In the movie 'A Few Good Men'?

I originally watched A Few Good Men, when it came out in theaters. I was stationed on a training post, Ft. Devens, MA. The theater was packed with marines, mostly lower enlisted. That scene of the movie, when Tom Cruise was pushing Jack Nicholson to admit that he ordered the Code Red and he said, "You're God damn right, I did." There was thunderous, almost deafening applause; you literally could not hear anything for the rest of the movie.

I just watched it on TNT for the first time in awhile. I was wondering if that is still the general consensus in the Marines, along with all branches of the military, yet today?

In the movie 'A Few Good Men'?opera singer

My guess is that, apart from the pesception that a Marine "took charge and whooped butt" a few, if not more, of those Marines understood where the Colonel was coming from. A code red was used as a disciplinary/motivational tool. It cut out all the paperwork, touchy-feely crapola, and beurocratic(sp?) BS, and got right to the attitude adjustment, which is the desired end result. Also, the same result as the other method, just with a more successful and less time consuming manner.

Back when I went through Basic we weren't allowed to be touched physically by the TI's but could be berated, harrassed, and otherwise "motivated". It sucked then, but reflecting on it I saw why they did it. Thier goal was to break you down and build you back up with a military mindset. It worked for me and now I'm glad the AF had this tool available to them. It helped me transition well to Military life.

Awhile ago a group of mommies got together and decided to lean on the military because "thier babies" were getting thier feelings hurt from being yelled at. Instead of deciding that the US would be better off with troops that were made tough enough by training to take it as well as they dish it out, the congressmen worried about loosing constituents and buckled under pressure to this group. Thus the "stress card" was born, and the US lost it's edge for molding boys into tough battle ready Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. Instead being forced to turn boys into whiny little brats who, when showed how handicapped the training had become, pounced on the weakness with the veracity of a predator. Now instead of "Asking not what they can do for thier country", these post momma's troops ask "What's in it for me?!?" I've seen it with my own two eyes and can point EXACTLY to the time when Basic Training stopped producing warriors and started producing..well..CRAP! That was the same time Mommies started fighting thier babies "tormentors", namely the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

Now I know alot of folks in this forum may say "Hey, that's not me! I take my obligation and service seriously!!" To them I say good for you. You took the initiative to better yourself and are showing great maturity and responsibility for understanding the military and the way it needs to operate. But I would also say look around you. I garantee that there are a few folks that you came out of training with that are dirtbags and are exactly the way I described above. You know how many people I came out of training with that are how I described earlier? ZERO!!!! Because of the way we were trained. There were no stress cards. You sucked it up, took it, and pressed on. Mostly, you learned something from it.

Honestly, when I was a young Airman I called anyone with more stripes, or even TIS, than me Sir or Ma'am. Because that's how I was trained. I respected them because of thier experience and longer service. Nowadays I see E-2's addressing E-6's and E-7's by first name and thinking NOTHING of it. Even when they're locked up and briefed they still don't see thier behavior as wrong. Only that the briefer doesn't like them and is abusing his/her power or that the briefer is "out to get" the Airman. It makes me sick and I put every death of a servicemember from that point due to insubordination or failure to follow orders/regulations squarely on the shoulders of the mommies who started the whole thing. The blood of our troops is on THIER hands, and until they take steps to undo the damage they've caused I will continue to believe that the troops would have been better prepared if they would have kept thier mouths shut!!

In the movie 'A Few Good Men'?amc theater opera theaterI'm sorry, but I still can't get beyond the fact that the Nicholson character went out of his way to hide the fact that he had ordered the actions that went wrong and tried to have a couple of naive and idealistic Marines take the fall for him. I can't see how you feel that is at all 'honorable.' Report It


This is one of my favorite all time movies. I have watched it numerous times.

Having been raised in the military and also serving my own 4 years, there was a lot of "truth" in this movie about military life.

Eventhough the movie was fiction in facts, the pretense of the military and the attitudes of many of the "higher ups" are the same.

Don't get me wrong... I have nothing against the military and thank those that are currently serving or have served. The military offers a good life to many people.
I think it was a very entertaining movie. That is all.
Yes, unfortunately. It's hard to remember that you're still leashed to the rule-of-law when all your training is focused on simply getting the job done.
Well.... Let's just say it was a good movie. They were good actors. Nuf said.?...
No more truer words were ever spoken then "You can't handle the truth"

Look at the people whining about water boarding, how some treated and interrogated prisoners and the fall out from all of that with the hearings, court martial etc etc.

Hell, we at least don't behead prisoners, or really torture like the militants do. Where were they when the American POW's were being tortured by the NVA and Vietcong???
Have'nt seen it hun........:)
It was entertaining kinda....

A Colonel in the USMC wouldnt order something like that.

A Colonel in the USMC wouldnt interfere with the individual training of one Private under his command.

The whole "code red" thing is complete BS. In the past they used to call it a "blanket party" which you can get into real trouble for.

There is really no need to perform such actions in a USMC infantry unit, if you want to kick someones @ss all you have to do is take them to the pit and call it extra "hand to hand" combat training and then its legal. MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) training is something that we did every day so I dont see why someone would have to sneak into some Marines room to beat the hell out of him. You literally get the hell beat out of you almost daily anyway during training, or at least in my unit you did.

People get hurt during training in the USMC all the time you know......

I didnt like the movie personally because it made the USMC look bad.
I've never been able to understand why anyone in the military would cheer for Nicholson's character in this film. How can you possibly believe you are helping to build morale when the message you are sending is: If you fall behind in anything, the people you depend on will do very dangerous things to you on my orders, but if anything happens the people who followed my orders will be on their own because I am a coward and will pretend I had nothing to do with the order and will do anything to include altering official documents to protect my precious career because you the individual Marine mean absolutely nothing to me and you have no value.
never really payed attention dude, I dozed in the theater!