Doesn't matter he admitted it in front of the courtroom. Case closed.

Your move... Prove he didn't.

Markinson says otherwise.

He just couldn't handle the truth

I'M not Markinson. Are YOU Markinson?

The real question is did Col Jessup order a Big Red and it was misinterpreted...

Jessup tells Kendrick "If Santiago doesn't make 4-6, 4-6 on his next report, I'm going to blame you." Markinson was there to hear those orders. And nowhere in there does Jessup use the phrase "Code Red" nor does he tell Kendrick to do anything against Marine rules. Markinson knew this. That's why he didn't want to testify. Markinson did not off himself because he was afraid to face Jessup. He did that, because if he was put on the stand, he knew he would have to testify that Jessup did NOT call for anything "Code Red". It's a subtle point that gets missed like Andy Dufrene's hammer being hidden in the biblical book of Exodus. So, there's that. But, that also makes Jessup's admission so much more powerful, because he admitted to something he was thinking even though he knows he never actually said those words.

I always agreed with Col. Jessup. Don't give me a job that you are unwilling or unable to do and then question the manner in which I do it.

It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, but he was given a job that a lot of Marines could and would do. I always thought he's really the only person who had the mentality that no one else could or would and really overvalued his position, and he used that as an excuse to turn a blind eye or encourage breaking rules. Jessep was nothing more than arrogant and entitled and not fit for the position he had. He ended up costing two good Marines their reputations and careers and another his life.

We want him on that wall. We NEED him on that all.

We didn't see it because as the audience it's way more effective to see the courtroom drama play out not knowing what actually happened until it's said….that whole scene between Cruise and Nickelson would've been way less dramatic if 5 minutes in to the film we see, "Oh yeah, code red that little squirt."

This is like saying, "Hey, we never actually saw Thanos take the power stone in Infinity War…imma come up with a theory that he obtains it by an epic game of thumb war."

If you've never listened (or watched) the Rewatchables take on A Few Good Men, you owe it to yourself to put this on while you're driving or working out or whatever. Highlights include that Tom Cruise has likely never:

1. Been drunk
2. Flirted with a human woman
3. Played softball

in his entire life, based on his scenes in this film.

I always thought that Jessup made being stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba sound like working a base in Afghanistan at the height of the Taliban or something. Wouldn't being stationed in Cuba be a pretty simple and cushy location? When they go to visit him there for the lunch there it seemed pretty nice

I think we can't assume that Jessop never actually ordered the code red because we don't see that scene ourselves. As Jokershady brings up, much of the tension in the film is created by the fact that we KNOW that Jessop is exactly the kind of person that would explicitly order a code red... BUT we haven't yet seen the damning evidence that rules out Kiefer or the marines themselves going rogue and doing the code red without Jessop's knowledge.

IMO Jessop's admission in the courtroom can be taken two different ways. It's either an explicit admission that he ordered Kiefer to carry out this code red, specifically ordering him to correct Santiago's behavior in a manner that he knows is no longer tolerated within the corps. That's the easy way to interpret the ending. Somewhere off screen there is an interaction between Jessop and Kiefer where Jessop says "beat the **** out of him until he's a good marine."

Or, his admission is him admitting that within the command culture that he fosters, code reds are an integral way of how business is done. So the repeated challenges of Cruise's character to how he runs his command gets under his skin enough that he admits to the code red in this specific instance when in reality his culpability is more about fostering an environment where code reds are encouraged. Jessop tells us pretty clearly that code reds are needed to run a disciplined base. And so with Cruise challenging a key tenet of how Jessop does business, Jessop snaps and states that he "ordered the code red" even though it's unclear if he specifically engaged Kiefer on the topic and ordered Santiago be code redded.

I tend to think that Jessop never explicitly tells Kiefer to have Santiago beaten, but rather that Jessop through his actions and words directly let all of his LTs know that code reds were still authorized and encouraged. In this case the "order" that Jessop gave was a non-verbal order when he delegated the action of taking care of the Santiago problem to Kiefer. Kiefer understood exactly what he was being told to do by his commanding officer.

Kevin Bacon's character seemed to know this, and his case rested on the fact that he believed that Jessop had the discipline to just sit on the stand and not incriminate himself. He repeatedly warns Cruise not to push Jessop, not because he doesn't think that Jessop was involved, but because he was pretty sure that Jessop did not explicitly order a code red in this situation in a way that could be proved in court with evidence.

With Markensen, even if he didn't have the proof in this case, it's likely that he could have testified that Jessop had ordered 100s of previous code reds. So I don't think his suicide has anything to do with fear of taking the stand. His suicide is 100% about his shame in not coming forward earlier (either in the movie or in his career) to take a stand against what he understood to be illegal behavior.

A Few Good Men? More like, a few good moments then it was boring. Santiago was an OK man, but he needed to be put out of his misery.

A Few Good Men is what happens when leadership loses to theater majors with subpoenas.

EllisCoAg said:

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Why did Jessup have two different orders if his orders are always followed?

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Because sometimes men take matters in their own hands.


Lost in the great Jessep speech is this unnecessary shot:

Who's going to do it, you? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?

Why did he have to go after him? Anti-semitism much?


How come no one talks about how Jo, a Commander and purportedly seasoned lawyer, is so incredibly bad? Almost all of her ideas, themes, points (and objections) are crap. She also failed to properly investigate and prepare her only witness.

DEI?

HtownAg92 said:

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How come no one talks about how Jo, a Commander and purportedly seasoned lawyer, is so incredibly bad? Almost all of her ideas, themes, points (and objections) are crap. She also failed to properly investigate and prepare her only witness.

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You didn't love this strategy?

Quote:

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You put him on the stand, and you get it from him.

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You see, Texags, I can deal with the thumbs downs, and the angry faces, and the quote replies. I don't want blue stars, I don't want diamond emojis. What I do want is for you to sit there in your f*ggy white yell leader uniform and with your maroon keyboard extend me some ****ing courtesy. You gotta ask me nicely.