The Rewatchables - ‘A Few Good Men’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan and Amanda Dobbins

Episode Date: August 10, 2017

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Chris Ryan and Amanda Dobbins to celebrate and appreciate 1992’s ‘A Few Good Men’ in the inaugural episode of 'The Rewatchables' by discussing what they love about the movie (1:00), which scenes have aged the best and worst (9:30), and whether Jo Galloway was a good lawyer (42:35). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first episode of The Rewatchables is brought to you by Seekek, the presenting sponsor of the Bill Simmons podcast, the easiest way to shop for the best tickets. Thanks to the revolutionary grading system. Download the Seekek out today. I'll go right to ckeek.com. We're also brought to you by the ringer.com and The Ringer podcast network. And now, without further ado, a few good men. Did you assault Santiago with the intent of killing him? No, sir.

What was your intent? To train him, sir. A few good men is a masterpiece. The first true. classic of the 90s. It's a drama of compelling power. This is Tom Cruise at his best. Jack Nicholson gives his finest

performance and Demi Moore has never been better. The truth. A few good men, a Rob Reiner film. At theaters now. We're excited for this one. The rewatchables. Here's why we did it. We did it because we love movies

at the Ringer. We love rewatching movies. We love talking about the same movies that we just talked about six weeks ago. I'm here with Chris Ryan and Amanda Dobbins from The Ringer. What's up, Bill? Hello. There's no better first episode of the rewatchables than a few good men. Amanda said before we started this that she's only seen the first 20 minutes of the movie twice.

But the rest of the movie, how many times? At least $600? Well, I mean, spiritually, 600, but literally at least 50, probably closer, like 70 to 100 range. Chris, have you? Can you bang out the lines before they come? Have you reached out by this? Absolutely. I have to.

Yeah. Not only is it a cable rewatchable. I own it on multiple formats. I've probably owned it ever since you could own a few good men. And it is the go-to movie. It is the go-to movie. If you want to laugh, if you want to be gripped, I still see things that I didn't see the first time around. It's just an incredible rewatch.

So you've taken the VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to streaming journey? I have the laser disc, man. You have to flip it. No, I'm just kidding. No, but like taped it off a cable, I think, probably. I had it with, you know, I've watched it when it's on TNT. I watch it when it's on a pay cable. It's just so great.

The fact that it is actually like as good on TNT as it is on HBO is pretty interesting. Yeah, it's not that hard of an edit. They have to take out a couple inappropriate comments, a couple F-bombs. Other than that, it can roll. Sorkin's first movie, which we're going to talk about from a play that he did, adapted into a real movie. And I mean, Cruz versus Nicholson, which we're going to. going to get to. Oh, wow. I'm going to rip through all these categories. Okay. I wanted to give this

some structure because there's just too many places to go and too much to do. Yeah, but we're going to start before we get to categories. In one minute, explain why you love this movie. So I'm a true sorkenhead. Okay. I think he's probably my favorite screenwriter of all of them, just in terms of the number of times that I have rewatched each of his things from West Wing, Social Network, a few good men. The American President, which I saw four times in theaters at the age of 11, Wow. Yeah, with my dad. I don't know.

But that's kind of a sneaky all-time great rom-com. Yeah. But so Sorkin plus number one cruise for me of all time. Okay. That's stepping ahead on one of the subjects coming later. Save that. Put that in your pocket. Okay.

That's in the elevator pitch. And then the drama is all legal. I like an action movie, but it's not, doesn't hold my attention. It's a verbal action movie. There we go. Okay. Chris Ryan? A lot like what Amanda is saying, verbal action movie from the almost as young, like, for as long as I can remember from when I was like a little kid, I've always been fascinated with process and jargon and lingo and people speaking in a language that I recognize but don't totally understand and just obsessively trying to figure out what they're talking about.

And the fact that you can watch a few good man and have no idea really about like the I move for a section 39 special. Jason hearing. You understand everything that's happening. It's like it works on two or three different levels, but nobody writes jargon quite like Sorkin. And the way that he integrates the sort of language of a profession into his character's day-to-day lives and the speed and the panache with which it's delivered in this movie is great. I mean, there's times in Sorkin's career where it's gotten a little overly, I think, weighted down. Like, you know, you could say that about the Jeff Daniels show. but this was when he was flying, man.

Written on bar napkins when he was working at a bar in New York City. It has so much energy. For me, it captures two different eras, which was like the era that I grew up with as a kid where you could have a whole movie that's basically a law movie. Now I don't even know if you could do it. Like, what's this movie? Ah, it's just about a case.

A lot of the scenes are in court. I don't even know if that gets made. But it feels like a modern version of that. So the stuff I love from like a movie like The Verde, which has great courtroom scenes. It's got that, but it feels like a little hipper. It doesn't feel dated. It came out, I think, what was it, 1991?

92. 25 years ago in December. And it doesn't feel that dated. The clothes feel dated. We have some issues with the clothes. You're Kevin Bacon's hoops tank top. I know you had a lot of issues with. Yeah, I mean, I love it.

But to have Kevin Bacon wearing a Georgetown Supreme Court tank top while playing pickup with long tube socks was just incredible. Demi Moore's hair is pretty tough for me. For me, though, this comes down to Cruz versus Nicholson. Cruz at the perfect point of his career. Nicholson had a really nice point of his career. And it's just building to it. And then it has the actual payoff, which we're going to get to.

You mentioned the lawyer movies. This was actually around the time we were talking about these yesterday, but really nice, really good run of law movies. Pelican Brief, the firm, this. So many that they kind of fight, that kind of, like what was the one that Matt Damon was in? There are almost too many. They kind of,

those are all the Grishman novels, yeah. Right. That wasn't the client. It was the other one. It's not the Rainmaker, but the... It is the Rainmaker. It is the Rainmaker, I think. Oh, yeah, because Cruz is Rain Man.

I was like, I'm confusing that. There's so many that a couple fell through the cracks. Grisham was like the most popular writer alive back then. Yeah. I like presumed innocent was another one. Scott Turrow, yeah? Yeah. Remember that?

Oh, presumed it. But the problem is we'd all see in the book. Yeah. And then when, like, this came out. I had no idea it was going to happen. I didn't know what the code red was. All right, we're doing different categories. First category, most rewatchable scene.

Here are your choices. The ending. The lunch in Guantanamo Bay. Or cruise and bacon with the I have Martinson meeting for a beer. Just single favorite your fucking channels. This is on the one that stops you the most. You have to ask me nicely. Lunch at the...

Yeah. I mean, obviously, the last scene is kind of the best last scene of a movie ever. I don't want to, I hate being like too cute about these answers. But, um, the lunch in Guantanamo Bay is pretty great. That's, it's, that's the kind of sneaky. You're surprised that won the award choice. Yeah. I mean, this is kind of like saying, what's your favorite scene in the natural? And like, it's like, it's the home run scene. Yeah. But you can get cute if you want. I think that the, my, my favorite, like, interaction is definitely Jack and Kathy getting a beer and him saying you're a lousy fucking softball player.

