Daily Dialogue — January 4, 2016

Galloway: You put him on the stand and you get it from him!
Kaffee: Oh, we get it from him! Yes! No problem! We get it from him.

Turns to Sam as if he were Jessup on the stand.

Kaffee: Colonel Jessup, isn’t it true that you ordered the Code Red on Santiago?
Lt. Weinberg: Listen, we’re all a little…
Kaffee: [interrupts with game-show buzzer sound] eeehhhhh! I’m sorry, your time’s run out! What do we have for the losers, judge? Well, for our defendants, it’s a life time at exotic Fort Leavenworth! And, for defense counsel Kaffee, that’s right, it’s a court martial! Yes, Johnny! After falsely accusing a highly decorated Marine officer of conspiracy and perjury, Lieutenant Kaffee will have a long and prosperous career teaching… typewriter maintenance at the Rocco Globbo School for Women! Thank you for playing “Should we or should we not follow the advice of the galactically stupid!”

— A Few Good Men (1992), screenplay by Aaron Sorkin based on his play

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Formulating a Plan, suggested by Lior Shemesh.

Trivia: Screenwriter William Goldman did an uncredited re-write of the screenplay. Aaron Sorkin was so impressed by Goldman’s new dialog (as well as changes that tightened the story) that he re-wrote and re-published the play to incorporate the changes.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is an interesting spin on formulating a plan in that Galloway (Demi Moore) actually comes up with the way that Kaffee (Tom Cruise) manages to win the case, but caught up in his drunken rage, Kaffee isn’t capable of grasping how the plan can work. Eventually he does.