Film Analysis: A Few Good Men

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A Few Good Men, a popular movie that debuted in 1992, stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson and shows two marines who are charged with the murder of a fellow marine, Private Santiago, along with the court proceedings that follow. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee is ordered to defend the men in court (AFGM). Doris Lessing, author of “Group Minds,” explains how pressure and popular opinion shape our behavior in groups (723-725). Solomon Asch’s piece titled “Opinions and Social Pressure” explains how people are compelled around others, how their personal beliefs subdued in group environments, and provided an experiment as proof of this phenomenon (726-730). Although the defense team in the film A Few Good Men was successful in winning the case, there may…show more content…
In this way, they are in a similar mindset and aim to accomplish their chosen goals. A platoon in A Few Good Men articulated their mindset into a code: unit, corps, God, country. This code is the marine’s chief tenet and they honor it with everything they do. The code held each marine responsible for their own actions and self-discipline because they had responsibilities to respond as a group (AFGM). The idea of a group thinking together is the main idea of Lessing and Asch’s articles. Without this central idea, any group would collapse. Should a military base crumble, the United States government would go into complete chaos. Lessing claims that a group has its own mind and the people in that group conform their minds to how that group thinks (724). With a system of ethics, thinking as a group is easier because each individual knows and respects the code. Should a threatening situation arise, the group can act as one body without reluctance. Furthermore, Asch asserts that for society to function efficiently, consensus must be a priority among all people (730). Again, applying the code to each marine in the platoon ensures that there is consensus throughout the group from the get go. Applying Lessing and Asch’s principles to A Few Good Men, one can see that the military is a type of group that works toward unification. That being said, group minds and consensus among the people both apply to how the military is able to operate at all corners of the Earth

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