And they get that. One of the funniest parts is Cruz just orders a beer. Yeah. He's like, what do you have? I'm out of a beer. And she just comes back with this beer that has a label on it. And he makes a really,

really big show of not pouring it in the glass. Right. He's like, get this glass out of here. It's like, that's like, you know. I know he made a whole movie about being in a bar,

but that scene is when I was like, oh, Tom Cruise has never really been in like bar interactions before. Right. It's like that Vin Diesel and Vin Diesel would drink the, in the Fast and Furious movies when he tilts the beer all the way up. It's like, I got a beer. Some incredible cruise, which you're going to get to.

I agree. The ending is the best. The ending is the most rewatchable. But I just, you can't sleep on the Guantanamo Basin. Everything is great about it. Everything. It's like, what do they talk about for an hour before they got down to business? It's almost like I would love to see the dueted scene of that,

like the small talk with Kendrick, who, as Sean Fennacy said, was like, was 25 years early for like what the all right was. It's going to look like at 2016. Yes. But all of a sudden, it heats up fast. Oh, yeah. And gets great. And Kendrick's just, so Kendrick, who is Kiefer Sutherland, it's hard to believe that's Jack Bauer and the guy from The Vanishing.

It's kind of a great Kiefer's Southernan creation. So there's a couple of cameos in this movie. Kiefer was just a little bit past that. I think he was like a supporting actor, but definitely was doing a movie that he was probably too big to play that part. He slummed it. Yeah. I think Bacon slum.

I can't remember if he was doing any career rehab at that point or like what he had going on. He's coming off flatliners and his wedding falling apart with Joey Roberts. Yeah, the all-time greatest getting left at the altar story. Yeah. But so he doesn't crack a smile the whole movie and he's like frighteningly serious. And even when he shows them, they're like, hey, let's check out where the room or the supposed murder happens. And he's basically like, he died because he had no honor. And they're like, okay, great.

He had no code. I do have like a fourth, an alt for this most rewatchable scene, which I'm sure we'll get to in one of your other sections. So don't let me step on it. But it's when Nicholson reads Santiago's letter. And he ends it and he said, who the fuck is PFC William Santiago? And then they do that whole thing where he's just like, yeah, let's get him out of here. He's going to get his ass kicked. And Nicholson's like, you're right.

We should surrender our position in Cuba. He calls the guy. Yeah. It's Josh Milina too, which I would literally at every single sort of. In a movie, yeah, which I've forgotten. In that Guantanamo, Bain lunch, it's the only time Kendrick laughs or does anything because Nicholson tells that one joke about when he's basically sexually harassing Demi Moore's character, Joe Galloway.

Yes. And just saying, well, I'm going to have to keep taking cold showers because unless they elects some gal president. And you hear Kendrick in the backer like, ha, ha, ha, like huge laugh. It's the only time he cracks anything. By the way, that gets a real cable edit, which I don't watch this movie 90% on cable. I would say. So I rewatch it this week.

And I was, wow, I did not remember that particular sex act being referenced in the, it was, you understand why. That's a tough edit, though. By the way, it's a podcast. We can talk about it. Oh, we can say blow it up. Oh, yeah. Basically, he was like, oh, now I get it.

She outranks you. He says the cruise. And then he does the whole thing. Once you get a blowjob from a superior officer, it's the greatest thing, whatever he says. Yeah. I think that almost has to be in the TV thing because it shows like what kind of a vicious guy he was. It's true. I think it comes across in like the tight close-up of Nicholson's face,

just being like, you know, growling and yelling about a panning officer. Maybe they should have done in a different word. Like, once you've gotten a lollipop from the superior officer. Okay. What's the age the best? 25 years later. Here are the categories. The ending.

The galactically stupid tirade. When drunk Tom Cruise loses it ends anymore. The mess hall cross-examination. a classic, which Kevin Bacon then in the next scene, like admiringly says, great job on the redirect. Cruz's Nicholson impersonation. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

The ending with Harold and Cruz, Ten hut, there's an officer on deck. But why the two orders really like brainstorm that Cruz has in the cross-examination of Jessup. Or last but not least, the Kevin Bacon Jack Ross, holy shit, he just admitted he did the code red face. Yeah.

What's age the best? If it's like a bottle of wine, it's just been decanted. What's going to taste the best? I think because inevitably, the more subtle moments are going to age better, right? So that kind of cough cuts out. Cruz doing Nicholson,

which I think anybody around our age has been through 30. Most of our lives have been spent watching other people imitate Nicholson. I'm trying very hard not to do it during this podcast. So it's a bunch of wild. You're like in 92. Yeah.

Yeah. I would say why the two orders. Why the two orders always gets me. Me too. It always gets me. Amanda? I think mess hall. Just because again, I watched it last night.

And I kind of. It's so subtle. It's so subtle. And you know it's coming every single time. But there's still kind of the way that he grabs the notebook back from Kevin Bacon. He's just like, nah, I got this. It's peak cruise swagger. It's very cute.

It's Noah Wiley, who is very important later on to a certain generation on ER. Early, Noah. Yeah, but it's kind of, it's all the cleverness of this Sorkin script and how they're problem solving it without being too showy or kind of straining plausibility, which we could come back to at some point later on in the argument if you'd like, I don't want to like. I love this movie, so I don't want to start punching holes. We're going to do that in a second. For me, it's, it's Harold and him finding common ground at the end. which I realized as I watched it when I got the chills, even though it's the 557 time I've seen it.

Ten Hut, there's not. Harold, you don't have to have a badge to have honor. So that whole scene just gets me. Just gets me. And plus we literally never see Harold again. Harold just, Harold goes off to jail. But as an actor also goes off to jail. He's never seen again.

Was he in anything else? So I think he was in a couple of like 90s action movies. He was actually Rob Reiner's assistant, I think, before that, right? Yeah. He was thrown into the movie. movie. I have like so my thing with the ending, the very ending, and I was giving, I think I did a very long rant at Amanda about this yesterday is that I think that a few good men is a movie that is dying for a Cota. Like it's dying for some sort of like after the movie like what happens because I'm still not clear how much trouble Jessup is in. Like he'll probably not get to be the head of the NSC. But like in Crimson Tide, they have like the whole court martial case after the submarine battle. But in this. This movie, it's just like, you got them, but they're still dishonorably discharged, but it's, you know, like, we'll just keep it moving. We did it for the flag.

There's, I want to know what happens to these people. There's also a little flaw where after the Code Red thing, then there's the other scene when the Harold and then Bacon says, I got to go arrest Kendrick. It's like, didn't you do that the day he did the Code Red? What'd you wait a week for? What's going on? What's age the worst? The nominees. Okay.

Token black newsstand guy. Rough. Yeah. I don't know if 2017 has token black newsstand guy. No. They don't have newsstand. Just shouting. Yeah, they're on a newsstand.

So he's out. Cruz melting down during the Jessup examination. There's this 10 extra seconds where he's kind of zoning out and can't decide what to do. The water. The water glass shaking. Yeah. It's getting awkward and then Nicholson gets up. I don't know if you zone out for 30 straight seconds.

