A Few Good Words for ‘A Few Good Men’

In “A Few Good Men,” three Navy lawyers defend a pair of Marines accused of murdering a fellow soldier, and in the process the attorneys expose the moral and ethical complexities of military discipline and the problem with “just following orders.” (Rated R)

Younger film-goers can appreciate a talky courtroom drama with a complex plot that revolves around ideas more than action, youngsters from 11 to 16 report. You just have to concentrate a little harder, they said. This is not the sort of movie you can leave to go get popcorn.

Said 14-year-old Mike: “If you just watch and don’t listen for about five minutes, you miss something, then they go back and talk about it and you don’t know what they’re talking about and you can’t catch up unless you see the movie again.”

It probably didn’t hurt that the stars doing all the talking (Demi Moore and Tom Cruise) were easy to look at, but the kids said it was the plot, the legal strategy and the emotional acting that riveted their attention almost from the beginning.

“It caught its momentum from the beginning and kept it up all the way through. There weren’t any lapses. All of it was relevant,” said Sara, 16, whose friends had recommended the movie to her.

Mike came reluctantly. “I didn’t plan on seeing this movie; I didn’t want to. But once I got in and saw it, I really got interested in it.” The movie started off slow for him, “but once they got into the case and got clues about what was going on, it got more interesting.”

Marc, 16, who aspires to become a lawyer, came away with some insight into how lawyers think.

“You could watch how their thoughts progressed and how they helped each other. You could see the different tools of logic they knew how to use, how they used people’s emotions to trick them into saying things they needed them to say.”

According to Mike, having three prosecutors was a good idea.

“You could see how Tom Cruise didn’t care in the beginning and Demi Moore wanted to plead them innocent and the other man thought they were guilty. They used three different characters to portray how you would feel about it.”

Amanda, 11, liked the witty dialogue and laughed out loud at the lawyers’ wordplay.

Sara called the acting “superb.” “They did a great job, all of them. Jack Nicholson really portrayed a character that made you hate him, everything about him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tom Cruise wins an Oscar for best actor.”

The movie is R-rated, mostly for the violent opening scene and for crude language of old-time officers directed at the one female lawyer.

Sara noticed that the woman did not respond to the disrespect even though she outranked some of them. “She had a complete attitude of professionalism. She didn’t play into it.”

“I liked that,” I said. “It’s not so easy to come up with a snappy comeback all the time. I liked how she just ignored them.”

Some kids might not like the movie, Marc said. “There are some people I would not recommend it to--people who get bored easily. If you want to go to this movie to have fun, I wouldn’t really recommend it. This is a movie you really have to pay attention to.”