7 Famous Movie Courtroom Scenes (And How They Are Wrong In Real Life)
3. A Few Good Men (1992) - Colonel Jessup's Confession
It's one of the films that makes children everywhere want to be a lawyer.
Isn't Tom Cruise's character smart? And he's brave too, isn't he? He takes a calculated risk that jeopardizes his entire career and it all pays off by getting the witness to admit to breaking the law, and it's just brilliant, right?
Except no.
Admittedly, the courtroom in this film is a military court, and military courts use their own rules and law, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or "UCMJ" for short. I am far from a military lawyer, so I cannot go into too many details about how actions in this movie might contradict the UCMJ, but I can at least talk about Lt. Daniel Kaffee's (Tom Cruise) decision to put Col. Jessup (Jack Nicholson) on the stand.
The only way Lt. Kafee was going to succeed would be if he was able to commit one of the cardinal sins of questioning a witness at trial: badgering.
Tom Cruise's character asked a serious of questions quickly, in succession, with increasing tone, and in an accusatory tone meant to confuse and fluster a witness. This is textbook badgering, and is not allowed (unless you're in front of the Judge in Intolerable Cruelty, then anything's allowed...).