as he can muster.
-->[[TranquilFury "You fucking people! You have no idea how to defend a nation. All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee. That's all you did. You put people's lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son."]]

* SpannerInTheWorks: Both Galloway and Dawson are this to Jessep's friends in the Pentagon's attempts to handle Santiago's death quietly. Galloway for insisting that Kaffee actually give his clients' due diligence for once instead of rushing straight to the plea bargin, Dawson for telling Kaffee to take his plea bargain and shove it.
** Galloway also serves as this for Kaffee during their trip to Cuba. While Kaffee is trying to play dumb to keep Jessep and Kendrick off the scent that he's looking into then as guilty parties, Galloway's sincere grilling of them puts them on alert anyway, much to Kaffee's frustrations.
** Dawson is one for his own case by failing to directly tell Kaffee the Code Red was an order given by Lt. Kendrick simply because Kaffee didn't directly ask him.
* SpottingTheThread: A downplayed example when Kaffee explains why he decided to stay on as lead counsel:

** A straighter example emerges during Jessep's initial questioning, in which Kaffee points out that Jessep had packed quite a few items for a one-day trip - while Santiago hadn't done any packing whatsoever, despite his reported imminent transfer out of Guantanamo.

* ThatWasObjectionable: A borderline example. The prosecution puts on a doctor to give his opinion as to the cause of Willie Santiago's death. Lt. Cmdr. Galloway objects on the basis of his qualifications. When the judge overrules her, she "strenuously objects" and is again overruled.
-->'''Sam:''' "Strenuously object"? Is that how it works? "Objection!" "Overruled." "No no no, I ''strenuously'' object." "Oh, well if you ''strenuously'' object, then I should take some time to reconsider."

* TokenRomance: Thankfully averted. Originally a romance between Tom Cruise and Demi Moore's characters was planned (and stills from a love scene made it to the tabloid news), but was left on the cutting room floor. The subtext is still there though, as Galloway ''does'' directly ask him out on the spot towards the midpoint of the film.

* VillainousBreakdown: Jessep has [[MotiveRant his famous rant]], but the real breakdown comes right after when the unflappable Colonel [[spoiler:finds he is being charged with Santiago's death and then lunges screaming at Kaffee, who doesn't even bat an eyelash.]]
-->'''Col. Jessep:''' I'M GOING TO RIP THE EYES OUT OF YOUR HEAD ''AND PISS INTO YOUR DEAD SKULL!'' YOU ''FUCKED'' WITH THE '''WRONG''' MARINE!

* WeaknessIsJustAStateOfMind: How Jessep viewed Santiago; Santiago was physically unable to keep up with the rest of the platoon, when in-actuality Santiago was provably medically fragile. The "Code Red" hazing that Jessep ordered to toughen up Santiago, plus this fragility, led to Santiago's death.

* WhamLine: "He was never going to be transferred off that base" from Markinson changes everything for the defence, giving them a real weapon with which to fight back. InUniverse only, however, since the audience already knows Jessep had no intention of transferring Santiago.

** The subplot of Jessep arranging for the deletion of all records of a flight that could have taken Santiago off the base before he was murdered is complete and total nonsense. Bottom line, he's just a Colonel with a limited amount of authority, and trying to have tower records altered is something that would land him in more hot water than he could imagine. In addition, it was an ''Air Force'' flight, and in order to completely "erase" the flight, then the cargo manifest, list of passengers, flight plan, radio transmissions, fuel consumed, and the tower records for the Air Force base that the flight originated from, would ''all'' have to be erased. Isn't going to happen. There is some low-level muttering about the Marine brass covering for Jessep because he is on the fast track from promotion, but there's no way anyone would stick their neck out for him to that extent. Hell, just the act of contacting the Air Force base to try to have the tower records altered would trigger so many red flags and fireworks that he would be relieved of command and facing charges before the day was out.
*** The film tries to HandWave this by saying Jessep is about to be appointed to the National Security Council as the Director of Operations and thus he has enough political capital to be able to pull the necessary strings to make the records of the flight vanish. However this is actually averted in the original play; Jessep is able to cover up the flight taking off (which as the commander of the base, is at least slightly plausible) but ''not'' the flight landing, and Kaffee is able to obtain the logs of the latter through Markinson.
*** The HandWave detailed above runs into ArtisticLicenseMilitary, full stop. Jessep is a full Colonel, he ranks below all the General Officer ranks and would have little-to-no political capital. If there was any it would be held by senior Generals and Admirals. The only Marine on the Joint Chiefs is the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In addition, if Jessep was being considered for the NSC, the Marines wouldn't have him in Cuba, he'd be at the Pentagon in DC being groomed for the position.

* BackfireOnTheWitnessStand: The cross-examining of Downey almost single-handedly derails the defense when Ross [[spoiler:manages to make Downey confess that he was not given the orders for the Code Red directly from the brass, but rather that it was Dawson (a man who would want Santiago dead as accuser and sole witness of the fence shooting Dawson allegedly committed) who got them and told Downey to come along]]. As for why neither Marine told Kaffee this little bombshell, the answer is "YouDidntAsk".

** Jessep responds to Kaffee telling him he needs Santiago's transfer orders for his file by essentially biting his head off and insisting Kaffee ask "nicely". While this plays into Jessep's obsession that people take his authority as unquestionable, it also might have to do with [[spoiler:the fact that no such orders existed as Santiago was never going to be transferred. Kaffee asking for it forces Jessep to give him a fake one Markinson signed after Santiago's death.]]

* BrilliantButLazy: Kaffee is a brilliant attorney with a fantastic min, charisma, and natural oratory skill that would give William Jennings Bryan pause. But he'd much rather practice getting his softball swing perfect. Part of it is that he's just riding out his contractual commitment to the Navy until he can get a job in the civilian world.

** Kaffee is a lazy jerk who's just looking out for his own ass but he's right to be frustrated with Dawson turning down an impossibly good deal (pleading guilty to a manslaughter that would get him home in six months when he's facing a first degree murder charge) out of a misplaced sense of honor and with Dawson's ingratitude and barely concealed disrespect for him in general. His later harsh rebuttal of Jo's plan to get Jessep to confess to giving the order is also on point as he is absolutely correct that such a plan could go catastrophically wrong.