Name: Alice
Student no: 492420642
Date: 2005/6/10
English composition (minor)
Title: The internal change of Daniel Kaffee
In the film A Few Good Men, there was a great change of Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise ). We can’t say he is not a good military lawyer in the early part of the film, but he does not pay much effort on his work, although he had ended so many cases, all cases were settled out of court. He didn’t go to the court but he ensured that his client have the biggest benefits, or the lightest penalty. He was a navy but he only work in the military for 9 months after graduation. We can see the scene that the man asked him to discuss the cases of a suspect who committed of hiding narcotics. And it was interesting that how Kaffee tackled this case when he was playing the base ball. I found that Kaffee was a very clever and sober-minded person; he can argue with the lawyer of the other side for the best sentence for his client. But he didn’t make a thorough inquiry in the cases. May be the reason that he didn’t want to be a military lawyer wholeheartedly, he became a lawyer because of his famous and successful lawyer father. He succeeded his father’s profession for his father’s expectancy.
But during the case of Santiago, Kaffee changed a lot. At first he only wanted the case to be settled out of court with the minimum sentence, and Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) made her effort to solicit Kaffee to regard this case earnestly. But Kaffee didn’t take the case into serious not until Jo said the word “code red”, he began to interest in the truth of the case. And he gradually understood that he could not win this lawsuit. All the proof and clues had been “ handled” by Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson). The proof was not profit for Kaffee and his clients, Kaffee wanted to abandon to handle this case, he considered for a long time and he finally try to fight for the justice. At that time Kaffee pay all his concentration on the case, when Lt. Col. Matthew Andrew Markinson came up, Kaffeehoped against hope that he could win the lawsuit. Unfortunately, Markinson committed suicide and the only witness of the case was dead. This shocked Kaffee so much and he nearly abandon the lawsuit again. In fact he didn’t have much confidence on the case and himself, he didn’t think he was an excellent lawyer comparing with his father. He thought that if his father handled this case, and his father would try his best to win the lawsuit. By the encouragement from his partners, he gambled all his hope on letting Jessep to appear in court as a witness and tried to make him admit that he had ordered to carry out the code red. By misleading Jessep to fall in Kaffee’s trap, Jessep was shamed into anger and admitted the truth. Although the conclusive judgments were not so satisfied, finally they win for justice.
Kaffee had changed. Before, he was just a third-rate lawyer as we considered. Actually he was clever and potential, and the case of Santiago made him wake up his talent, confidence and his sense of justice.
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