Like even Christopher Darden didn't do that in the OJ trial. I don't. I'm sorry to jump in at this point. He's already in contempt at that point. Like they've been screaming, you're in contempt. You're in contempt. Maybe save them with the edit a little bit. The gaislers, which, you know, they didn't know any better than 191.

Little rough in the unedited. T&T, not as much of a problem. J.T. Walsh's farewell speech. And the truth is this. Your son is dead for one reason. I wasn't strong enough to stop it. Always. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Barrow.

Arkansas. Always. Always. You're trying to shoot yourself in the head. It's not. It's not always. It's done in 10 seconds. That's true.

Tough farewell speech. Hold on. I got one more. Oh, good. Joe Galloway. Well, this is a major conversation. We can, we're going to table that for a second, but those are the five choices. Okay.

So the sixth one I would just like to throw in there. Okay, please do. Is Tom Cruise rehydrating with Yahoo after softball practice? That is not a Gatorade flavor that I am. familiar with. Again, they didn't know any better. But I'm into it. If Paul George wants to sit down in the playoffs next year and just chug a Yoohoo, I think he could get to something really start.

That is awful. What was the worst thing to drink after you were? And his diet of only Yuhu and Cocoa Puffs. And Jack and Daniels. Remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's some Tom Cruise flaws in this movie because he's watching baseball games that they're living in D.C. But he's watching a TBS. I think he's watching

the Braves. He's watching TBS. Poudreys But then there's an Orioles game. Both times he's watching the game, like, amazing things are happening like inside the park homeless. Isn't it like 10-10? What of those? 10 to 10. What a game.

I personally think Joe Galloway is age the worst, but we're going to get to that. Yeah. So here are four things I found out, deep diving on few good men. Kiefer Sutherland's Jeep driving was so bad that he actually hit a couple Marines when he was driving the Jeep and they had to like do multiple scenes because he didn't know how to drive a military Jeep and he actually clipped a couple Marines. That was one thing I found out. How long in the movie is Kiefer Sutherland driving a Jeep?

It's like, it's like one scene. It's like one scene. They had to rewrite it so that Noah Wiley drove them back or something. Which is a nice scene. Roger Ebert criticized the movie. He only gave a two and a half star.

Said it telegraphed too much. It telegraphed the ending. I disagree, Roger Ebert. I know you're not here, but I just, how dare you? Jack Nicholson did 40 to 50 takes of the you can handle the truth. This is the best fact of it.

And did it all the reactions. He did it again. And they're like, okay, Jack, we're good. now we're going to cut we're going to shoot the cover of all the other people he's like no no no I'm going to do it every time kept doing it and they're like no really after the 20th time

we're good Jack you know we don't need you and Jack said I love to act that's like me I love to podcast it's like Bill you don't need to be in the rewatchables we're good we've loved to do podcasts we've done some podcasts about movies before we did like we talked to we talked about heat you and I love Miami Vice

usually when we talk about these things you can go online and it's like all these incredible stories about people they were going to cast and then once they were on the movie somebody got addicted to pills and just didn't show up for three weeks or they got into a shootout in Panama or something like these are all Miami advice things but still yeah nothing went wrong in this movie like it was like it cost 30 million it made 230 million Nicholson costs a lot of money but we're disaster yeah best five everybody in it is like it's the best experience I've ever had making a movie Rob Reiner was just like why don't you put the camera at the movie stars and make a good movie

It was like that was the amount of directing. It's just like everything that could go right on a movie went right on a movie here. Jason Alexander was supposed to be Sam Weinberg. Guess what happened? Season two of Seinfeld got picked up. I think that's for the- You, Lieutenant Weinberg.

Yeah, that's a, that's, you mentioned the other internet research thing. You said it before. Yeah, just the, Sorkin wrote it on bar napkins. We're at a bar, I think, off of Broadway. Yeah. And that then he got a, he and his roommates all chipped in Dubai, an early Macintosh computer where he wrote the script. And the other thing was just that Dawson was Reiner's assistant.

You left out the best part of the Aaron Sorkin story, that Aaron Sorkin was a bartender. Yeah. Can you imagine having Aaron Sorkin is your bartender? No. Just the witty dialogue he's able to come back to. And Sorkin's in this movie. Yeah.

And he's the lawyer at the bar. Yeah. Where are you on writers being. And directors. I like it. I like when people show up. I look when Oliver Stone does it. He's like the football announcer.

Scorsese used to always play the weirdest, creepiest guy and put himself in the movie. Because he is a weird and creepy guy in the game. This one, like, Storkin has about 10 seconds too much dialogue, which of course, it's fitting. He's not in focus, but like his, the audio is very clear on him. Most belatedly unexpected cameo. Who was the one you mentioned earlier? Josh Malina. Cuba Gooding Jr.

Noah Wiley. Joe Mooney. Or my choice. Christopher Guest. Christopher Guess is amazing. Who's the favorite called him by Rob Reiner? I have no idea what happened. It's like he's playing it straight,

but you expect him to be Christopher Guest and he's not. Yeah. And I just don't understand it. It's very weird. I feel like somebody called in sick and Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest are best friends. He's like, listen, I need you just, it's one day.

It's three hours. Just come in, play it straight. You got to explain what acidosis is for five minutes. It is funny, though, these cameos, these people have so much baggage and roles that came later. But you see Cuba Gooding Jr. you're on the stage and you just expect him to turn into Rodd, like Lieutenant Rod did well. Yeah.

And Noel, same thing. Like, you expect him to be this really sensitive young ER doctor. Yeah. But instead he's just a sensitive, whatever. The guy from, he's not even a that guy anymore, but the guy from Gladiator. Yeah, James Marshall. He was on Twin Peaks, too. Right.

Yeah. But he's not even a guy. If you're under 30, you don't even remember him. All right. We're going to go to Apex Mountain. Let's go. Apex, career. Apex or career, not Apex?

the following people. Okay. J.T. Walsh. Apex for me, for sure. Chris? Definitely his most infamous role. I think probably his apex was, uh, yeah, I go apex for him. Do you notice how seriously Chris took that question?

Yes. It was like I asked him like, it was like I asked them, uh, we have 15 minutes to escape. What should we do? Aaron Sorkin. I was thinking about my Sorkin rankings on the way over. It's not the Apex. Okay. It's close.

What a beginning. We're on Apex Mountain. You can have whatever opinion you want. Yeah. He has a nice view, but it's not the top. Chris? I'd say that the first season of West Wing and Social Network are in... I agree.

I would say first season, West Wing, Apex Mountain. This is more like his 63-point Michael Jordan game. Yeah. not a bad scene in this movie. There's no scene where I'm like, get rid of this. This guy's going to have a 30-year career. Neither of you is doing moneyball for that one? He only rewrote somebody else's script there.

I think that's why I... You don't count. I don't count it. Yeah. Kevin Pollack. No. Usual suspects. Oh, yeah.

That's a good one. I agree. Kevin Bacon. No. I can't give it to him. He's so good in this. He's so underrated in this, but he's been in so many... I mean, how can you not say River Wild?

