Trial Film - Military Trial Films

Military Trial Films

Military trial films typically include conflicting questions of loyalty, command responsibility, ethical rules and rules of engagement, obedience to superior authority, politics and class conflict. War and trials are good foils for one another. The struggles are perennial and engaging. A partial list includes:

• The Caine Mutiny (1954), climaxes in a strongly contested court martial, and a particularly dynamic cross examination, in which Captain Queeg, played by Humphrey Bogart, acts out one of film's most dramatic meltdowns. The movie was nominated for 7 Academy Awards.
• Paths of Glory (1957), black and white depiction of a corrupt World War I French court martial leading to a firing squad, and a futility of war conclusion. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, and starred Kirk Douglas as the failed defense attorney.
• Town Without Pity (1961), Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington were nominated for an Academy Award for the theme song, Town Without Pity, which was sung by Gene Pitney
• King and Country (1964), directed by Joseph Losey. In the trenches in France during World War 1, British captain Dirk Bogarde has to defend shell-shocked private Tom Courtenay, who is charged with desertion.
• Breaker Morant (1980), (nominated for an Academy Award), a gripping court martial of Australian soldiers, including Harry Breaker Morant by their British commanders in the aftermath of the Boer War in South Africa. Breaker Morant details the trials and tribulations of the defense counsel and the defendants, as they try to throw a wrench into the administrative gears of the court martial. Anticipating the Nuremberg trials and the "defense of superior orders", the soldiers' main defense is that they were doing their duty as they understood it, and following orders and policy from above. Nevertheless, this "Kangaroo court" moves to its inevitable conclusion. As one review notes, it features one of the finest (and most succinct) closing arguments in film.
• A Few Good Men (1992), released after the ABA's list was compiled, contains the famous "You can't handle the truth" exchange. The film was adapted from the Broadway play written by Aaron Sorkin, and acted by Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson.
• Rules of Engagement (2000), in which Marine Colonel Terry Childers, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is brought to court-martial on charges of disobeying the rules of engagement in a military incident at an American embassy in Yemen, with flashbacks to Vietnam.
• The Address (2011) is an Indian film based on Soorya Krishna Moorthy's stage play of the same name, which itself was based on the play Court Martial by Swadesh Deepak.
• High Crimes is a 2002 American thriller film directed by Carl Franklin and starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. The screenplay by Yuri Zeltser and Grace Cary Bickley is based on a novel by Joseph Finder.
• Shaurya (2008), is an Indian film directed by Samar Khan starring Rahul Bose and Kay Kay Menon in lead roles. The film is based on the backdrop of Kashmir conflict