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A Few Good Men
This Broadway hit about the trial of two Marines for complicity in the death of a fellow Marine at Guantanamo Bay sizzles on stage. The Navy lawyer, a callow young man more interested in softball games than the case, expects a plea bargain and a cover up of what really happened. Prodded by a female member of his defense team, the lawyer eventually makes a valiant effort to defend his clients and, in so doing, puts the military mentality and the Marine code of honor on trial.
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1990
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About the author
Aaron Sorkin
23 books269 followersAaron Benjamin Sorkin is an American screenwriter, producer and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night and The Farnsworth Invention.
After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre in 1983, Sorkin spent much of the 1980s in New York as a struggling, largely unemployed actor. He found his passion in writing plays, and quickly established himself as a young promising playwright. His stageplay A Few Good Men caught the attention of Hollywood producer David Brown, who bought the film rights before the play even premiered.
Castle Rock Entertainment hired Sorkin to adapt A Few Good Men for the big screen. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, became a box office success. Sorkin spent the early 1990s writing two other screenplays at Castle Rock for the films Malice and The American President. In the mid-1990s he worked as a script doctor on films such as Schindler's List and Bulworth. In 1998 his television career began when he created the comedy series Sports Night for the ABC network. Sports Night's second season was its last, and in 1999 overlapped with the debut of Sorkin's next TV series, the political drama The West Wing, this time for the NBC network. The West Wing won multiple Emmy Awards, and continued for three more seasons after he left the show at the end of its fourth season in 2003. He returned to television in 2006 with the dramedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about the backstage drama at a late night sketch comedy show, once again for the NBC network. While Sorkin's return was met with high expectations and a lot of early online buzz before Studio 60's premiere, NBC did not renew it after its first season in which it suffered from low ratings and mixed reception in the press and on the Internet. His most recent feature film screenplay is Charlie Wilson's War.
After more than a decade away from the theatre, Sorkin returned to adapt for the stage his screenplay The Farnsworth Invention, which started a workshop run at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2007 and which opened on Broadway in December 2007.
He battled with a cocaine addiction for many years, but after a highly publicized arrest he received treatment in a drug diversion program and rid himself of drug dependence. In television, Sorkin is known as a controlling writer, who rarely shares the job of penning teleplays with other writers. His writing staff are more likely to do research and come up with stories for him to tell. His trademark rapid-fire dialogue and extended monologues are complemented, in television, by frequent collaborator Thomas Schlamme's characteristic visual technique called the "Walk and Talk".
After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre in 1983, Sorkin spent much of the 1980s in New York as a struggling, largely unemployed actor. He found his passion in writing plays, and quickly established himself as a young promising playwright. His stageplay A Few Good Men caught the attention of Hollywood producer David Brown, who bought the film rights before the play even premiered.
Castle Rock Entertainment hired Sorkin to adapt A Few Good Men for the big screen. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, became a box office success. Sorkin spent the early 1990s writing two other screenplays at Castle Rock for the films Malice and The American President. In the mid-1990s he worked as a script doctor on films such as Schindler's List and Bulworth. In 1998 his television career began when he created the comedy series Sports Night for the ABC network. Sports Night's second season was its last, and in 1999 overlapped with the debut of Sorkin's next TV series, the political drama The West Wing, this time for the NBC network. The West Wing won multiple Emmy Awards, and continued for three more seasons after he left the show at the end of its fourth season in 2003. He returned to television in 2006 with the dramedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about the backstage drama at a late night sketch comedy show, once again for the NBC network. While Sorkin's return was met with high expectations and a lot of early online buzz before Studio 60's premiere, NBC did not renew it after its first season in which it suffered from low ratings and mixed reception in the press and on the Internet. His most recent feature film screenplay is Charlie Wilson's War.
After more than a decade away from the theatre, Sorkin returned to adapt for the stage his screenplay The Farnsworth Invention, which started a workshop run at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2007 and which opened on Broadway in December 2007.
He battled with a cocaine addiction for many years, but after a highly publicized arrest he received treatment in a drug diversion program and rid himself of drug dependence. In television, Sorkin is known as a controlling writer, who rarely shares the job of penning teleplays with other writers. His writing staff are more likely to do research and come up with stories for him to tell. His trademark rapid-fire dialogue and extended monologues are complemented, in television, by frequent collaborator Thomas Schlamme's characteristic visual technique called the "Walk and Talk".
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November 20, 2023
Few people have read or watched Aaron Sorkin’s original 1990 play A Few Good Men; millions have watched and enjoyed the big-budget film adapted from the play by director Rob Reiner in 1992. That discrepancy, I suppose, is understandable. More people go to movie theatres than to live-performance plays. And Reiner’s film was a big film. Its cast includes Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, James Marshall, J.T. Walsh, Christopher Guest, Noah Wyle, and Cuba Gooding Jr. – an all-star lineup if ever there was one. The film made more than $240 million at the box office, and received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Yet the play offers its own thoughtful reflections on issues of justice and power in American life generally, and in the United States military specifically. And even devout fans of the movie, who may believe that they know all that there is to know about A Few Good Men, may be in for some surprises.
Aaron Sorkin got his start as a playwright, but his work moved so quickly from live theatre to the world of television and cinema that it is understandable if some readers may not know his work as a playwright. In television, he is known as the screenwriter who created The West Wing (1999-2006) and The Newsroom (2012-14). In cinema, he has written screenplays for films like The American President (1995), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), and The Social Network (2010); and he has recently moved into directing, with movies like The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).
