Honor or Murder
How far would someone would go to make another person happy? Even if it meant hurting them mentally and physically? Obeying authority can only go so far before it becomes a very unhealthy action.Sadly that is exactly what Lance Cpl. Dawson and Pfc. Downey do in the movie A Few Good Men. Also this idea is what Stanley Milgram concludes in his famous shock experiment. In these two pieces, the actions of obeying authority and taking an oath, result in “death”. Therefore, the conclusions Milgram draws from his study can explain why Dawson and Downey brutally harm Pfc. William Santiago. However, Lance Cpl. Dawson’s previous actions of getting in trouble for something he felt he had to do, might also be an explanation of why …show more content…
Santiago is killed in the middle of the night by being tied up and his mouth taped with a rag shoved in his mouth to keep him quiet. This is called a “code red” that is issued by Col. Nathan R. Jessup the marine in charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He issued Pfc.Louden Downey and Lance Cpl. Harold W Dawson to teach Santiago a lesson. Lt. Daniel Kaffee is sent to handle this case. He then investigates the whole crime scene and automatically knows that he wants to settle and doesn’t want to take it to court. Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway then states that there is more than what meets the eye. They then dig deeper and deeper into the case with Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s partner Lt. Sam Weinberg. Kaffe and Weinberg soon figure out that Jessup has been lying the entire time and that they only put Kaffee on the case because they knew that he would have a hard time figuring out what to do. Kaffee is not used to these types of cases or going into a courtroom which is why Jessup is set to get away with it. Everyone thinks that Kaffee is just an amiture. Kaffee took that as a motivational factor and makes sure he gets his foot in the door. In the last courtroom scene Kaffee then antagonizes Jessup to get him to admits to his crime. He soon surrender’s and he is charged as well as Dawson and Downey for not following the code of a marine and their privilege of being a marine is taken away and Kaffee wins his first murder trial. This is a result of Kaffee wanting to …show more content…
He then starts to panic trying to hide the truth, he looks at Dawson for what to say. Dawson then yells, “Tell the truth” (A Few Good Men). Downey was just trying to keep his word with Dawson and keep Dawson out of trouble. The reason that Dawson was going to get in trouble is that he followed an order from someone that is higher than he is. Dawson ordered Downey to help him, Kendrick ordered Dawson to commit the code red, and Jessup ordered Kendrick to order Dawson to commit the code red. It was a chain reaction from the higher Marines. This relates to Milgram because when the shocker wanted to stop asking questions and shocking the actor the man in charge would not let him. And the shocker did not stop because he was given an order to continue with the experiment (Milgram
How far would someone would go to make another person happy? Even if it meant hurting them mentally and physically? Obeying authority can only go so far before it becomes a very unhealthy action.Sadly that is exactly what Lance Cpl. Dawson and Pfc. Downey do in the movie A Few Good Men. Also this idea is what Stanley Milgram concludes in his famous shock experiment. In these two pieces, the actions of obeying authority and taking an oath, result in “death”. Therefore, the conclusions Milgram draws from his study can explain why Dawson and Downey brutally harm Pfc. William Santiago. However, Lance Cpl. Dawson’s previous actions of getting in trouble for something he felt he had to do, might also be an explanation of why …show more content…
Santiago is killed in the middle of the night by being tied up and his mouth taped with a rag shoved in his mouth to keep him quiet. This is called a “code red” that is issued by Col. Nathan R. Jessup the marine in charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He issued Pfc.Louden Downey and Lance Cpl. Harold W Dawson to teach Santiago a lesson. Lt. Daniel Kaffee is sent to handle this case. He then investigates the whole crime scene and automatically knows that he wants to settle and doesn’t want to take it to court. Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway then states that there is more than what meets the eye. They then dig deeper and deeper into the case with Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s partner Lt. Sam Weinberg. Kaffe and Weinberg soon figure out that Jessup has been lying the entire time and that they only put Kaffee on the case because they knew that he would have a hard time figuring out what to do. Kaffee is not used to these types of cases or going into a courtroom which is why Jessup is set to get away with it. Everyone thinks that Kaffee is just an amiture. Kaffee took that as a motivational factor and makes sure he gets his foot in the door. In the last courtroom scene Kaffee then antagonizes Jessup to get him to admits to his crime. He soon surrender’s and he is charged as well as Dawson and Downey for not following the code of a marine and their privilege of being a marine is taken away and Kaffee wins his first murder trial. This is a result of Kaffee wanting to …show more content…
He then starts to panic trying to hide the truth, he looks at Dawson for what to say. Dawson then yells, “Tell the truth” (A Few Good Men). Downey was just trying to keep his word with Dawson and keep Dawson out of trouble. The reason that Dawson was going to get in trouble is that he followed an order from someone that is higher than he is. Dawson ordered Downey to help him, Kendrick ordered Dawson to commit the code red, and Jessup ordered Kendrick to order Dawson to commit the code red. It was a chain reaction from the higher Marines. This relates to Milgram because when the shocker wanted to stop asking questions and shocking the actor the man in charge would not let him. And the shocker did not stop because he was given an order to continue with the experiment (Milgram