A Few Good Men
In the movie A Few Good Man, two USA marines (are charged because of murdering their fellow marine William Santiago. William wrote many letters to his boss commander colonel Jessup to release him because he was not treated well, but he was not release until Dawson and Downey killed him. The two marines defended themselves by saying
This movie covers many aspects of life that happens every day in many places. Like many other people the two marines, commander Jessup and lieutenant Kendrick refuses to accept the responsibility of their mistakes. The fact is that we all know that Command Jessup ordered Kendrick to order the marines to punish William by giving him a cold red as part of training him. Instead of refusing the marines
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One of the reading it relates to is the reading of Aristotle. Aristotle said human beings act the way they act because they don’t like pain and shame but love pleasure; some love virtue and some evil. We see the two Marines they committed the crime by killing their fellow marines but they don’t want to be punished because they want to avoid pain and shame. One of the marine Dawson refused to go back home for six months because he did not want to be dishonored and be discharged as a marine. To him he was following an order and he did nothing wrong. Similarly, what commander Jessup and lieutenant Kendrick cares is pleasures and glory. They want to receive all the respect and being feared by people. They do not want the death of Santiago to bring them shame and ruin their reputation. When kaffe asked for document from commander Jessup, he commanded him to ask him very nicely in other words he wanted to be respected. This is exactly what Aristotle said In his Nicomachean ethics book 10. Aristotle said “for the many naturally obey fear, not shame; they avoided what is base because of the penalties, not because it is disgraceful. For since they live by their feelings, they pursue their proper pleasures and the source of them, and avoid the opposed pains,” (Aristotle). The other readings we covered is about the state of nature by John Locke. Lock said in the state of nature all men are equal because we all belong to the …show more content…
Executives have the power to command or order something, this implies to any other commanding officers or high ranking officials in the office. These people have the power to command what they want to be done. That means by ordering cold red Commander Jessup was not wrong because he was doing his job. The only problem is that he did not consider the consequences and he did not realize that what he was doing is wrong. In his speech commander Jessup told Kaffe that “we follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple. Are we clear?”(Jessup). This is just the indication that there is no way Lieutenant Kendrick and the two marines could avoid the order. They had to follow the order since it is what they
Most war novels center on themes of valor and heroism. Some concentrate on the opposites of these virtues in an attempt to display raw realism. Harrison, right from the beginning of his novel, shows us both. The narrator of this first-person narrative paints a picture of a totally un-heroic bunch of soldiers preparing for debarkation. The drinking and debauchery are followed the next morning by a parade that the suffering soldiers must march through, while the people watch their ‘heroes’ leaving to bravely fight the good fight. While this clearly demarcates the innocent civilians from the savvy soldiers, it also shows the reader that the narrator is going to try to tell the real story.
Fearful of the outrageous threat of death against him, Kendrick complies with the unjust order of the Code Red due to the strict conduct that the members of the Marine Corps must adhere to, although the order was morally incorrect. Fromm effectively explains why Kendrick was quick to obey Jessep for the belief that “work cannot be done properly if nothing but fear is behind the obedience” (Fromm 127). Kendrick was not able to clearly identify a sensible morality, thus portraying the reality of Fromm’s beliefs that blind obedience is derived from corrupt motives. Fromm continues by discussing that obedience must be instigated by a formidable force of legitimate authority before the act of compliance can occur, and Jessep was the seemingly legitimate authority portrayed in the movie (Fromm 127). Michelle Sada, a Penn State Representative, would concur with Fromm due to her idea that individuals disregard the negative outcomes of situations prior to a decision derived from fear (Sada). Sada would likely agree that Kendrick’s intense military training was the source of his terror, because the consequences of disobeying the orders of superiors were of immense gravity. Furthermore, Szegedy-Maszak would coincide with Fromm that fear contributes to making decisions by Jessep possesses the ability to demand orders because members of
Kendrick, after learning about the incident, ordered a code red to be set for barracks restriction, and the denial of food for a week. Dawson, after personally questioning the morality of the order, disobeyed and tried to assist Lt. Barnes by sneaking him food, an action that displeased Kendrick. Kendrick then punished Dawson for his disobedience by neglecting to promote him and negatively evaluating his fitness evaluation. From this point forward, Dawson had just seen the introduction of the power that Kendrick had over his military experience, one that Kaffee would later recall to be “A lesson he learned after the Curtis Barnes incident.” (A Few…) But, if this order was no different in terms of punishment or in the matter of a soldier simply being disregardful of their marine code, then why was Dawson so reluctant to disobey Kendrick the second time involving Santiago? Not only would Dawson more than likely have to face a much greater consequence for having disobeyed a second time but also Kendrick must have stressed the importance of this order as his leadership was being critically by Jessup. In the meeting where Jessup called the order for the code red, Jessup accentuates “I'm gonna blame you. Then I'm gonna kill you.” (A Few…) discussing if Santiago doesn't meet his baseline
An officer in the military will listen to the officers ranking higher than him more readily than someone of a lower rank. It does not matter whether the rank is by a title such as in a military situation or in the way someone is perceived to be, like in Zimbardo and Milgram’s experiments. In the film A Few Good Men there is one puzzling statement near the end of the movie said by Private Louden Downey. After the sentencing Downey loudly questions Lieutenant Commanders Galloway and Kaffee as to why Dawson and Downey were still found guilty of “conduct unbecoming of United States marines”. He said “what did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!” Private Downey was referring to the fact that he is a marine, he gets an order and he follows it, with no questions asked. The puzzling idea that those following orders because it was an order given by someone of a higher rank means that Dawson and Downey are not responsible for their actions. Is anyone responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions if they were “just following orders?” The ability to tell someone what to do and to have them listen to your command is determined by your status relative to theirs.