The alert reader will already have noticed that many of the works listed above have political settings and/or themes; and indeed, Sorkin has been fearless in using his work to set forth his liberal social and political convictions. Both the President Shepherd of The American President and the President Bartlet of The West Wing, as played by Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen respectively, are eloquent and politically savvy spokesmen for progressive causes – like Bill Clinton without the messy personal life. And the “America is not the greatest country in the world anymore” monologue, delivered by Jeff Daniels as news anchor Will McAvoy in The Newsroom, offers a forceful riposte to Fox News-style American nationalist boosterism, and continues to be one of the most viewed videos in the history of YouTube.
So: we all know how Sorkin feels about American politics. For my part, I hold center-left political beliefs of the Washington Post type, and I tend to sympathize with Sorkin’s views more often than not. Your mileage may vary.
All of which leads us to A Few Good Men. The original play, like the well-known film adaptation of the play, brings up issues of military justice within a Washington, D.C., setting. At the center of the story is the trial of two U.S. Marine Corps enlisted men – Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey – who have been charged with murder in connection with the death of a fellow Marine, Private Willie Santiago, at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba (in a scenario loosely based on a real-life incident). Dawson and Downey, it turns out, assaulted Santiago, putting a sock in his mouth, and Santiago died.
A young U.S. Navy lawyer, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee – who takes a fairly casual approach to his work as a defense attorney, and stays out of the courtroom by working out time-saving deals with prosecutors – is assigned to the case. It takes Kaffee a surprisingly long time to wonder why an inexperienced lawyer with a reputation for seeking plea bargains has been assigned to such an important murder case – in spite of the questions that are regularly raised by Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway, an idealistic and committed young officer who has been assigned as co-counsel.
The reason, as it turns out, has to do with Guantanamo Bay’s hard-nosed Marine commander, Colonel Nathan Jessep. Private Santiago, we learn, wanted a transfer off Guantanamo, and Colonel Jessep – contrary to what Navy investigators have been told -- intended to keep Santiago on the base, and to mold him into the kind of Marine that an officer like Jessep expects. Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick, Santiago’s immediate commanding officer, shared Jessep’s beliefs and colluded with him in the scheme to “train” Santiago. The measures of which Jessep approved, toward that end, included what is known as a “Code Red” – an unofficial punishment administered by Marine enlisted personnel to correct the behavior of a Marine who is thought to have violated the USMC code of “Unit, Corps, God, Country.” Dawson and Downey carried out the “Code Red,” and Santiago died.
The film takes its time revealing the depth of Colonel Jessep’s involvement in the “Code Red” incident that resulted in Private Santiago’s death; Sorkin’s play, by contrast, is more direct. When Jessep’s second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson, disagrees with the decision to keep Private Santiago at Guantanamo, Jessep states that “I’m trying to think about how I’d feel if some Marine got hurt or killed because a Pfc. in my command didn’t know [what] the fuck he was doing. And I’m trying to think about how the other members of his unit might feel, putting their lives in the hands of a man they can’t count on.”
When Markinson reiterates his belief that Santiago needs to be transferred off base, the Jessep of the play, like the Jessep of the film, says, “We’re in the business of saving lives, Matthew.” In the play, however, Jessep is given time and space to set forth his view of an officer’s duty: “With every degree that we allow ourselves to move off the mark of perfection as officers, more people die – that’s a responsibility that I take pretty seriously. 'Cause I absolutely believe that simply taking a Marine who’s not yet up to the job and packing him off to another assignment is the same as sending a kid into the jungle with a weapon that backfires.” Sorkin seems to be taking pains to acknowledge what might be seemingly logical in a viewpoint like Jessep’s; he doesn’t want the antagonist of his play to be a straw man.
The more reasonable-sounding Jessep of the play even expresses regret at the situation in which Dawson and Downey find themselves, stating that “I hate casualties….A Marine smothers a grenade and saves his platoon, that Marine’s doing his job. There are casualties. Even in victory. (Stands.) The fabric of this base, the foundation of the unit, the spirit of the Corps, these things are worth fighting for. And there’s no one who doesn’t know that who’s ever made the choice to put on the uniform. I hate casualties. (Pause.) Dawson and Downey, they’re smothering a grenade.”
Yet Jessep’s noble-sounding words about service and sacrifice do nothing to change the fact that Dawson and Downey face life imprisonment for an illegal act that Jessep ordered.
In the play, even more than in the film, much of the murder trial for Dawson and Downey centers around the question of when the first available flight from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, would have taken place on the night of Santiago’s death. This flight, Jessep has falsely claimed, was to bring Santiago back from Guantanamo to the U.S. mainland. Andrews logbooks, stolen by Markinson and sent to the defense team, show that Jessep was lying when he said there was no prior flight off the base.
These logbooks become very important in the play’s climax, when Kaffee accuses Jessep of doctoring the logbooks, showing that the tower chief’s log for Guantanamo Bay shows that “between oh-six-hundred on Thursday the 7th and oh-two-hundred on Friday the 8th, no passenger-capable flights left the base”, while the tower chief’s log for Andrews Air Force Base for the same evening (the one stolen by Markinson and forwarded to the defense team) shows that “at 9:26 p.m., 21:26, an AF-40 transport landed at Andrews with 94 empty seats, having taken off at two minutes past six p.m.” from Guantanamo Bay (Sorkin 118-119). In the film, by contrast, it is only the interaction between Kaffee and Jessep that causes Jessep to reveal the truth.
Fans of the film generally love this scene. Jessep gives his interpretation of the Marine’s duty: “We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple.” Kaffee then points out the central contradiction in Jessep’s testimony: “If you gave an order that Santiago wasn’t to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Santiago be in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base?” Jessep is caught in a Catch-22.
The dialogue that follows is the movie’s best-known:
JESSEP: You want answers?
KAFFEE: I think I’m entitled --
JESSEP: You want answers?
KAFFEE: I want the truth!
