Director
Rob Reiner
Leading Actors/Actresses
Tom Cruise and Demi Moore
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Pollak
Genre
Legal Drama
Language
English
Awards
Nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
Date of Release
December 11th, 1992
Producer
Rob Reiner, David Brown, and Andrew Scheinman
Setting and Context
Summer 1986: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba and Washington D.C.
Narrator and Point of View
Told from a third person point of view
Tone and Mood
Self-Righteous, Energetic, Solemn, Violent, Sad, Mysterious, and Angry
Protagonist and Antagonist
Lt. Kaffee (Protagonist) vs. Colonel Jessup (Antagonist)
Major Conflict
Lt. Kaffee's struggle to get to truth of the "Code Red" and discover who killed Private Santiago
Climax
When Jessup yells "You Can't Handle the Truth" to Lt. Kaffee
Foreshadowing
Dawson and Downey's dishonorable discharge is foreshadowed throughout the film.
Understatement
Towards the start of the film, the extent to which Colonel Jessup is unhinged is understated tremendously.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's play of the same name, Lost Horizon, Citizen Kane, Song of the South, 12 Angry Men, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Quicksilver, The Verdict, To Kill a Mockingbird (both the film and book), Anatomy of a Murder, geography, and popular culture.
Paradox
Jessup is a high-ranking officer, yet acts in a way becoming of a low-level enlisted man.
Parallelism
N/A
