esrosedotblog

TRIAGE

Today's Best Film has three stars who are on my shit list. But, as it turns out, all three play to type and it works out pretty well.

A Few Good Men (1992) stars Tom Cruise as an arrogant young shithead lawyer, Demi Moore as a ball-cutting bitch and Jack Nicholson as a nasty ego-driven commander of Gitmo. Voila. They are all comfortable with their roles and they fit in. It is a vehicle!

There are a lot of good performances by the second tier as well; Kevin Bacon and J.T. Walsh stand out. Both are favorites. Walsh died early of a coronary. Too bad. Bacon is still working as a humble journeyman actor doing great work. The three stars are past their prime.

We also get to see Keifer Sutherland and some other actors just breaking in small rolls. Nice.

Rob Reiner directed. Is he still working? The last time I heard he was thinking of running for our governorship. Lord save us. A left wing arnold.

This is a standard courtroom procedural set in a military situation. All the elements are there. The crime, the investigation, the dead ends, the need to go way out on a limb and take a chance. Cruise wins his case because the script gives it to him. Well, that and Nicholson's histrionic breaking of his story.

Actually, it is knockoff of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial

It is OK.

Sometimes it crackles.

Ebert points out that it is one of those films that tells you what is going to happen, then it shows it happening, and then it tells you what happened. This is true. And it spoils some of the tension at the end.

There is a bit of a twist but it is not enough to nourish the need for a climax.

I will give it 3 out of Netflix5.

Oh. There is a wonderful drill team performance in the beginning over and under the titles. It has nothing to do with the film at all but it is wonderful to behold.