His Kevin Bacon. I'm just kidding. I feel like I have this theory about Kevin Bacon's haircut in this movie, which is quite bad. But I think they purposefully gave to him in order so that he would not distract from Tom Cruise. It was, he was on the Tom Cruise hunt corner. Yeah. And so you have to separate. That's why they made Kiefer's haircut with the giant ears.

So in the spirit of the film and those choices, I'm saying that it's not his apex. So that it doesn't. Is footloose Kevin Bacon's apex? I liked him quite a bit in Mr. Griver. I think Footloose is probably his height of fame. Yeah. I disagree with both of you. I think this is Kevin Bacon's apex.

I think he's, this is not like a substantial, meaty part, and he's great in it, and it's a really memorable character, and he's kind of over the top, and there's like a dash of unintentional comedy, but he's likable,

and I just liked him. I don't know who else would have played that part and made it really good. Like, who else from that era? It's hard to figure out a person who could have done that, like Matt Dillon or somebody who could have played that part. Yeah, it would have been either they would have tried to compete with Cruz. He's like, I'm here to support Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is a star.

I'm going to be like his wingman. And Kevin Biggin was doing a lot of movies like in that way. Like, kept like quite quite a role for him in JFK. Right. Yeah. You know, like he was taking smaller parts in bigger movies at that time. And is he, he's not, he's on the bad team, right? He's trying to prosecute these guys.

He's sticking up with Jessup. So I shouldn't like him. Like he's basically saying, I don't care. Well, you have Marketson, I'm taking you down. But I'm like, I'm kind of rooting for coverbiz. He says at some point he's like, I don't think your guys deserve to go to jail. But I don't like that decision. He had some morality to him.

He represents kind of the contradictions of the system. It's unforgivable when he leaves the pickup basketball game, though. It's hilarious. We're going to get to that in a second. But it's just unforgivable. But we're going to get to that. I'm going yes for that. Wolfgang Botasin, Apex Mountain.

Yes or no? Yeah. That's the apex for Wolfgang. I wish him well. Jack Nicholson. No. No. No.

No. Late Jack Nicholson. Yes. I would say as good as it gets is his late career. You take this over departed? How dare you? It's late. But you know I can't stand his departed performance.

Oh, is that right? His New York accent and he's playing Whitey Bulger. I thought he was out of control in the department. I think he's the weekling of the department. He's the weekling of a department. Last one, Apex Mountain, Tom Cruise. Yes. Yes.

Not cocktail? This. It's a fugue good man. It's this or the firm. Who else could have played few good men, Daniel Caffey, in the last 30 years, and brought this level of unintentional comedy, good acting, sarcasm, bravado, all the stuff that he brings. Is there any other actor? Like, could Leo DiCaprio have played this guy?

No. Not at all. I think Matt Damon. could have done it. Like 10 years later, Matt Damon? Yeah, I think Damon could have done it. I think that it's, you know, it was interesting reading about or like additional Broadway stagings that they had talked about doing or they, and they're going to do a TV version of this next year, apparently. Yes. And Al-Baudwin is Justin. They haven't cast Kathy yet. It's hard one. James Franco had been rumored to do it like a

while back. But it's just very, very hard to find somebody who can be an airhead. but really smart, who could be a lawyer who also plays softball, who could be attractive but isn't a romantic lead. There's a lot of things that you have to do at the same time. I'm not putting Demi Moore on the Apex Mountain question because we all know this is the nadir of her career. Unintentional Comedy Award. Here are the nominees.

Tom Cruise swinging a baseball bat, actually a softball bat. Drunk Tom Cruise. Is that unintentional? It's funny to watch him pretend to be drunk because he's clearly. never had a drink in his life. Yeah, but like the here's, you know, the, what do we have? He's doing a game show thing. I feel like he's trying to be funny.

Randomly anti-Semitic Colonel Jessup. You Sam Weinberg, you Lieutenant Whiteberg, just out of nowhere, like just a little anti-Semitism to turn us against Jess somewhere. The only time Kendrick laughs, which we mentioned before, they're this totally inappropriate blowjob joke is one time he cracks a smile. Kevin Pollock asking, why do you like this? them so much and Joe Galloway is saying because they stand on a wall

and they say nothing's going to hurt you tonight not on my watch or Kevin Bacon leaving the hoops game or last but not least on Amazon right now because I had to buy it to watch it it said few good men and then it said

starring Wolfgang Bodhisom Tom Cruise Jack Nicholson Wolfgang Bodasin at first billing at Amazon I don't know if he paid I feel like that's all he has at this point. So let's just give it to him. All right.

So my choice is Kevin Bacon leaving the hoops game, which I just can't believe. What do they get? So they just have to stop the game. So it's a dream of life for me to walk into a pickup basketball game and shout. They doctored the log books or whatever the hell he does to like get Jack's attention. They were giving an order. I love all those guys being like, what the hell, Jack?

They're like, Jack. But not that mad. It's 108. What are you doing? He has a really slick little like half turn. As soon as he hears it, it's like basically a ballet dancer. He's just like, hello and I'm out. It's like the footloose training.

That's also a really, really, really great scene in the hallway where she's like, we're going to do this. And he's like, no, you're not because he knows that he's got me out here in the courtroom. I have to like go after these guys. It's very good bacon. So what's your pick? Oh, because they stand on a wall and say no one's going to hurt you tonight. I mean, how long are we going to keep dancing around this?

Now we're getting to it. I'm going to do Tom Cruise holding a bat, but can I have a. subsection for Tom Cruise shooting Nerf basketballs and saying, where's my bat? Where's my bat? Doing two sports at once. It's great. Yeah. So Tom Cruise has had two basketball scenes in a movie, by my knowledge. The other one is in Cocktail when he's playing Coglin for money. Yeah. And is shooting like my son shot when he was like six years old and just winging him up there and shooting hook shots like his clearly. I think he was a wrestler. He must have been a wrestler, right growing up yeah and Tom Cruise also in he's been in all the right moves obviously played a little

football and oblivion where he weirdly describes a Super Bowl that he like in the future he had a catch catching more in the world's he had a baseball catch yeah and then there's also I feel like there's another there's another there's another oh volleyball and top gun yeah where he even though he's five three he's like cartch crying over people that this would be a good ring or thing for us while wearing jeans on the beach listen It's iconic. Just let's let's let it go. Can I ask a question about the softball swing, though?

Yeah. So it's the technique that you're saying is not good. Well, he's hitting ground balls to people, but because they just have the tight shot of Cruz, he's hitting them too fast. Like normally you hit the ball, the guy grounds, guy gets, he picks it up, throws to first. It's like, what, eight to ten seconds? Yeah. Cruz is just like, ball boom, ball boom.

It's like a batting machine. The first one where the guy comes by and he's like, I'm going to hang your boy by a yard arm. That one where he's just hitting grounders, I think is like, okay. But the batting practice he has when Joe comes and talks to him, which also leads to one of my favorite screenwriting tropes, can I just drop this in here right now?

