A common question I ask with these films is which scene would I want to be on set for? A Few Good Men has one of the easiest answers. Any interviews with actors reflecting on the film bring up the climactic showdown between Nicholson and Cruise. Handled like a play, with long takes, and filmed over a couple of weeks, the actors all talk about the joy of playing the drama and speaking the dialogue in that sequence. Not just “You Can’t Handle the Truth!” but the reactions of the rest of the cast.
One detail is that they shot out Nicholson’s coverage first, but he stayed around even when the camera wasn’t on him because he loved playing the scene. The scene also has one of my favorite cutaway reaction shots ever. It’s after Nicholson has blown the case wide open and everyone looks to Kevin Bacon for a response. He’s wide-eyed and frozen, unable to put any spin on what everyone heard.
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