JESSEP: You can’t handle the truth!
Indeed, the moment is so memorable in cinematic terms, and Nicholson’s delivery of that last line is so forceful, that the movie suddenly, and almost irretrievably, turns against its own narrative and moral arc. It’s just so cool to look on as Jack Nicholson shouts “You can’t handle the truth!” that it’s easy for the audience to go right along with him. Perhaps it’s for that reason that if the Washington Commanders unexpectedly upset the New York Giants on some NFL Sunday, chances are that a Commanders fan will tell his Giants-fan friend, “Dude! The Commanders are a better team now! It’s the truth! And you can’t handle the truth!” Or some panelist on Morning Joe will say unflattering things about Donald Trump and will add, “Hey! Trump supporters! You can’t handle the truth!” The line has taken on a life of its own.
I don’t think that’s what author Sorkin wanted. In the play, Kaffee is in effect given an equal-time opportunity to refute Jessep’s “You can’t handle the truth!” line, and turns the Colonel’s own words against him:
You know that Kendrick ordered the Code Red on Santiago. Because that’s what you told Kendrick to do. And Kendrick follows orders. Or people die, isn’t that right, Colonel? You ordered the Code Red, and when it went bad you cut these guys loose. You had Markinson sign a phony transfer order so it’d look like you tried to move Santiago, you forged the log book so it’d look like the oh-two-hundred was the first flight out, and you told the doctor to say it was poison so it wouldn’t look like a Code Red. You trashed the law. But 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’s gonna stand in your way of doing it. Not Willy Santiago, not Dawson and Downey, not a thousand armies, not the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and not the Constitution of the United States. That’s the truth, isn’t it, Colonel? I can handle it. (Sorkin 119-20)
Considering the time and opportunity Jessep has had to set forth his credo and get thinking that he was right to order the Code Red, it is unsurprising that he admits such in open court: “I did my job. I’d do it again….I ordered the Code Red” (Sorkin 120). Jessep’s fall from power follows swiftly; and the idea that the American system, for all its imperfections, does offer the possibility for course correction by people of good will – a frequent theme in Sorkin’s work – is reinforced.
As a Washington, D.C., native, I appreciated the way in which A Few Good Men focused on the Washington Navy Yard – an oft-overlooked but vitally important part of D.C. life, and much more than a stop on the Metro subway’s Green Line. The play A Few Good Men is not going to cause the movie’s many fans to forget the movie, but the play has its own power and its own virtues. See the play live sometime, and watch for the scene when an enraged Jessep lunges at Kaffee, shouting out a particularly explicit and grotesque threat of violence. When you’re right there in the room with the actors, and you don’t have the safe distancing effect that comes with seeing movie stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson doing the work for which they are so well-known, the moment can be quite intense.
Aaron Sorkin got his start as a playwright, but his work moved so quickly from live theatre to the world of television and cinema that it is understandable if some readers may not know his work as a playwright. In television, he is known as the screenwriter who created The West Wing (1999-2006) and The Newsroom (2012-14). In cinema, he has written screenplays for films like The American President (1995), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), and The Social Network (2010); and he has recently moved into directing, with movies like The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).
The alert reader will already have noticed that many of the works listed above have political settings and/or themes; and indeed, Sorkin has been fearless in using his work to set forth his liberal social and political convictions. Both the President Shepherd of The American President and the President Bartlet of The West Wing, as played by Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen respectively, are eloquent and politically savvy spokesmen for progressive causes – like Bill Clinton without the messy personal life. And the “America is not the greatest country in the world anymore” monologue, delivered by Jeff Daniels as news anchor Will McAvoy in The Newsroom, offers a forceful riposte to Fox News-style American nationalist boosterism, and continues to be one of the most viewed videos in the history of YouTube.
So: we all know how Sorkin feels about American politics. For my part, I hold center-left political beliefs of the Washington Post type, and I tend to sympathize with Sorkin’s views more often than not. Your mileage may vary.
All of which leads us to A Few Good Men. The original play, like the well-known film adaptation of the play, brings up issues of military justice within a Washington, D.C., setting. At the center of the story is the trial of two U.S. Marine Corps enlisted men – Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey – who have been charged with murder in connection with the death of a fellow Marine, Private Willie Santiago, at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba (in a scenario loosely based on a real-life incident). Dawson and Downey, it turns out, assaulted Santiago, putting a sock in his mouth, and Santiago died.
A young U.S. Navy lawyer, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee – who takes a fairly casual approach to his work as a defense attorney, and stays out of the courtroom by working out time-saving deals with prosecutors – is assigned to the case. It takes Kaffee a surprisingly long time to wonder why an inexperienced lawyer with a reputation for seeking plea bargains has been assigned to such an important murder case – in spite of the questions that are regularly raised by Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway, an idealistic and committed young officer who has been assigned as co-counsel.
The reason, as it turns out, has to do with Guantanamo Bay’s hard-nosed Marine commander, Colonel Nathan Jessep. Private Santiago, we learn, wanted a transfer off Guantanamo, and Colonel Jessep – contrary to what Navy investigators have been told -- intended to keep Santiago on the base, and to mold him into the kind of Marine that an officer like Jessep expects. Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick, Santiago’s immediate commanding officer, shared Jessep’s beliefs and colluded with him in the scheme to “train” Santiago. The measures of which Jessep approved, toward that end, included what is known as a “Code Red” – an unofficial punishment administered by Marine enlisted personnel to correct the behavior of a Marine who is thought to have violated the USMC code of “Unit, Corps, God, Country.” Dawson and Downey carried out the “Code Red,” and Santiago died.