When Kathy's like, you don't even know me. And this is a big thing in the 90s. And then the character in that conversation would be like, I do know you, Daniel J. Kathy, son, Lionel Kathy, and then just reads the LinkedIn page from memory and the guy is like, okay,

yeah, you do know me. It was always the thing those movies where it would just be like, you think I don't know you, I know you, graduated from Harvard with honors, did this. Did this for a little while, now you're here. I'm going to do that to Amanda the next time we have an argument.

He's like, you don't know me, Bill. I do know you. You're from Georgia. That's true. All right. Probably unanswerable questions. This is a meaty part. It's a meaty part of the pot.

Bigger impact on a movie in the fewest minutes, Nicholson is Jessup or Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. Oh, wow. I'm going to go Jessup. Hopkins is in jail for most of that movie. Jessup's in three scenes. He's in the scene when he reads the letter.

He's at lunch in Guantanamo Bay and he's in the ending. Courtroom scene. I think Lecter's actually in more scenes. I think Lecter has 18 minutes of screen time. So how much screen time do you think? I think like 11 minutes. Jessup has in this. Like 11, maybe 12, because they.

to end that last scene is pretty long. He had an extra monologue. I was going to say Jessup just because I think he's in the movie less. Yeah. So his usage rate to borrow a basketball term, I think it's got to be the lowest for like what, like basically he goes, what is he, what are Nicholson's basketball stats in this movie, like 12 for 13? Yeah. He had eight threes. He had 10 rebounds and nine assists in 12 minutes.

Yeah. Very Iguodalic game six. Exactly right. What position did Tom Cruise? playing softball. Oh, Christ. Oh, um. Or I should say Daniel Caffey. I think because he seems to be the player coach, he's probably, he probably puts himself a shortstop. I was going to say second base. Yeah, middle infielder for sure. I think shortstop, but the other guys are grumbling about it, that he's not quite good enough. Who's that guy should be, Sherby? Like Kirby, who's the guy who's

like hitting balls to in the beginning? Yeah, yeah, Herbie wants to be the short stuff. Yeah, right. Kathy's like, I'm short. They're like, ah, fucking Kathy. Did Sam Weinberg mail it in? Yes. Okay, yes. Oh, I just remembered I'm very upset about this because watching it last night, the scene in which Downey is on the stand and no one found out that Downey wasn't there to hear the order. He's Mr. Nobody's better at preparing a witness.

Exactly. And my husband was sitting there being like, Joe Gallo, I screwed that one up. And I'm like, you know who was in charge of preparing witnesses? It was Sam Weinberg. So yeah. What about you, Lieutenant Weinberg? That's what I'm saying. That was his only job.

He had one job. Two, I guess. We had two witnesses to prepare. No, no. His one job was to make sure Downing was in the room when Kendrick gave the code red. There's also, he has the biggest, he gets dunked on the hardest in this whole movie. When after Joe storms out and Daniel destroys like the apartment, Sam just starts picking it up. And Kathy's like stopped cleaning up.

He's like a houseboy. Yeah. And he's like, stop. cleaning up. Another questionable decision, which is meant to be motivational, but shortly after that he gives a speech talking about Kathy's dad. And, you know, if he were here today, like, I would choose you as a lawyer every time. You know what? I really, I love Tom Cruise in this movie. I think that he's an exceptional litigator. And they make it sound like his dad, well, he was definitely attorney general and he like did Brown v. Bored. Yeah, Jessup knew who his dad. Yeah, Jessup knew who his

dad was and raped about it. Like, I think if my life's on the line, I'm going with his dad. Yeah, probably. Not over Tom Cruise, the guy who just settles every case. Tom Cruise, who also is like weirdly casual for a military court proceeding throughout this entire movie. Like his opening statement is like, that's not true. And anything you say otherwise, it just ain't so.

And I'm going to prove it because I'm a lawyer. I think same way I'm bailed it in. I think we all do. First half hour, he's just like, I have no responsibility whatsoever. He's never emotionally committed to the case until very, like, He doesn't like the guy in the trial. He's kind of like, whatever. I think he thought the guys were bullies and he wanted them to go to jail.

He's like, I'm not helping anyone. I mean, he serves a useful purpose in that way of kind of being in the middle of there's no, there's not a right answer to this. Which I think this movie does better than a lot of Sorkan movies of kind of tempering the weird ideology. But as a lawyer, he's useless. Do you remember, is it Sam or Joe who gets asked to buy three cartons of legal pads, two boxes of black pens she watched? Rattles it off. Joe gets asked to do that, but it's okay because he has to bring. Food.

No, and also lamps. So they are both asked to bring office supplies. Please know that I was watching to see what they asked of the women. It's okay. Who's treated more like a subordinate? Sam Weinberg or Joe Galloway? Joe. Okay.

Can you really make an entire flight disappear? That's my next unanswerable question. I think without the internet, you can't because it's just like a lot of like, can you just erase this? Rasing some logs? I don't know. It never sits right with me. did Cruz and Demi Moore's characters Daniel Kaffin and Joe Galloway end up together?

No. No. Did they ever make out? No. No. They never hooked up. No. Not one drunk night.

There's something in there about the idea. I think there was like a day. They wrote a scene where like he asks her out on a date. Oh, for the ending. It was in the third draft of Sorkin's script. And she goes, he goes and asks her for a date. Just make sure you're wearing matching socks, like to cut the callback line. I think that would have been a better ending than the end.

in big script letters. The end. Okay, here are the problems. Number one, they have less than zero chemistry. Right, which has not stopped a lot of Hollywood movies. Yeah, that's true. It's better if it's a perfect... Who has Chris have chemistry with?

Just had curiosity. That's a great question. Because I watched Days of Thunders recently, and it's hard to believe him and Nicole Kidman had no chemistry when they got buried in real life on this after meeting on that movie. I think I just watched shut as probably a better, like, depiction of their particular chemistry. I think they hooked up once.

I think she came to a softball game to be nice. I just went back to the bar. They're characters. Listen, she definitely wants to. He stepped in once. No. Do you know Kathy? Straight or gay? Just throwing it out there.

I would say he's too busy with work, but it doesn't seem like he is. Asexual? Kind of like Cruz. Yeah. All right. What 1991 on the rise black actor? would have been better and more influential in the role of Harold because that was a great role. We had a lot of great actors back then.

Is it a great role? He has like one cool scene. Rob Ryan is like, my assistant can do this part. It was kind of a big part. He's in like 10 big scenes. I remember when this movie was cast actually. And I just, I remember like it is interesting. I mean, Cuba getting good could have done that role, I guess.

The guy had to be big though. He had to because Dawson, Dawson's like the leader of the troop. They can do all sorts of stuff with cameras. Like he doesn't have to be epic. Tom Cruise looks tall. for a majority of his movie. What if this is Morris Chestnut? Is it a better or worse movie?

I don't think it makes that difference. How well known was Morris Chestnut then? He wasn't. Okay. I'm saying somebody that this is the first big role of their career and it leads to, all right, forget it. What happens if Jessup never admits that he ordered the code red? What if he just never admits it? I know he wanted to admit it.

I know he did admit it. That's Kathy's speech. But what happens if he doesn't admit it? And then it's just like. he's in contempt, which technically he is. I don't mean to... Kathy goes to jail, right? Yes.

