Fridge / A Few Good Men

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Fridge Brilliance

• Jack wins both ways. If Kaffee gets in trouble (listen carefully and you can hear the judge cite him with contempt), the case is that much easier to win. If Kaffee succeeds in his task, he gets to arrest two Marines he think make the Corps look bad.
  • Well, one can put it even more cynically and say that Kaffee actually did Ross a great favor, as being in charge of prosecution of potential National Security Council's member is a much more powerful career kickstart than a trial of two ordinary marines. However, Ross looks much too shocked and upset in the end to seriously suspect him of such scheming.
  • While Ross would've won his case easily had things turned south after Kaffee was cited with contempt, he really didn't want him to go all the way and accuse Jessep of anything major. Kaffee is his friend, and he didn't want his life ruined with that massive blotch on his record. That's why when Kaffee started to go all-out on Jessep on the stand, Ross desperately tried to stop him or get the judge to stop him, which didn't work, forcing him to let out a "Dammit, Kaffee!" in frustration since at that point, his friend sealed his fate.
• Despite ostensible Kaffee's tactical triumph during cross-questioning of Cpl. Barnes (one portrayed by Noah Wyle), in the hindsight that round was actually won by Ross, as he managed to clearly establish that Dawson and Downey's actions had no legal basis whatsoever. It is precisely for this reason that they were eventually convicted of Conduct Unbecoming.
• Colonel Jessep says on the stand that, "We follow orders or people die." He was right, although he was too full of himself to realise: Jessep did not follow his superior's orders to stop Code Red punishment, and Santiago died as a result.
• Kaffee's softball field plea-bargaining session with LTJG Spradling over a possession charge displays more than, as Galloway puts it, his "fast-food, slick-ass, Persian Bazaar manner" of handling cases; it shows his innate talent for reading the opposition and strategizing accordingly. Spradling storms in angry about wasted time waiting for Kaffee, and later admits he "has people to answer to", which Kaffee correctly interprets as a desire not to spend any more time on that case than absolutely necessary. His response: threaten to waste months of Spradling's time. The result is a favorable plea bargain. Galloway is slow to realize that ability in Kaffee, but has it figured out by the time she points out that Kaffee could've obtained Santiago's transfer order from any number of mundane sources, but specifically asked Jessep in order to see how Jessep reacted. Even Kaffee needs to be nudged by Galloway to completely see that ability in himself.
  • Further, Galloway and perhaps Kaffee both may have taken a lesson from Kaffee's cross-exam of Lt. Kendrick. Kaffee and Kendrick don't like each other on a personal level, and Kaffee takes advantage of that by putting on as much of his "Harvard mouth" personality as he can get away with, in order to goad Kendrick into an admission. Kaffee is more professional when examining other witnesses (Dr. Stone, Cpl. Barnes) but becomes, for lack of a better word, a complete snot toward Kendrick, and it works; Kendrick drops his cool hatred and snaps angrily at Kaffee. Kendrick is basically Jessep Junior and the whole defense team knows it; therefore they eventually come to realize that Jessep can be baited the same way.
• It's possible that Jessep is antisemitic with him singling out Weinberg during his speech...
  Jessep: Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?
  • This possibility is all but confirmed by Lt. Weinberg's actor, Kevin Pollak, in an interview done years after the fact with Rich Eisen.
    Pollak: If I had a nickel for every time a fan of that movie (asked about that)...my character has no dialogue with him, we shake hands and meet in his office in the beginning of the movie. So when we get to the courtroom, and he singles me out: 'Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?'...What? So clearly, Aaron Sorkin, the writer...wanted everyone to know that Jessep was also anti-semitic. There's NO other reason to point out Lt. Weinberg. 'Who's gonna do it? You, Tom Cruise? Are you gonna do it, the Jew?'"
• Jessep's blatant misogyny is full display during his rant about who's going to "pick up a weapon and stand a post." He asks Kaffee and Weinberg, but completely ignores Galloway, who is sitting right next to Weinberg.
  • This isn't necessarily misogyny as women were not employed in combat trades (such as infantry) until many years after the film was released.
• Jessep's first-name basis with everyone from his XO on down to the very junior enlisted "Tom" is exceedingly atypical for anyone in the military, let alone a Marine. Nobody, of course, would ever dare call him "Nathan" in reply; thus, his first-name basis is really a way to remind everyone he speaks to who's in charge, even if (in, for example, Kaffee's case) he's not directly in their chain of command.
• Kaffee's inebriated state seems like a pretty solid explanation for why he went off on his angry "typewriter maintenance" rant at Galloway, but: from his perspective, Galloway just made a total mess of the case by overlooking a very basic detail, and her bright idea to fix it is for Kaffee to gamble his own entire future while Galloway sits on the sidelines taking none of the risk herself. No wonder he was so thoroughly pissed off at her.
• Markinson is said to have been in counterintelligence for 17 years. How good is he? Not once did he ever appear in the courtroom - at least not openly - yet he knew the jury was comprised of seven men and two women (from his suicide letter to Santiago's family.)
• It is actually rather unlikely that the Cubans would ever fire on any American officer on the base, no matter what uniform the latter would wear, so the warning given to Kaffee seems to be out of place. But, on second thought, it would be totally in character for Jessep to think otherwise (and indoctrinate his subordinates correspondingly), since he is so damn sure that he is risking his life defending American freedom, so the entire scene might be a Fridge Brilliance illuminating his mindset.

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