The film takes its time revealing the depth of Colonel Jessep’s involvement in the “Code Red” incident that resulted in Private Santiago’s death; Sorkin’s play, by contrast, is more direct. When Jessep’s second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson, disagrees with the decision to keep Private Santiago at Guantanamo, Jessep states that “I’m trying to think about how I’d feel if some Marine got hurt or killed because a Pfc. in my command didn’t know [what] the fuck he was doing. And I’m trying to think about how the other members of his unit might feel, putting their lives in the hands of a man they can’t count on.”
When Markinson reiterates his belief that Santiago needs to be transferred off base, the Jessep of the play, like the Jessep of the film, says, “We’re in the business of saving lives, Matthew.” In the play, however, Jessep is given time and space to set forth his view of an officer’s duty: “With every degree that we allow ourselves to move off the mark of perfection as officers, more people die – that’s a responsibility that I take pretty seriously. 'Cause I absolutely believe that simply taking a Marine who’s not yet up to the job and packing him off to another assignment is the same as sending a kid into the jungle with a weapon that backfires.” Sorkin seems to be taking pains to acknowledge what might be seemingly logical in a viewpoint like Jessep’s; he doesn’t want the antagonist of his play to be a straw man.
The more reasonable-sounding Jessep of the play even expresses regret at the situation in which Dawson and Downey find themselves, stating that “I hate casualties….A Marine smothers a grenade and saves his platoon, that Marine’s doing his job. There are casualties. Even in victory. (Stands.) The fabric of this base, the foundation of the unit, the spirit of the Corps, these things are worth fighting for. And there’s no one who doesn’t know that who’s ever made the choice to put on the uniform. I hate casualties. (Pause.) Dawson and Downey, they’re smothering a grenade.”
Yet Jessep’s noble-sounding words about service and sacrifice do nothing to change the fact that Dawson and Downey face life imprisonment for an illegal act that Jessep ordered.
In the play, even more than in the film, much of the murder trial for Dawson and Downey centers around the question of when the first available flight from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, would have taken place on the night of Santiago’s death. This flight, Jessep has falsely claimed, was to bring Santiago back from Guantanamo to the U.S. mainland. Andrews logbooks, stolen by Markinson and sent to the defense team, show that Jessep was lying when he said there was no prior flight off the base.
These logbooks become very important in the play’s climax, when Kaffee accuses Jessep of doctoring the logbooks, showing that the tower chief’s log for Guantanamo Bay shows that “between oh-six-hundred on Thursday the 7th and oh-two-hundred on Friday the 8th, no passenger-capable flights left the base”, while the tower chief’s log for Andrews Air Force Base for the same evening (the one stolen by Markinson and forwarded to the defense team) shows that “at 9:26 p.m., 21:26, an AF-40 transport landed at Andrews with 94 empty seats, having taken off at two minutes past six p.m.” from Guantanamo Bay (Sorkin 118-119). In the film, by contrast, it is only the interaction between Kaffee and Jessep that causes Jessep to reveal the truth.
Fans of the film generally love this scene. Jessep gives his interpretation of the Marine’s duty: “We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple.” Kaffee then points out the central contradiction in Jessep’s testimony: “If you gave an order that Santiago wasn’t to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Santiago be in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base?” Jessep is caught in a Catch-22.
The dialogue that follows is the movie’s best-known:
JESSEP: You want answers?
KAFFEE: I think I’m entitled --
JESSEP: You want answers?
KAFFEE: I want the truth!
JESSEP: You can’t handle the truth!
Indeed, the moment is so memorable in cinematic terms, and Nicholson’s delivery of that last line is so forceful, that the movie suddenly, and almost irretrievably, turns against its own narrative and moral arc. It’s just so cool to look on as Jack Nicholson shouts “You can’t handle the truth!” that it’s easy for the audience to go right along with him. Perhaps it’s for that reason that if the Washington Commanders unexpectedly upset the New York Giants on some NFL Sunday, chances are that a Commanders fan will tell his Giants-fan friend, “Dude! The Commanders are a better team now! It’s the truth! And you can’t handle the truth!” Or some panelist on Morning Joe will say unflattering things about Donald Trump and will add, “Hey! Trump supporters! You can’t handle the truth!” The line has taken on a life of its own.
I don’t think that’s what author Sorkin wanted. In the play, Kaffee is in effect given an equal-time opportunity to refute Jessep’s “You can’t handle the truth!” line, and turns the Colonel’s own words against him:
You know that Kendrick ordered the Code Red on Santiago. Because that’s what you told Kendrick to do. And Kendrick follows orders. Or people die, isn’t that right, Colonel? You ordered the Code Red, and when it went bad you cut these guys loose. You had Markinson sign a phony transfer order so it’d look like you tried to move Santiago, you forged the log book so it’d look like the oh-two-hundred was the first flight out, and you told the doctor to say it was poison so it wouldn’t look like a Code Red. You trashed the law. But 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’s gonna stand in your way of doing it. Not Willy Santiago, not Dawson and Downey, not a thousand armies, not the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and not the Constitution of the United States. That’s the truth, isn’t it, Colonel? I can handle it. (Sorkin 119-20)
Considering the time and opportunity Jessep has had to set forth his credo and get thinking that he was right to order the Code Red, it is unsurprising that he admits such in open court: “I did my job. I’d do it again….I ordered the Code Red” (Sorkin 120). Jessep’s fall from power follows swiftly; and the idea that the American system, for all its imperfections, does offer the possibility for course correction by people of good will – a frequent theme in Sorkin’s work – is reinforced.