Yeah, he gets court marshal and he's teaching at the Rocco Colombo School for Women. He's coaching softball. In the real life version of this movie, he has his little explosion and all the marshals come in and Jessup never gives his monologue. Yeah, and Kevin Bacon's like,

we're not actually that tight. I'm not going to let you do this. Yeah. As soon as you, as soon as the judge and all the officers are yelling, you're in contempt, you're in contempt. I think it's game over. And I don't think.

I think he gets tasered almost at that point. I think that you can make the argument that he almost doesn't go for it until Jessup's like, tell me you have more than, you know, phone records and toiletries or whatever, yeah. Pretty good point about how San Diego didn't pack. That's great. It's so great. It's going to pack something.

There's, it's, it's good. The idea of like when people's like light bulb moments are so bad in movies where they like will all of a sudden see a bird flying across the. landscaping, like, that's it. Birds can't fly that way. I know now that, like, the murderer did this. But, like, that actually, the way he sees his shirts in the closet is so cool. Where's my bat?

Yeah. Was the Code Red scene the highlight of Tom Cruise's career? It's going toe-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to. So, multiple Oscars. To-to. This is Sean's big thing, is that Nicholson, that Cruz beats Nicholson in the scene. That's like... Hold that because we're going to talk about that.

Okay. Yeah, I can't think of a better single cruise scene. I mean, I can name them, but you complete me is not any better. There's no top gun scene, single scene that's better. The last barman's poet and cocktail when he stands in the bar and does the whole thing from the five-story jail cell bar. It's up there. I mean, I guess the risky business dance.

There's iconic scenes. Yeah, but I think that. I think this is the highlight of his career. Yeah. Yeah. Did Joe Galloway set back the woman's movement by one, three, or five years? Oh, good. I wonder who you're like that.

Well, did me more might have? Okay. How about that? Okay. Get into it. You guys got to have this. No,

it's coming right here. It's coming in the next section, which we're calling picking nits. Okay. Oh, great. Did San Diego kind of deserve to die? Oh, Jesus. No.

Kind of, just a little bit. It's a tiny bit. No. He's putting lives in danger. Yeah. What if San Diego? It sounds like we're getting ready for one of your participation trophy rants. Like, you know.

How about this? I will say every time I watch this, I inch like a little bit closer to being like, Nicholson has it. Jessup has a point. Like, you know, you need to, people need to follow orders. Nicholson said he's in the business of saving lives. This guy can't keep up, can't breathe, keeps falling behind, rats on his, on his people and his troop breaks the chain of command.

Yeah. It breaks a chain of command. Like, eh. I'll go that far with you. I won't go to deserving to die. I don't think he deserves that. I was just throwing it out there, picking nets. was it fucking insane to put Jess up on this stand?

Like, yes. It's not a movie. Just abjectly this is an insane moment. Six months. They gamble all of their careers on a fake out with the two airmen that Sam almost doesn't get to the court on time. Yeah. It makes no sense.

It's pretty risky. Such a bluff. It's a big bluff. Yeah. It's maybe the all-time law room. That's actually one of the reasons why this movie is so fun to watch over and over again is the same reason why it's fun to watch like Rounders or a gambling movie is because you're even if you know how it's going to happen watching them bluff and watching them put together the argument is amazing at the end Cruz

says don't call me son I'm a lawyer and an officer in the United States Navy and you're under arrest you son of a bitch the witness is excused he's not ever calling him son of a bitch and that's in that that's not happening right it's not really doing that right that they had sort of dropped a lot of the formality though when he was like I'm going to like pick out your eyes and skull effie. Once, like, Nicholson is doing that flailing, screaming, like, venomous shot, yeah, I think it's all right.

Was Joe Galloway a terrible lawyer? Let's go. Dig-day! Dig-day! Okay. Here we go. All right. Reasons, I made a list.

I watched this last night because I knew that this was a thing for you. And there is a problem in the character of Joe Galloway, but it is not actually the way that Joe Galloway is. written or her skills at a lawyer. Okay. So here are the reasons that Joe Galloway is a good lawyer. Are you ready? Number one, knows what a code read is.

No one else seems to know what a code read is. Just putting that out. Okay, fair. Number two, quote from her advisors, she's a hell of an investigator, which comes in handy. True. Three, as Chris noted, memorizes extensive biographical details. Yep. Four, believes in due process, unlike Kathy, who's just like, yeah, whatever, 12 years, yada, yada.

I can get him 12 years and out out in six. Yeah. Okay. Five, this was an important. Please think back to our favorite scene, lunch at getmo. Pisses Jack Nicholson off and gets him to admit that A, he condones Code Reds off the record. And B, that he will take any sort of bait and, like, get really mad and yell at you, which, if you will recall, then becomes the strategy that went to the case to the end. Yeah.

So she's the one who uncovers that, even though the questioning that gets there is, like, pretty excruciating. and I would never want to be a part of it. Six, and Jenny Trusser, being a lawyer is client services, guys. I'm just saying. Seven, isn't like best friends with the prosecution. Yeah. We're not making deals here. We're saving lives.

Drain the swamp, man. Come on. Exactly. This is about justice and honor. Okay. Eight has the idea to put Jess up on the stand. And whether or not it's crazy, it works. You get him to say it.

Yeah. And number nine is not at any point found to be in contempt of court, so would not be, like, arrested like Kaffy. In conclusion, she's a pretty good lawyer. And motivated Kaffy, too. You got to add that one to her. Yeah, here's the thing. Motivated him to really take it to the next level.

She's not a litigator. And this is a film about performance and litigation. So she doesn't get any credit. And it's pretty boring. But he would not win without her. So it's not her fault. I'll throw a couple of non-law things in there in Joe's favor as well. Her jeans are back in style.

Very true. So congratulations to her for being a trendsetter. Very true. 25 years in advance. Seems to have a great taste in bar restaurants, bar grills. I love that crab shack they go to. Seems like a really fun place to hang out, have a beer. She seems like she just loves to smash up some Baltimore blues or whatever.

And I like her. I think her hair is pretty amazing. Unique. But I think it's the best. It's weird that she does it off duty too. And there's also, you know, the first night that she comes over and she's like, I've got, like, tower logs and Chinese food. I say we eat first. She's wearing, like, a full business suit.

Yeah. But, like, that's not what she wears to work. She wears a uniform to work. So I guess she thought that she should dress in a business suit to go to a housework. And there's also, like, there's that time where, like, when Sam has to go to Andrews, when Danny goes to the office and is, like, call Sam and then Joe's at their apartment. Yeah. And Joe's wearing, like, Malcolm X glasses. she only wears in one scene of the entire movie.

