Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was inspired to write the source play, A Few Good Men, from a phone conversation with his sister Deborah. A graduate of Boston University Law School, she had signed up for a three-year stint with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps.[4] She said that she was going to Guantanamo Bay to defend a group of Marines who had nearly killed a fellow Marine in a hazing ordered by a superior officer.
While the film does not inform its audience that it is inspired by a true story, many of the facts of the case that Deborah Sorkin was involved in are directly included in the play and film. This later led to a lawsuit against Castle Rock by the real-life Marines whose actions inspired the story.
In reality, a code red was allegedly ordered in September 1986 against Private First Class (PFC) William Alvarado, who had written letters to a Texas Congressman and others, complaining of poor conditions and illegal activities on the base, including Marines firing shots across the fence line into Cuba. PFC Alvarado, like his on-screen counterpart, "was perceived as not one of the team"[5] and requested a transfer off the base. This information reached commanding officer Colonel Samuel Adams, who elected not to transfer Alvarado despite concerns that the Marine's violation of the chain of command may put him in danger. One night, a group of Marines known as "the Ten" chose to perform a "code red",[6] a term that apparently was used to refer to hazing at the time but is no longer in the Marine vernacular.[7]
"The Ten" restrained a sleeping Alvarado, binding him with tape and stuffing a pillowcase into his mouth as a gag. Alvarado was blindfolded and assaulted while being dragged out of his room. One of "The Ten", David Cox, produced a hair buzzer as the plan was to shave Alvarado bald as punishment. But then Alvarado began choking. His lungs filled with fluid, he spat up blood and began turning purple as he lost consciousness, perhaps because the gag had been soaked in gasoline as an attorney would later allege. The "code red" was immediately stopped, and the Marines called for help. Alvarado was taken to the infirmary before being transferred to a hospital in Miami, Florida, where he – unlike Private William Santiago in A Few Good Men – went on to make a full recovery.[8]
"The Ten" admitted guilt and were arrested immediately. Seven of the Marines took plea deals to avoid a court-martial trial. The remaining three, including Cox, elected to stand trial. The three argued that they committed the code red under an order from a commanding officer and that murder had never been the intention. Each of the three managed to retain their status as Marines after being found guilty of lesser offenses and went on to be honorably discharged at the conclusion of their military careers. The attorney who defended Cox, Donald Marcari, would later say that Adams "never confessed". In an interview, the attorney Marcari said that code reds "were very prevalent" at the time, even though Adams said that "he didn't realize Code Reds were still going on". In court, "we were trying to show there was an implied order," Marcari said, and "that Marines are so gung-ho they must follow any order, even if it's an implied order."[9]
After the release of the film A Few Good Men, five Marines from "The Ten" – Kevin Palermo, Ronald Peterson Jr., Brett Bentley, Dennis Snyder and Christopher Lee Valdez – hired lawyer Gary Patterson and filed a lawsuit in Texas State Court against Castle Rock and other Hollywood companies linked to the film. They argued that Aaron Sorkin took the idea for the story from their real-life incident, and they were seeking $10 million in damages. Cox was not a part of this lawsuit, though he was asked to join and was considering doing so in January 1994 when he was mysteriously murdered.[10]
Prior to his death, Cox had said that the movie distorted the circumstances surrounding his being convicted of simple assault. He was upset that his story had been used, details changed and now someone was making money off of the incident. Cox felt this not only made him look bad, but that it was a violation of his privacy and there was considerable argument about how exactly the writers had gotten their hands on the official court-martial's transcripts.