As a Washington, D.C., native, I appreciated the way in which A Few Good Men focused on the Washington Navy Yard – an oft-overlooked but vitally important part of D.C. life, and much more than a stop on the Metro subway’s Green Line. The play A Few Good Men is not going to cause the movie’s many fans to forget the movie, but the play has its own power and its own virtues. See the play live sometime, and watch for the scene when an enraged Jessep lunges at Kaffee, shouting out a particularly explicit and grotesque threat of violence. When you’re right there in the room with the actors, and you don’t have the safe distancing effect that comes with seeing movie stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson doing the work for which they are so well-known, the moment can be quite intense.
December 25, 2015
Aaron Sorkin is a phenomenal writer, but as with any human being, he has his limitations. This has become regrettably clear of late with The Newsroom: a show that spent much of its runtime brushing uncomfortably against those personal boundaries. His treatment of his women characters was troubling in a seemingly oblivious, unconscious way. Meanwhile, the "here's how it should be" moral high ground that worked so wonderfully in The West Wing felt progressively preachier the further it stepped from the Oval Office.
The Sorkinesque hallmarks that felt out of place in that show are far more at home in A Few Good Men, the 1986 play that showed just how devastatingly sharp a storyteller he can be, for good and ill, within his narrative comfort zone: a high-stakes, male-dominated field full of moral conviction.
Within the military court martial setting, talk of honour and duty feel 100% sincere. Potential melodrama gives way to straight-up drama. It becomes far easier to imagine these hyper-functioning, almost presciently-witted characters existing beyond the page. And the humour - of which there is a lot - positively sparkles in a world designed for no-nonsense ceremony.
I have not seen this on stage, nor the film adaptation. I didn't envision any of these characters as Tom Cruise. Heck, until it came up, I had no idea "you can't handle the truth" came from this script. As a pure piece of writing, this is a real accomplishment: admirably focussed, tremendously funny, and surprisingly inventive in its sparse, cleverly-chronology-hopping stage direction.
This stands proudly alongside The West Wing as an example of why Aaron Sorkin is so beloved when he gets it right - and why critics hold him to a higher standard when he gets it wrong.
The Sorkinesque hallmarks that felt out of place in that show are far more at home in A Few Good Men, the 1986 play that showed just how devastatingly sharp a storyteller he can be, for good and ill, within his narrative comfort zone: a high-stakes, male-dominated field full of moral conviction.
Within the military court martial setting, talk of honour and duty feel 100% sincere. Potential melodrama gives way to straight-up drama. It becomes far easier to imagine these hyper-functioning, almost presciently-witted characters existing beyond the page. And the humour - of which there is a lot - positively sparkles in a world designed for no-nonsense ceremony.
I have not seen this on stage, nor the film adaptation. I didn't envision any of these characters as Tom Cruise. Heck, until it came up, I had no idea "you can't handle the truth" came from this script. As a pure piece of writing, this is a real accomplishment: admirably focussed, tremendously funny, and surprisingly inventive in its sparse, cleverly-chronology-hopping stage direction.
This stands proudly alongside The West Wing as an example of why Aaron Sorkin is so beloved when he gets it right - and why critics hold him to a higher standard when he gets it wrong.
November 12, 2019
I've been trying to find a new hobby. Something that could not only fill my time, but that I could also maybe find just a little passion for. Learning an instrument? Maybe. Learning basic coding skills? Perhaps. Then I was sitting in the audience of To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway and it hit me: I should try acting! I remember hearing the term "community theater," and lo and behold a quick Google search revealed that Southington has a community theater! What's more? They were holding open auditions the very next day. Sure, I've never come close to a stage and I've neither read nor seen A Few Good Men, but why not give it a shot?
I am Sam Weinburg. [Insert "shocked" emoji]
On the actual book: Not sure why people like it so much; I really don't think it's very good. We'll see if that changes as I read it over and over and over for the next two months.
The performance was a smashing success (you know, for community theater). I still don't like the actual play any more than I did, though.
I am Sam Weinburg. [Insert "shocked" emoji]
On the actual book: Not sure why people like it so much; I really don't think it's very good. We'll see if that changes as I read it over and over and over for the next two months.
The performance was a smashing success (you know, for community theater). I still don't like the actual play any more than I did, though.
January 12, 2010
It's a lot of fun to go back and see the source material for some of my favorite movies. This play would go on to become the Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson movie and to launch Aaron Sorkin's career.
Some of the best Sorkin-style dialog started here, and it's a joy to imagine the intricate staging described in the play. However, the plot, characters and dialog were all tightened up for the movie, and it is simply better.
Still, for this fan, reading this was almost like seeing an alternate "director's cut" for a movie I love. I had a ball.
Some of the best Sorkin-style dialog started here, and it's a joy to imagine the intricate staging described in the play. However, the plot, characters and dialog were all tightened up for the movie, and it is simply better.
Still, for this fan, reading this was almost like seeing an alternate "director's cut" for a movie I love. I had a ball.
April 27, 2025
An excellent play, that asks important questions. Good for discussion, or to ponder on your own.
I liked the last scene of the movie better, more closure, but twas still good.
The humor was wonderfully done! I found myself chuckling or grinning every few pages. Fantastic.
Well written for a script, though seeing the movie or watching the actual play would bring it to life where the description-less pages cannot.
CW: Foul language
Cursing
Misusing Jesus' name
Suicide
I liked the last scene of the movie better, more closure, but twas still good.
The humor was wonderfully done! I found myself chuckling or grinning every few pages. Fantastic.
Well written for a script, though seeing the movie or watching the actual play would bring it to life where the description-less pages cannot.
CW: Foul language
Cursing
Misusing Jesus' name
Suicide
March 27, 2024
Punchy. Just as good as the film - Kaffee is so witty I love it. And Jessep he’s ridiculously well-crafted.
