View Full Version : Movie: A few good men.......
I never had the unfortunate privilege of an NJP or court martial!
So in the movie there was a full bird as judge and seemed an awful lot like a civilian court room?
Any truth to the movie line or Hollywood liberties?
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 02:37 PM
Gary...I did 20 courts-martial as a USAF JAG and 32 administrative discharge boards at a big Air Force base. The movie was accurate.Like a civilian courtroom, as you said. Judges travel the circuits...
Zulu 36
02-16-21, 02:37 PM
They were having a General Court Martial, so a full bird JAG judge isn't terribly surprising considering on of the prime witnesses was also a full bird. Having testified in several general courts martial and a lot of civilian trials, yes, there is a great deal of similarities between them, especially in a General CM where the defendants were facing some serious brig time. No, I never appeared in front of a colonel JAG judge. The highest was a major. I'm sure USMC 2571 can chime in here.
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 02:38 PM
Already did, Chris.
Zulu 36
02-16-21, 02:41 PM
Yeah, a guilty plea in a civilian court can go pretty fast unless it's a murder case and the defendant is smart enough to put the proofs on the record and not try to beat around the guilty bush.
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 02:43 PM
Remember Jack Nicholson hollered on and on? After 5 seconds of that the military judge would have had him forcibly removed from the courtroom
Zulu 36
02-16-21, 02:47 PM
That's undoubtedly true. I never saw anyone act out in a court martial. Saw it plenty of times in civilian courts though.
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 03:11 PM
Yep, and they got consequences
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 03:14 PM
One guy i represented in a jury trial called the judge Judge Judy. When she sentenced him later, that remark figured into his prison sentence. It was a costly comment.
Mongoose
02-16-21, 03:15 PM
Evidently ya'll don't know the true story on this. Jack Nicholson was a very good Con-man. He had been posing as a Marine Officer for many years. The truth is he escaped from a Mental Institution called the "Coo-Coo Nest". Then forged papers and joined the Corps. Next time check your History before posting....Seems like I'm always having to clean up ya'll's uneducated mess. Besides, Dave was an Air Farce JAG Officer. A General Court-martial there was something like an Airman cutting the ribbon on a type-writer or throwing spit-wads on the mirrors in the Head. Every once in a while a really serious incident would happen. Dave told me once that he represented the Government in a case involving an Airman who went to the PX while he was on a 48 hr. restriction to his Company Area. He said he was exhausted after that 15 min. Court-martial......
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 03:18 PM
Why did you have to wander in here and tell the truth, Billy? You weren't even under oath.
Thanx Marines!.......I thought the whole thing was a Hollywood farce!.....WRONG!
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 05:20 PM
Nah, it was true to life. Let me know of anything else specific about it that looked like it might not be authentic
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 05:29 PM
I think normally the USMC JAG office would've gone to Gitmo but if it's Navy it throws in that element of rivalry that spices up the story.
Well. A LT JG .Cruise bossing around a LT Female !
USMC 2571
02-16-21, 09:08 PM
Not too realistic. Lol
Mongoose
02-17-21, 09:03 AM
Ya'll are ill informed....to say the least.Lt. Cruz bossing a Female Lt. is not, I repeat, out of the ordinary. No Mission is impossible for Cruz......just saying....
advanced
02-17-21, 09:33 AM
I beat 5 courts-martials when I was in. I'm not saying that I wasn't guilty, but the guy prosecuting me was a X Marine that went to the dark side in the af.
That af JAG officer kept saying that I had a bad attitude, so I just stared at him till he apologized and he told the court that he made a mistake in prosecuting me.
sometimes, to their own dismay, HOLLYWIERD gets it right, or at least comes close...
Mongoose
02-18-21, 07:48 AM
Remember when Clint Eastward directed his film about Iwo Jima? He caught a lot of flack from the NAACP and other black organizations for not having any black Marines in the film. Holy Shet.......racism galore. But, they were very silent when it was pointed out that there was no black Grunts in the Corps at that time. There was a few at Iwo, but all they did was unload ships........of course, in our new History books it will say Amos and Andy led the assault on Iwo.
Zulu 36
02-18-21, 10:54 AM
I think the trial takes place in the States, not Gitmo. But other than some of the movie rivalry element, I think Marine JAG officers would have been the defense attorneys as well as a potential civilian or two (if the defendants or their families could afford them). My guess is a real CM of this nature would have taken place at Camp Lejuene as that would probably have been the home base of the Marine unit at Gitmo when the murder took place.
Remember when Clint Eastward directed his film about Iwo Jima? He caught a lot of flack from the NAACP and other black organizations for not having any black Marines in the film. Holy Shet.......racism galore. But, they were very silent when it was pointed out that there was no black Grunts in the Corps at that time. There was a few at Iwo, but all they did was unload ships........of course, in our new History books it will say Amos and Andy led the assault on Iwo.
hell, Billy, they'll finally reveal the absolute truth that it was black members of BLM that actually raised the flag on Iwo, not 5 white Marines and an Indian Marine....