The fashions are really something. But I actually think that like the whole thing with Joe being this like, I have to do all the work twice as hard as you. While you get to like kind of get by on like your smile and your last name and your fact that you drink with everybody and play softball with everybody. For as much as this character is kind of there to just kind of like throw a little bit of like of a wrench in the works. I actually thought it's like a good foil for Danny.

and it actually is effective. It's true. Also in terms of, you know, the women's movement and character, that is an honest representation of what it would be like to be a woman in that particular workplace or in a lot of workplaces, frankly. It's kind of, it's weirdly, even though she's wildly disrespected throughout the movie,

it's one of the best Sorkan female characters. Yeah. Because Sorken gets killed for his female characters. Because the movie is at least aware that she is being, I mean, the movie is hard on her, especially with, like, I strenuously object, but that's bad. Everyone makes mistakes. She does the you're an exceptional lawyer of speech to Cruz that I think she gets credit for.

And frankly, I wish people at the ringer would give me speeches like that. You're an exceptional thinker, Bill. She really pumps Cruz up. Yeah. You should have seen yourself in that courtroom day, Chris Ryan. You were exceptional. Here's the thing. Here's the case against her.

Okay. All right. I blame her for Downey. I know you blame Sam Weinberg. I know it says she's the job of the witnesses. So she's the closest to Downey. She was the one who made friends with Aunt Ginny. And she has no idea that Downey wasn't in the room.

She spent like a month and a half of them. Really? You don't know that Downy wasn't in the room? But what are the other two doing? Weinberg is doing with... Downy's hers. Witness prep. But he's still...

Kathy's still lead counsel. They also established early on in the movie that those guys don't seem to want to ever tell them anything that they aren't asked. So like when he first is like, what's he come back in to say like, did so-and-so were the court correct? And they're like, yeah. And they're like, you didn't think, tell me that? And he's like, you didn't ask.

And that's when Cruz really freaks out. I love that scene with Cruz freaks out on him. Strangiously object is tough. It's really bad. It's bad. She's not a litigator. It's her scarlet letter of this movie. She's just bad.

And then she was in the scarlet letter. It's not good. I would also throw in the something happens. It says that we're going to win. That's awful. That's terrible. Come on, Joe. I think you've been there before.

That is just because it's a bad performance. Can we just talk about it? It's like, Demiore is like totally miscast in us. So who would have been good in this movie? Julia Roberts. Oh. And as soon as you have that thought, you can like, you can hear the rhythm of Julia saying every single.

Counterpoint. Oh, no. You can't. Julie Roberts can't be in this movie for the same reason Kevin Bacon had to have that haircut. Would make it more exciting? Yes. I'm just saying like if we're talking about like why certain people in this movie. Then maybe they do sleep together.

So that's great. Tompkins and Julie Roberts never in a movie together. As you were talking about that, I was thinking about it. I don't think so. That's kind of wild. It's kind of wild that that didn't happen. So you think it's 65% Demi Moore's fault and 35% Sorkin? That would be your pie chart?

I mean, yes. I think part it has to be her fault. Or is part of the era? It's like 50% 1991's fault? Yes. Well, no, I would say it's majority. Demi Moore's fault. In 2017, what is that character?

Oh, that's a great question. Thank you. So you can't just have, in 2017, if the woman is just stuck middle management paper pushing and the man gets all of the story. I mean, it's hard, right? Because as soon as you put it in such a predominantly male setting as the military, you can get away with a lot, basically. Right.

Let me flip it on you. Yeah. I think Daniel Kaffey is a woman in the Few Good Men, 2017 version. And Joe Galloway is actually Joe Galloway with an E. That works. I'd be up for that. I'd love to see that. The other person who was up for this role, Demi Moore auditioned, even though she was obviously a big star.

Jody Foster. And there was one other one, right? There was one other way. I can't remember the other person. I wrote it down and it's not in my notes. Yeah, Jody Foster and Cruz would have been the sexual energy of all time. That wouldn't have worked. In any respect.

I can't even imagine what it. I thought McConaughey and Jody Foster were bad in contact. Right. That's usually, that's my bar. Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson's pretty rough. It's a tough one. As good as it gets. Yeah.

But yeah, Cruz and Jody Foster. Wow. All right, I don't know if we solved the Joe Galloway thing. But you made me think more. You made me think about it. I would like to see it recast. I would like, if they want to CGI someone else in, that would be exciting for me.

How can we not think of who would have been better than Demi Moore? It was really like Julie Roberts got every part back then. There were no other actresses. Linda Hamilton. I think Linda Hamilton would have been really good. A little older? Does it matter? No, not at all.

I'm trying to imagine. There would have been a good bicep scene with her. She would have been Terminator 2 shape. She would have worn a tank top with the same Weinberg at one point. Greatest Exchange, three choices. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth.

Harold, you don't need to wear a patch in your arm to have honor. Ten hot. There's an officer on deck. Did you wear the code red? you're goddamn right I did Greatest exchange I mean how do you choose anything from the last scene How do you choose any I mean my favorite is actually

When he's doing why the two orders And they kind of gets him up there And he's like you know And then that's when Cruz is like you cut these guys loose And that's the whole like everybody gets up At the same time and they're shouting And everybody is like shouting at the same time They've clearly staged it in a way

That like you can hear everyone And he's like damn it coffee And he's just like, and when it went wrong? You cut these guys loose. Did you ever hear this stuff about how Cruz was really self-conscious about how high his voice was when he yelled? I didn't know that. In the 80s. And I've heard various things on this.

One is that they would doctor the movies because he was so sensitive about it. You can hear in some of the early stuff like in risky business when like his Porsche is going toward the legs. Like his voice is super high. But by a few good men, he's like, you cut these guys loose. Like he'd obviously worked on it with some German. in vocal scientist. Dirk's shooting coach? I think you want answers.

I want the truth. You can handle the truth is unbelievable. I forgot how great it was. And watching my daughter for the first time, it's just a great scene. You're like, holy shit, what's going? You know, it raises it to another level. Fantastic.

What's your favorite exchange? I mean, it's definitely you can handle the truth. That's just like that exists outside of the movie. Yeah. You know, that's like memes before there were memes is you can't handle the truth. Do you think it's cool how they don't have any references to any world outside of the world they're in. Like the exception of it's like Guantanamo and he's going to go be the, he's going to work for

the president. Yeah. But there's no, it could take place tomorrow or 50 years ago. Like there's no real reference to the outside world. No. And even D.C. just looks incredible in this movie. Yeah. It's always twilight at the fall.

Yeah. It's early September. The leaves are out already. Yeah. Yeah. D.C. looks great. nobody's hot. Because it's still basically a play.

Yeah. It's still the play structure. And then they were just like, we'll throw in some beautiful always sunset. in D.C. Or else the leaves are falling down perfectly. Greatest quote, here are the nominees. These are the facts of the case and they are indisputable. I like how it says that.

I've always enjoyed that over the years. I'm sorry I lost your set of steak knives. Nice little twist. Was that a clangery thing? What was like steak knives really big in the 90s? Like what was up of that? 1992. Yeah, I think steak, the ginsu.

Yeah. Ginzu knives are big. You don't want the truth because deep down and place. is you don't talk about at parties. You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. That's very good. All you did today was week in a country, Kaffy.

You put people's lives in danger. Good, Jack. This is my personal favorite. I don't want to give away my pick yet, but I'm going to. I like all you Navy boys. Every time we got to go someplace to fight, you fellas always give us a ride. Great dig. It's very great dig.