March 7, 2025
Play and the movie both *chef’s kiss*
January 23, 2016
The first read through took me a while, probably because I was memorizing parts as I went instead of reading straight through first. It many scenes it is essentially identical to the movie. There are a few scenes where there are some additions...and probably some subtractions but those were less noticeable.
I enjoyed that there isn't really a break between scenes and that they seamlessly flow from one into the next as the lights rise and fall on different parts of the stage.
I enjoyed that there isn't really a break between scenes and that they seamlessly flow from one into the next as the lights rise and fall on different parts of the stage.
May 26, 2015
Such a well-crafted play that the movie pretty much is the play, just in real locations.
July 8, 2022
"YOU WANT ANSWERS??"
"I want the truth!"
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!”
I was going to watch the movie, then looked up the play it was based on and decided to read that first.
"I want the truth!"
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!”
I was going to watch the movie, then looked up the play it was based on and decided to read that first.
February 21, 2023
So much dialog. I'm reading screenplays right now, and Sorkin is so dialog-heavy, it's very strange after reading a number of more typical scripts
Interesting to do this reading. Impossible to record 90% of it on Goodreads.
Interesting to do this reading. Impossible to record 90% of it on Goodreads.
May 18, 2017
Not quiiiite 4 stars but like.... so close. 3.75.
August 4, 2025
This is the original play upon which the movie is based. There are not a lot of changes between the play and the film. It is an absolute masterpiece. The wording of the most memorable lines is here.
November 5, 2025
Absolutely brilliant. End of.
Would I recommend this stageplay? Sir, yes sir!!!!
Would I recommend this stageplay? Sir, yes sir!!!!
January 1, 2021
SECOND READ, December 2020
"No, wait, I forgot, you were sick the day they taught law at law school" remains one of my favorite lines ever written.
FIRST READ, May 2018
Let me preface this review by saying that Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite screenwriters of all time. The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows, and Molly's Game is one of my favorite movies. So it only makes sense that A Few Good Men would be one of my favorite plays. I've never seen the Broadway show (although I do plan on watching the movie), but I could just picture the characters talking in my head, just as if I were watching it. There were a lot of names and a lot of military jargon, and it was a bit confusing because Danny and Sam are also two characters in The West Wing, but I really loved this play. It's a quick and easy read, but I really tried to slow down and read it at my own pace. There's the same Sorkin humor that we've come to expect from The West Wing ("No, wait, I forgot, you were sick the day they taught law at law school.", A Few Good Men, pg. 92) and I sort of imagined the characters walking and talking in my head. I loved the depth to the main character, Lt. Danny Kaffee, who is the attorney assigned to take on the two Marines' case. He's a smart, young lawyer, but it seems that he's kind of done everything to be doing it or because his famous, now-dead father wanted him to. He's not really engaged and doesn't apply himself. As much as this work is a discussion about the military code of honor and ethics, it is also a portrait of a young man who appears successful but goes through a range of conflicting emotions as he struggles to find what he values throughout this trial. And it does it all with dialogue, no soliloquy monologues (although there are monologues, because what would an Aaron Sorkin show be without an angry and self-righteous monologue by a young man?!), and without heavy-handedly discussing the issue. There are so many layers to this play, from the idea of what makes a few good men to what makes a good lawyer to what makes a good human being. The best thing is that it's short enough to read and re-read and analyze over and over again!
The one thing I was really sad about was Sorkin's lack of discussion about the role of Jo Galloway, the female JAG officer and only female character in the entire play. Galloway is tenacious and smart, and pushes Danny Kaffee (the main character) to be his best. She says she is happy to sit to the side and let him take the lead in this case, but when he stops doing his job properly, she's not afraid to step in and assert her rank (she is a Lt. Commander while Kaffee is a Lt. Junior Grade). But there's very little discussion of what this means in the context of the Marine Corps, a highly male-dominated environment (exemplified by the fact that she is the only female character in the entire play) and which was probably even more so in the 1990s, when this play was written.
"No, wait, I forgot, you were sick the day they taught law at law school" remains one of my favorite lines ever written.
FIRST READ, May 2018
Let me preface this review by saying that Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite screenwriters of all time. The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows, and Molly's Game is one of my favorite movies. So it only makes sense that A Few Good Men would be one of my favorite plays. I've never seen the Broadway show (although I do plan on watching the movie), but I could just picture the characters talking in my head, just as if I were watching it. There were a lot of names and a lot of military jargon, and it was a bit confusing because Danny and Sam are also two characters in The West Wing, but I really loved this play. It's a quick and easy read, but I really tried to slow down and read it at my own pace. There's the same Sorkin humor that we've come to expect from The West Wing ("No, wait, I forgot, you were sick the day they taught law at law school.", A Few Good Men, pg. 92) and I sort of imagined the characters walking and talking in my head. I loved the depth to the main character, Lt. Danny Kaffee, who is the attorney assigned to take on the two Marines' case. He's a smart, young lawyer, but it seems that he's kind of done everything to be doing it or because his famous, now-dead father wanted him to. He's not really engaged and doesn't apply himself. As much as this work is a discussion about the military code of honor and ethics, it is also a portrait of a young man who appears successful but goes through a range of conflicting emotions as he struggles to find what he values throughout this trial. And it does it all with dialogue, no soliloquy monologues (although there are monologues, because what would an Aaron Sorkin show be without an angry and self-righteous monologue by a young man?!), and without heavy-handedly discussing the issue. There are so many layers to this play, from the idea of what makes a few good men to what makes a good lawyer to what makes a good human being. The best thing is that it's short enough to read and re-read and analyze over and over again!
