MovieChat Forums > A Few Good Men (1992) Discussion > The Romantic Ending in the Script

The Romantic Ending in the Script

posted 5 years ago by MavKilledGoose (860)
13 replies | jump to latest

This is from the third revised script, which is available online.

I've heard more than one person say they were relieved this movie didn't explore a romance between Kaffee and Jo (I believe Ebert mentions this in his review as well). However, at least one version of the script does open the door for romance...

ROSS
I'll see you around the campus.
I've gotta go arrest Kendrick.

KAFFEE
Tell him I say "Hi".

ROSS
Will do.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE - DUSK

KAFFEE, JO and SAM are walking down the steps. The BAND is
practicing on the parade grounds.

JO
What do you say we take the rest of
the day off. Go out someplace. Sam?
Champagne? Yoo-Hoo?

SAM
Thanks, I can't. I'm gonna go home
and talk to my daughter. I think
she's gotta be bilingual by now.

And SAM heads off toward his car.

JO
So what's next for you?

KAFFEE
Staff Sargeant Henry Williamson. He
went to the movies on company time.
What about you?

JO
Me? Oh... you know... the usual.

KAFFEE
Just pretty much generally annoying
people?

JO
Yeah.
(pause)
So what do you say? How 'bout a
celebration?

KAFFEE
No. How 'bout a date. A real date.
Dinner. Attractive clothes. The works.

JO
Sounds good. Who do you think I
should call?

KAFFEE
I'll pick you up at seven.

JO
What are you gonna do now?

KAFFEE
I'm gonna get started on Henry
Williamson.
(beat)
Stand my post for a while.

JO holds out her hand. KAFFEE shakes it. JO kisses him.

JO
Wear matching socks.

Jo splits off toward her building and KAFFEE keeps walking
toward the bleachers as we PULL BACK TO INCLUDE the almost
empty parade grounds and PULL BACK as to show the Washington
Navy Yard and PULL BACK and back and back and

FADE OUT.

THE END

[–] Ziggy (1801) 5 years ago

Not bad, but I also appreciated that there was no romance in the film. The story was great, as is, and it's nice when the story can stand on it's own without romance.

[–] Tabbycat (878) 4 years ago

Not bad.
Gets the matching socks line to pay off and brings around the dating line again.

Seriously, there should have been one. Jo pretends not to ask him on a date but Kaffee pushes back: “I’ve been asked out on dates. Sounded a lot like that.” Her arc goes from resenting his inexperienced cocky ass being picked over herself to recognizing his passion for the case, to realizing he is the right man for the job, to ... the rest. In real life, they’re in the sack.

[–] MavKilledGoose (860) a year ago

I think I agree. If the movie had ended as written above people would have been "relieved" they weren't rolling around during the case. Romance is merely implied at the end rather than glistening sweat. It would have likely been considered tasteful.

[–] MavKilledGoose (860) a year ago

From the NY Daily News: "Movie exec to Sorkin: If there’s no sex, why cast Demi Moore in ‘A Few Good Men’ instead of a man?"

They’re not all good men.

When Aaron Sorkin refused to write a sex scene between Demi Moore and Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men,” a frustrated studio exec asked why they didn’t just give Moore’s role to a man.

“There was an executive at the studio who badly wanted the characters played by Demi Moore and Tom Cruise to sleep together and I didn’t,” Sorkin told students at a Los Angeles Film School discussion.

“The whole idea of the movie was that these . . . young lawyers were in way over their head and two Marines were on trial for their lives, so if Tom Cruise and Demi Moore take time out to roll in the hay I just didn’t think we would like them as much for doing that,” Sorkin said he wrote to that exec while working on the 1992 adaptation of his play. “I’ll never forget what the executive wrote back, which was, ‘Well if Tom and Demi aren’t going to sleep together why is Demi a woman?’ and that completely stumped me.”

While that was the first time Sorkin refused to write a love scene, it wasn’t the last. Sorkin told USA Today that director Harold Becker asked him to pen something steamy between Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman in the 1993 film “Malice.” He declined, so the director threw together what Sorkin described as “a terrible scene” and filmed it.

[–] JFZ (1459) a year ago

Wow, that movie exec should be canceled. Im shaking right now.

[–] jk90us (7282) a month ago

Cancelled?

For simply adding a scene they didn’t need?

You’re being sarcastic, right?

You’d have to cancel most movie execs and producers.

And directors.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 10 months ago

The interesting thing is, there IS a legitimate reason why Demi Moore is in the movie.

Even without a romantic subplot, I absolutely believe that having an attractive woman challenge Kaffee figures into his decision to "man up" and call Jessup to the stand.

Maybe it's just my own reaction to Demi, or my own experience as a litigator, but having someone you want to impress can be a powerful motivator. I've worked on cases with women co-counsel whom I've found very attractive. Even though I kept everything outwardly professional, I definitely felt an urge to be bolder and "better" just to impress them.

[–] MavKilledGoose (860) 10 months ago

Agreed. Sorkin's basically full of shit. In Sports Night he has a lead character say something along the lines that he's ambitious for the reason all men are ambitious -- to impress a woman. Social Network is more about Sorkin's view of what drives young men than what actually drove Mark Zuckerberg, so his comments about this unnamed studio executive are likely self-righteous lies.

[–] jk90us (7282) a month ago

>so his comments about this unnamed studio executive are likely self-righteous lies.

Obviously that’s your own biased un-supported opinion, right?

[–] MavKilledGoose (860) a month ago

It's not unsupported. Previous drafts of A FEW GOOD MEN had a romantic angle, contrary to what Sorkin would have people believe. Sorkin, the showrunner for Sports Night, explicitly had characters who said male ambition stemmed from female desire. Of course it's my own opinion. Who else's opinion would it be? What a fatuous question.

[–] jk90us (7282) a month ago

I think it was more for being able to add the scene where Nicholson makes the sexist joke about female officers in Cuba to reveal his true character.

[–] jk90us (7282) a month ago

I’m glad too.

There was no need for it.

[–] Melton (4600) a month ago

Perfect film as is. Literally perfect. A pointless sex plot would only have bogged it down. We all know Jo will be blowing Kaffee that evening anyway.