FEW GOOD MEN, A - Blu-ray review

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

But I'll tell you anyway. "A Few Good Men" isn't as pristine in Blu-ray as newer films, but it's certainly the best that this 1992 catalog title has looked. Why, you can almost see the peach fuzz on a very young Tom Cruise's face.

Cruise, you may recall, stars as Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a cocky-but-lazy Navy lawyer who's assigned to a potentially embarrassing case because he has a history of settling out of court. Half of Kaffee is a screw-off, while the other half is determined to escape from under the shadow of a famous father. It all adds up to a casual attitude and immaturity that doesn't set well with Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), the Navy JAG who brought the case to the attention of her superiors and suggested that the death of a Marine stationed at Guantanamo Baymight have been a "Code Red." Galloway hoped to handle the case alone, but after superiors give Kaffee the job, she decides to tag along, because, as she tells Kaffee,, "My jurisdiction is pretty much in your face." Ahh, you gotta love military talk.

Providing comic relief is Kevin Pollak, who plays Kaffee's assistant, Lt. Sam "I have no responsibilities whatsoever" Weinberg, with another Kevin (Bacon) handling the courtroom prosecution. Kiefer Sutherland plays the right-hand man to the Gitmo base commander, while Wolfgang Bodison and James Marshall turn in believable performances as the two scared Marines who freely admit that they performed the Code Red--a kind of hazing stunt to punish anyone who wasn't a gung-ho Marine--that had disastrous results. But the killer performance comes from the man in the front row at the Oscar ceremonies, Mr. Jack Nicholson. As Jessep, he growls, snarls, barks, and insults anyone who doesn't "get it." And by "it" I mean the Marine code of honor, and the order of their priorities: Unit, Corps, God, Country. Yet, Nicholson's character is far from a caricature. Same with the other characters in this absorbing film. They have wants, desires, needs, fears, and, yes, weak spots.

"A Few Good Men" is one of those films that lays it all out like a "Columbo" episode. We see the men commit the crime and they admit they did it. The question remains, were they acting on their own, or were they ordered to do so, as they claim? Even the investigation isn't terribly complex. And if it has the simplicity of a stage play, it's because Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") adapted it for film from his Broadway play. The focus is on character, and so the burden of pulling this film off is placed squarely on the actors' shoulders. And "A Few Good Men" bears repeat watching because the actors all nail their performances, Sir! The biggest surprise of the film isn't onscreen at all; it's offscreen. Rob Reiner directs what for him seems an unusual choice to add to his catalog ("When Harry Met Sally," "The Princess Bride," "Stand by Me"). Then again, it was a little shocking that the film right before this one was "Misery," and he's placed copies of the Stephen King novel in this military film.

Though "A Few Good Men" was filmed in and around L.A. (except for a Washington, D.C. sequence), we're ready to believe that we've been transported to a corner of Cuba for part of the movie. On the commentary track, a thoughtful Reiner says that he actually went to Cuba and visited Guantanamo Bay, and so he was confident that the southern California location he chose was pretty close to the real think. We don't consciously think about such things when we watch a film like this, but because a director like Reiner does, and because he allows his actors to improvise (as when Cruise imitates Nicholson in one scene) it makes for a film that seems real and also entertains. Although it runs 138 minutes, "A Few Good Men" never feels long. It's a solid courtroom drama with light moments . . . and it looks pretty darned good in Blu-ray.

Video:
The 1080p picture makes this film look as good as it ever has, presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. There's a very slight graininess that you can see especially in the sky and backgrounds at times, but overall it's a decent picture. I'm guessing the source materials weren't the greatest to work with, but this Blu-ray transfer is an improvement over the DVD.

Audio:
Audio options are English or German PCM 5.1, and the uncompressed audio sounds great. There's just a purity of tone that comes with PCM that I really appreciate. The sound just seems to fill the room naturally, like water pooling into a hollow. The bass and treble are rich, there's nice speaker balance, and the timbre has the resonance of actuality. Additional soundtrack options are English, German, French, and Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, and Polish VO (Dolby Surround).

Blu-ray is going to find a welcome international audience, because the greater storage capacity allows for a ton of subtitle options: English, Engtlish SDH, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, French, Chinese, Hungarian, Thai, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Icelandic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovene, and Korean.

Extras:
Reiner takes his commentaries as seriously as he does his films, and this track is really crammed full of insights and information. Sometimes he seems hesitant about details, and as someone with a bad memory I can't fault him for being a little fuzzy about things that happened 15 years ago. Heck, I have all to do to remember last week. But, for example, he'll say that the opening Marine precision rifle team was a college group from the University of North Carolina, when previously published material said they were from Texas A&M. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. But would-be filmmakers could do worse than listen to Reiner talk about his work. He's both methodical and matter-of-fact, two things that make for easy listening (and note-taking).

The other short features are pretty standard. "Code of Conduct" and "From Stage to Screen" offer the usual collection of filmmaker and cast interviews spliced in with behind-the-scenes footage and some clips from the film itself. They're solid, decent features that give you plenty of background on the film, but they don't really surprise in any way, or give you anything you're not expecting.

Bottom Line:
Classic lines, classic character interaction, classic courtroom drama. It's what makes "A Few Good Men" worth adding to your home HD collection.