The one thing I was really sad about was Sorkin's lack of discussion about the role of Jo Galloway, the female JAG officer and only female character in the entire play. Galloway is tenacious and smart, and pushes Danny Kaffee (the main character) to be his best. She says she is happy to sit to the side and let him take the lead in this case, but when he stops doing his job properly, she's not afraid to step in and assert her rank (she is a Lt. Commander while Kaffee is a Lt. Junior Grade). But there's very little discussion of what this means in the context of the Marine Corps, a highly male-dominated environment (exemplified by the fact that she is the only female character in the entire play) and which was probably even more so in the 1990s, when this play was written.
December 26, 2018
An interesting and well written, if not at times predictable and melodramatic, courtroom drama about the US military and (real talk) toxic masculinity. Would LOVE to see a performance of this.
December 17, 2025
A Few Good Men directed by the late, regretted Rob Reiner, written by Aaron Sorkin, with Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and other wonderful thespians – one reason why I write this is because Rob Reiner and his wife were killed yesterday, they don’t know if their son did it, albeit there are rumors that he did - the film was the 1993 Nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture, and Rob Reiner was one of the producers too, Jack Nicholson was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – he won three, but not for this role – now for my invitation: you have more than six thousand notes on features from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, along with more than five thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
8 out of 10
I was not ecstatic when I saw A Few Good Men, but this is one of the movies directed by Rob Reiner, who was killed yesterday, and since I have already posted a note on his master work When Harry Met Sally https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I took A Few Good Men to analyze
Before I get to the ‘critique’ of the motion picture, let me just say that the death of this wonderful, talented men caused the Orange Demon to show his disgusting nature again, the leader of the (once) free world attacked the dead artist, saying he was ‘deranged, suffered from Trump derangement disease, and this is why he died’
- This is as abject as one can get
Although, this monster will surely do other abominable things today, tomorrow – colonel Nathan Jessep aka Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men is an angel, when compared with this pathetic, loathsome creep, one would should not be allowed in any position, except maybe sweeping the streets, and yet he is on top of the world
- This in fact shows us where the world is
Anyway, A Few Good Men is best known for the line ‘you can’t handle the truth’ and the speech shouted by Jack Nicholson, as the cruel, murderous Colonel Jessep, who also says ‘you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall’, with the conviction that is he defends America, he can do anything and get praise, not punishment
Jack Nicholson used to be my absolute favorite – though we have had somebody just as good locally, George Constantin was not known outside of the realm, but was on the same level – until he started doing lesser work, Bucket List for instance https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
The rest of the cast is excellent, Tom Cruise needs no comments, but facetious as I am, I will say that despite the obvious talent, his involvement in the Scientology gig makes him persona non grata to me – I did not watch the last Mission Impossibles, even if they had good chronicles, he has a negative aura with that scam
Demi Moore has a had a few excellent performances, perhaps none better than in Ghost https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... though some would add her recent leading role in The Substance, the horror feature that has been so well received, but it gets gruesome
Finally, Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, he may be best known for The Social Network, but Charlie Wilson’s War https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is a fantastic motion picture
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
8 out of 10
I was not ecstatic when I saw A Few Good Men, but this is one of the movies directed by Rob Reiner, who was killed yesterday, and since I have already posted a note on his master work When Harry Met Sally https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I took A Few Good Men to analyze
Before I get to the ‘critique’ of the motion picture, let me just say that the death of this wonderful, talented men caused the Orange Demon to show his disgusting nature again, the leader of the (once) free world attacked the dead artist, saying he was ‘deranged, suffered from Trump derangement disease, and this is why he died’
- This is as abject as one can get
Although, this monster will surely do other abominable things today, tomorrow – colonel Nathan Jessep aka Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men is an angel, when compared with this pathetic, loathsome creep, one would should not be allowed in any position, except maybe sweeping the streets, and yet he is on top of the world
- This in fact shows us where the world is
Anyway, A Few Good Men is best known for the line ‘you can’t handle the truth’ and the speech shouted by Jack Nicholson, as the cruel, murderous Colonel Jessep, who also says ‘you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall’, with the conviction that is he defends America, he can do anything and get praise, not punishment
Jack Nicholson used to be my absolute favorite – though we have had somebody just as good locally, George Constantin was not known outside of the realm, but was on the same level – until he started doing lesser work, Bucket List for instance https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
The rest of the cast is excellent, Tom Cruise needs no comments, but facetious as I am, I will say that despite the obvious talent, his involvement in the Scientology gig makes him persona non grata to me – I did not watch the last Mission Impossibles, even if they had good chronicles, he has a negative aura with that scam
Demi Moore has a had a few excellent performances, perhaps none better than in Ghost https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... though some would add her recent leading role in The Substance, the horror feature that has been so well received, but it gets gruesome
Finally, Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, he may be best known for The Social Network, but Charlie Wilson’s War https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is a fantastic motion picture
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
August 23, 2009
If you've seen the film then you've more or less experienced the play, though the famous "You can't handle the truth" comes off as less embellished in this version, but perhaps that's due to the lack of Jack Nicholson. Featuring Sorkin's now well known and equally respected rat-a-tat dialogue, it's an interesting book to look back on considering this is what brought him to such prominence. Even at the beginning of his career, he demonstrates an ability for showcasing language's great beauty.
November 29, 2019
Read this for school and in the beginning honestly wasn't exactly sure what to think. By our third day of reading and discussing it was starting to grow on me. By the end of the first act, I didn't want the bell to ring. 4 stars due to the slower start in my opinion. Characters are written beautifully, Jo especially! You either love them or want them dead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2022
this man could write the text on the back of a cereal box and I would give it 5/5 stars
January 25, 2018
Aron Sorkin's script depicts a struggle for honour, loyalty, and truth among Marines once a member of their unit is killed on the base at Guantanamo Bay. Sorkin uses quick wit and passionate discussion to portray the two sides of a divided branch of lawyers attempting to prove that not all situations are black and white decisions ,are by the perpetrators.