In A Few Good Men Lt. Daniel Kaffee is assigned to defend two marines, Lance Col. Harold Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey, in the investigation of a murdered marine in their t...
In CrimJ 100 we were talking a lot about how to court system works and the different severities of sentences. I was asked to watch the movie A Few Good Men, I was able to watch it on Popcorn time. The purpose of watching this movie was so I could relate what I was learning in class to this movie. The movie is about two marines; LCcl Harold and PFC Downie were ordered a code red on a fellow marine that was requesting to leave his company. The Commanding Officer Nathan Jessep ordered the code red to “train” the marine to get use to the conditions in Cuba. The code red back fired on the commander when Santiago died from the code red. The commander tried to stay under the radar and erase his name from getting tracked back to him. The protagonist Lt. Daniel Kaffee has to prove the Lt. Kendrick called the code red on Santiago. Another main character in this film is Lt. Cdr. Galloway, she is PFC Downie’s attorney for this case. There are many themes that we have covered in class that occur in the movie. This is great representation of how a real court case would play out. The movie showcase key themes, such as Plea bargains, Responsibilities of the Criminal Defence Attorneys, Responsibilities of the Procsector, Bringing in a witness, and also showcases judges in a courtroom scenario.
And as we see, when the Captain boards a boat to get to his designated mission, the crew, who has been there for about 18 months, still has the spirit of a newly deployed soldier. They have not yet realized the cruelty of the war, because they have probably never been in any real combat. That was soon about to change, as they sail deeper and deeper into the North Vietnamese Army’s territory. As many other soldiers, they now go through an experience, that completely ruins their view of the war. They get so stuffed with all the terrible things they have seen, friends that have died, commanders that does not realize, that some mission just are not winnable, but they will still attempt, as it will give them promotions, thus the loss of hundreds or thousands of their own soldiers. They get so full of negativity, that they will begin to feel completely hollow inside. Like their lives has no meaning to it, as they will probably die anyways. The Poet, T. S. Elliot has written a piece of poetry named “The Hollow Men”, which tells the thoughts and feelings the soldiers had. Being so stuffed, that it is completely hollow. “Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass”. No matter what they say, or when they voice their opinions, no one will listen to
In the film, A Few Good Men, characters such as the lead role, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) are portrayed to be leaders in society. I believe the movie's main focus was actually on how different a person can be because of something one person says to them. I also believe that one of the movie's main ideas was how to work people with words. This is especially true when Colonel Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson) is interrogated by Cruise. The way that Nicholson answers Cruise's questions is with such sophistication and knowledge that even though you know that he had his speech written out for him, it was delivered with such eloquence that it allows the viewer to understand what Nicholson is really feeling at that particular moment.
The narrator opens the conversation with the white haired man by stating, “We had a mission today. Target was ten kliks south of here? (...) It was my first mission like that…” (284). It is important to note the way in which our narrator trails off at the end of his statement. The narrator purposely avoids specifying the contents of the day’s mission because he is haunted by guilt. The uncertainty of the narrator’s mindset is later reiterated when he expresses, “I just never killed anybody before. Neither have I, he says. But I did. I think. I mean, we just shot the rounds off” (284). The key words in this excerpt are “we just shot the rounds off”, so he feels as though he did not play a major role in the deaths of the enemies. This mindset can be connected to a conversation had earlier in the story between the narrator and his crew. In this situation, the crew is discussing who should receive recognition for killing the enemy. Our narrator is clearly uncomfortable with this debate and makes the claim that since the ammo for ICM came from the Marines, they should also be held responsible for the deaths of the enemy troops. We see our narrator try to divvy up the blame for the death of the enemy troops to lessen his guilt. This debate along with the dialogue between our narrator and the old gunnery sergeant further
The protagonist is faced with similar scenarios as was Kyle, such as the decision of shooting the man on the roof, or letting him go free. Many arguments may be made on what is morally right, but in the end, all that matters is survival itself, and doing what needs to be done. There are no rules in war, therefore all reasoning to what may be moral must be put aside. While this may be the case, human nature will eventually set in, and remorse can flood a soldier’s conscience. This was made apparent when the sniper broke down and cursed the war, providing for a turning point in the story.
Fromm explains that humans obey orders because of “fear, hate, and greed”, which, in the end, harms humanity (Fromm 125). Agreeing with this idea, Zimbardo states that “self-aggrandizement” is accomplished by “self-deprecation” of others (Zimbardo 109). Christopher Shea’s experiment also backs up the claim that people act for themselves. Shea would concur with Fromm that humans behave greedily (Shea). In contrast, Shea would not believe that people behave to put others down, which is Zimbardo’s beliefs (Shea). Jessup wished to express his authority by giving orders and allowing himself to advance even higher. Jessup harmed Santiago to advance personally; in addition, Dawson and Downey obeyed orders to gain approval from Jessup. Fromm may argue that Dawson and Downey followed commands due to fear. Zimbardo would believe that they thought completing the order was the correct action to be taken. The article “Human Obedience: The Myth of Blind Conformity” also connects with Zimbardo’s viewpoint. The article explains why people become passive and eventually deem their actions as correct (Human Obedience: The Myth of Blind Conformity). Zimbardo would not consider humans to be passive just blind to the truth. “Human Obedience: The Myth of Blind Conformity” would reply that individuals need to rely on their mind and not listen to commands. Both authors believe the marines’ actions
A story without style is like a man without personality: useless and boring. However, Flannery O’Connor incorporates various different styles in her narratives. Dark humor, irony, and symbolism are perhaps the utmost powerful and common styles in her writing. From “Revelation” and “Good Country People” to “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all of O’Connor’s stories consist of different styles in writing.
But I believe I was right, sir. I believe I did my job. And I won 't dishonor myself, my unit, or the Corps, so that I can go home in six months.” (Kaffee, Dawson, and Downey in interrogation room). By saying this, he proves what Zimbardo found in his study: when placed in a social role, young educated men and women are radically transformed to fit that role. Though Dawson appears to have no remorse over what he 's done, we see that he knows what he did was wrong when he says “I never meant to hurt Willy” to Kaffee, Jo, and Sam after he 's been sentenced. Would Dawson and Downey have done what they did to Santiago if they were at home with family? If they had never joined the Marines? Zimbardo 's answer to this would be a definite no. To explain his reasoning, he says “To what extent do we allow ourselves to become imprisoned by docilely accepting the roles others assign us or, indeed, choose to remain prisoners because being passive and dependent frees us from the need to act and be responsible for our actions (117).” Through Zimbardo 's viewpoint, Dawson and Downey were nothing more than ordinary men who were placed in an extreme role and were radically changed to assume that role. Much like how the guards changed in The Stanford Prison Experiment, Dawson and Downey were changed through the pressures of the military, and took the responsibility of the Code Red too
The book Black Hearts by Jim Frederick is an in-depth narrative about the 1st platoon, Bravo Company 1-502nd Infantry 101st Airborne Division deployed to Iraq in 2005. The leadership failures documented in this book range all the way from the general officer level down to the lowest private. LT general Ricardo Sanchez failed to understand the climate his command group was entering as they were deployed into Iraq. From then on the entire leadership failures continued to compound upon each other with improper time to plan. It is customary to have a six month lead time to have a proper battle hand off when preparing to take over an AO from another unit. To compound this problem, the entire time the 502nd was in pre-deployment training, they were preparing for the rigors of urban combat. In reality, they were given six weeks to recon their new area of responsibility and were going to a countryside crafted by the heavens for guerilla warfare. As Colonel Ebel said in the book, “It is not going to be an easy road. They are not even sure of what they have in the area. It just feels bad. We can expect a real fight.”
The motion picture A Few Good Men challenges the question of why Marines obey their superiors’ orders without hesitation. The film illustrates a story about two Marines, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey charged for the murder of Private First Class William T. Santiago. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who is known to be lackadaisical and originally considers offering a plea bargain in order to curtail Dawson’s and Downey’s sentence, finds himself fighting for the freedom of the Marines; their argument: they simply followed the orders given for a “Code Red”. The question of why people follow any order given has attracted much speculation from the world of psychology. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, conducted an experiment in which randomly selected students were asked to deliver “shocks” to an unknown subject when he or she answered a question wrong. In his article, “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram concludes anyone will follow an order with the proviso that it is given by an authoritative figure. Two more psychologists that have been attracted to the question of obedience are Herbert C. Kelman, a professor at Harvard University, and V. Lee Hamilton, a professor at the University of Maryland. In their piece, Kelman and Hamilton discuss the possibilities of why the soldiers of Charlie Company slaughtered innocent old men, women, and children. The Marines from the film obeyed the ordered “Code Red” because of how they were trained, the circumstances that were presented in Guantanamo Bay, and they were simply performing their job.