It's really twisted in. He's got so much contempt for crews. You're a lousy fucking softball player, Jack. I'm going to rip the eyes out of your head and piss down your dead skull. You fucked with the wrong Marine. We live in a world that has wild so those worlds have to be guarded by men with guns.

Who's going to do you? You, Lieutenant Weinberg. So mean. Not good. And then thank you for playing. Should we or should we not? Follow the advice of the galactically stupid. Favorite quote.

I like the galactically stupid. Can I... Can I have made something else? Feel free to add one. My favorite is still you have to have. to ask me nicely. It's really, really good. Yeah.

And I mean, he savors it. And it can be applied to any situation. I have to nail my... Should we start doing it in the office? Yeah, my impersonation is not good enough yet. It's a tough register for, like, a woman because you have to be... Yeah, I can't do it. In that same scene, I have to say, I'm a fair guy, but this fucking he is making me

absolutely crazy. That is good word. Who won the movie? Nicholson, Cruz, Kiefer, or Bacon? Cruz. Cruz. Cruz. Cruz.

That easy. I mean, think about how much time he spends on camera doing so much different stuff. Essentially doing it, but physically doing nothing. But being funny, being panicked, being cool, being, you know, sad. Like, he runs the gamut of emotions for sure. What athlete performance you do. you compare it to? Man, I don't even know.

I mean, it's like, it's really a quarterback performance. You know, he's like cool, but then he does it. Like when it, everything's on the line, he goes for it. He crambles for a TV. I think Cruz, too. Last question. Who won the scene? Cruz versus Nicholson.

Those, that, uh, however many minutes that was, the code red scene. You said fantasy thought Cruz won the scene. Do you agree with that opinion? I think he does. And just very quickly, one of the things that they do in this movie that's so genius and you mentioned how it's like still stage adaption is how during that last interrogation he does this really good stuff of walking around and then there's like that point where he's like no because just a minute ago you said they your orders always follow that's not what you said that's not what you said

and he walks up to him and he like gets very quiet but he like walks up to the camera so the way they shoot it like the physical stuff that he does in that last scene is actually suddenly really really important because Jessup's in a chair. So he can't move. He can't broadcast anything. It's just all Nicholson. So in the sense, Nicholson is working from a disadvantage.

But I just think it's such a great performance from Cruz. What do you think, Amanda? Everything that Chris says is right. And I think Tom Cruise wins the movie in large part because of this scene. And I think it's absolutely the best Tom Cruise performance.

But Nicholson owns every inch of that frame. And there's a part in the writing where, you know, Tom Cruise says, I think I'm entitled to it. And then Jessup gives this long speech about what he is or not is entitled to, which you read from. Yeah. That is just so dripping with contempt. And the only person who could properly deliver it is Nicholson.

And it takes up the whole room. And he's also so much of that. I mean, he does exploit at the end, but so much of it is at a lower register and he's growling. And I do honestly think, like, the quiet. power performance is actually the most powerful of all, you know, because you have to, you're hanging on their word as opposed to just kind of fireworks. So I agree with that. I think Nicholson wins.

Go, Nicholson. And here's my evidence. Tom Cruise talking about this scene and some weird website that I found where Tom Cruise gave an interview about the scene and talks about all the subtle stuff Nicholson did. He was saying basically like, Nicholson, when I did, I didn't expect him to go in this direction. I thought he was going to play it much bigger. but he went super subtle and he brought everything

and just did these tiny little things that I was just so amazed by as an actor. I don't think Nicholson's like, man, when Cruz was doing this, I just felt like, wow, Tom really took it to the... Tom Cruise was who Jack Nicholson thought Tom Cruise was when they did the movie. But Cruz was like, oh,

Nicholson's doing this, this, this, and this. And even the ways like he would move his eyes or really adjust his thing or like the sarcasm, I don't know. It's just classic Nicholson, I think, I mean, I rather doubt Nicholson. And that's the thing, too, is that it's actually a performance.

Because if you think about Tom Cruise, this is sort of the platonic ideal of a Tom Cruise performance. It's the Tom Cruise is like, a guy who's like completely gifted but kind of cutting corners, but eventually he figures it all out, yada, yada.

The Nicholson, like this and Shining, which are probably the like two second half of his career performances that he's best known for are not typical of what he got sort of famous for, like Chinatown and Fize these pieces and these other. more leading man roles.

So it's kind of wild to think about like this being this, he's acting in this role. Like he's pretending to be a different dude, you know? It was also a caught him at a cool point in his career because he was kind of past his prime. He had done terms of endearment like 1984 and then, but just had kind of gone away a little bit, but people still loved him.

They knew him from Laker games and going to sit in court side and things like that. And then it flipped. It's the old guy having fun role a bit. And you can, I mean, he's a reprehensible person who is, or the character is, but you can tell that Nicholson is having so much fun doing it. He's tan, he's in shape, looks good in the,

whatever the Army crew cut thing he got. I don't know if it was a toupee if it was real, but hair looked good. I think Nicholson first, when I think of this movie, even though he's in it for like 12 minutes. We'll all agree to disagree. Any last thoughts? A few good men?

I feel like I didn't say at any point that I also think that this is the most handsome Tom Cruise ever was at any point. Oh. I was waiting for that. I was like, I'm sort of proud of myself for not having brought that in, but you gave me the opportunity. Yeah, this is peak aesthetic, Tom Cruise. Funny you should mention that because this is my favorite cute dummy more performance. Oh, wow.

Yeah. That's weird. Yeah, I know. Okay. But that's fine. I don't, I mean, I just kind of think she's never good in it. So. I just think she looks good.

I liked her hair at that. I don't know. I like the military to me. She's like probably her most relatable character. very often she's had quietly not that great of a career i think her celebrity kind of was i would agree with that much larger than what her actual i mdb is you go to the nb it's like yeah yeah you know about last night's probably her best acting and that's a rom-com um is that even a com yeah yeah i think you can file it away yeah it's not a traditional i really enjoyed her in the uh film rough night

that came out this year she has a came i didn't see that one yeah she's good enough yeah it's maybe my favorite to be more performance. I'm waiting for the right airplane to crack down and open. Any last thoughts, Chris Rand? No, I think we covered it all. If any, this conversation has just made me appreciate Kevin Bacon's performance even more. I'm glad to know that I was, like, almost like, this is going to be weird if I'm, like, super into Kevin Bacon when we get here.

That's why I gave him the who won the movie. I thought you would go rogue or go bacon. No, I can't give it to him because he basically has, like, four scenes and is like in the, like, he's like essentially like a table in most of the scenes that he's in. But like the Lazy fucking softball player or the basketball. scene and just to see him like at the end where he's so shell shock that that great shell shock bacon.

So I mean maybe you guys aren't convincing me that bacon won the movies but I just can't get off Cruz Island. That's it for the rewatchables. Ringer Podcast Network our newest one. I don't know what the next one we're doing is but they will all be in the same kind of vein as this one subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Check out

all other podcasts. Check out the ringer.com. Check out the brand new site. The relaunch. We have a big ass site now. Very excited to at it. Thanks for listening.