Any fan of Sorkin's television productions will recognise certain recurring themes and familiar lines found in everything from Sports Night and the West Wing to The Social Netwwork (2010). The interactions and relationships between the characters are the same kind of playful jest and testing arguments that readers and viewers have come to expect in many of Sorkin's works.
As this is a play script rather than a traditional novel, A Few Good Men is a great companion for a road trip or short flight, or anyone looking for a quiet evening on the couch.
Any fan of Sorkin's television productions will recognise certain recurring themes and familiar lines found in everything from Sports Night and the West Wing to The Social Netwwork (2010). The interactions and relationships between the characters are the same kind of playful jest and testing arguments that readers and viewers have come to expect in many of Sorkin's works.
As this is a play script rather than a traditional novel, A Few Good Men is a great companion for a road trip or short flight, or anyone looking for a quiet evening on the couch.
February 2, 2024
I have mixed feelings about Sorkin lately, but no one can say he doesn’t know how to write a compelling story. This read like an episode of the west wing. I’ll say it, I love a court room play (I gotta find more of them besides just this and Twelve Angry Men which I also love).
Another review I read on here talked about how Sorkins diatribes about honor and patriotism and morals can sometimes be at odds with the environments he puts them in, but all of those ideas nestle so nicely in a military setting, in the same way they did in the Oval Office.
Also it was funny in the same was TWW is funny and because I’m so in deep on West Wing and the West Wing Weekly podcast, certain lines I could literally hear in Bradley Whitford and Joshua Malina’s voices
Read in one sitting on my flight home. Love a play on a plane
Another review I read on here talked about how Sorkins diatribes about honor and patriotism and morals can sometimes be at odds with the environments he puts them in, but all of those ideas nestle so nicely in a military setting, in the same way they did in the Oval Office.
Also it was funny in the same was TWW is funny and because I’m so in deep on West Wing and the West Wing Weekly podcast, certain lines I could literally hear in Bradley Whitford and Joshua Malina’s voices
Read in one sitting on my flight home. Love a play on a plane
October 26, 2025
sorkin’s writing is so slick and so goddamn satisfying. it’s like poetry in prose form if that makes sense. everything is perfectly placed, purposeful. and it’s very funny, hits hard emotionally, and god the courtroom scenes are just the best. you can really tell actors doing sorkin’s writing can’t stray from the script even one word. reading this play also made me realize how much work it is for an actor to take writing from the script and turn it into the performance. yes, the words are on the pages here but emotions, delivery, where to place emphasis, is all up to the actor and (like shakespeare) sorkin has almost no stage direction. the focus is on the words being said, everything else is up to the ppl who adapt the writing, to both stage and screen. i’m very curious what “a few good men” was like on broadway, i’m sure it was electric. gonna watch the movie soon!
May 10, 2023
Tuve la oportunidad de leer la versión original de 1989 y esta que está “revisada” e incluye diálogos que fueron escritos para la película de 1992. La original tiene en general mayor fuerza escénica aunque la escena del interrogatorio a Jessep se queda corta con respecto a la versión fílmica que es recuperada en este libro. Es difícil elegir entre ambas pero sin duda es interesante la lectura de algunos de los diálogos mejor escritos para un drama de juzgado de los últimos 50 años. La especialidad de Aaron Sorkin en uno de sus mejores textos.
January 15, 2021
That Aaron Sorkin dialogue...it's just as hot on the page as it is when it's performed by the actors:
"You have to ask me nicely. "You see, Danny, I can deal with the bullets and the bombs and the blood. I can deal with the heat and the stress and the fear. I don't want money and I don't want medals. What I want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform, and with your Harvard mouth, extend me some fuckin' courtesy. You gotta ask me nicely." ...electric stuff.
"You have to ask me nicely. "You see, Danny, I can deal with the bullets and the bombs and the blood. I can deal with the heat and the stress and the fear. I don't want money and I don't want medals. What I want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform, and with your Harvard mouth, extend me some fuckin' courtesy. You gotta ask me nicely." ...electric stuff.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2022
I have heard A LOT about this story but never seen or read it until now. Loved the plot and writing here, Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for a lot of my favorite movies so I’m so glad to read another thing by him! The only drawback for me is I don’t know a lot about military culture so I wasn’t initially loving or relating with this book. As I got deeper into it though I started appreciating the new knowledge! Great dialogue and pacing, 4/5 stars!
March 6, 2023
O Sorkin does such a great job immersing us in this world and cross cutting between all these different events. Holding it all together with such distinct jargon is impressive and more a trick of raw confidence than I’m willing to admit. It’s impressive that everyone gets their just desserts in a convoluted narrative like this but this is some of the guys best work.
May 17, 2020
One Great thing about Sorkin Scripts are how they are translated, almost verbatim onto the screen.
And having watched the movie at least 7 times, it was pretty good imagining the actors acting out the screens as they were filed.
Great piece of work. Concise, to the point, and engaging.
And having watched the movie at least 7 times, it was pretty good imagining the actors acting out the screens as they were filed.
Great piece of work. Concise, to the point, and engaging.
June 30, 2024
How I would have loved to have seen this on stage. I grew up a big fan of the movie, with it being one of my first exposures and moments of appreciation for Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. No one writes courtroom dramas better than him!
September 2, 2024
I'm going to make this short:
You've seen the movie. If you haven't seen the play, or don't have the opportunity to see it (like me)
READ THE PLAY! It is brilliant as only Aaron Sorkin can write.
You can thank me later.
You've seen the movie. If you haven't seen the play, or don't have the opportunity to see it (like me)
READ THE PLAY! It is brilliant as only Aaron Sorkin can write.
You can thank me later.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews