A Few Good Men Essay

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A Few Good Men, released 20 years ago on October 30, 1992, is an intense courtroom thriller featuring an outstanding performance from Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson. The movie conducts an investigation of the military “Code Red” which resulted in the death of a marine as a direct order by top management. This is represented in the scene when a confrontation explodes between Colonel Jessup and Lieutenant Kaffee with Col. Jessup’s confession to the crime. In my opinion, the movie signifies a lack of the human skill perspective; which, is an ability that enables leaders to work with people. The human skill is important for any level of management by Robert Katz, conceptualizing three-skills that managers should model. The Pelican…show more content…
With that in mind, Corporal Harold Dawson and Private Louden Downey, with no intent of murder, were simply following orders, as part of the marine “Code Red” from superior authority, Colonel Nathan Jessup. A “Code Red” is an unsanctioned marine training tool that extends from bullying to torturing a marine who is hurting their platoon. It is designed to “train them to think of his unit before himself. As a result, the two men are accused of murdering their colleague. While robbed of their innocence, Dawson and Downey, could possibly face some excruciating consequences. Whereas, Colonel Jessup believes in defending the nation as a piece of land, but not as a country with values and moral. Moral should prevent us from murdering our own marines, even at the cost of saving lives. This example signifies that Colonel Jessup lack the human skill significantly. Furthermore, I would say the actions he displayed in this movie resembles that of bullying. Bullying is simply harassment with no endpoint, in this case death. It originates from a desire to exclude another and involves misuse of power. Most bullies exploit an unequivocal power imbalance that renders the victim powerless to prevent or stop certain behaviors (Steinhauser,
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