Who, in the real world, would fall into a trap like that, ADMITTING to ordering the code red?
That was the one and only thing he knew would get him arrested.
Just say "I don't remember" for fuck's sake!
What a face slappable dummy.
He was supposedly the guy that knew how to sidestep a few problems to keep moving forward, yet his mind slipped on confessing of ordering a murder??!?
There's a lot of great back & forth discussion of this on the TVtropes website:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/AFewGoodMen
TLDR: Jessup IS an imbecile. He's arrogant and selfish, a "substandard marine" who likely relied on politics and brown-nosing to get ahead.
Kaffee knew it, too. He stated, explicitly, that Jessup WANTS to admit he ordered the code red (and he was right). The whole cross-examination was a trick to get Jessup to say exactly what Jessup himself had been aching to say, i.e., "YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I DID!"
Also, his mind didn't slip on that one point. Kaffee's cross-exam put him on the defensive early on. From then on, Kaffee just kept pushing buttons, dialing up Jessup's self-righteousness to 11, until Jessup couldn't take it any longer.
All true, but come on...anybody with half a brain would have set the limit at "admitting I ordered the code red". I understand anything till that point, even if it meant contradict himself, he should have said "I don't know/remember" or better, like Ross JUST told him "Colonel, you don't have to answer that question".
He fell in it like a kid being tricked with reverse psychology to eat his peas. Come on, only an imbecile would finish his carreer and liberty like that.
I'd imagine that a seasoned Marine Colonel would know how to answer such a question in the negative, while still claiming "credit" for having done what was necessary to "train his men."
shareExactly.
I guess he really hated being caught contradicting himself, saying grave danger. He felt he looked stupid or lying. But his way to fix this is so ignorant and arrogant you'd think he was drunk.
Don't forget....there was also the big (brilliant) bluff with Airmen Cecil and O'Malley. Jessep was led to believe those two would be called to the stand to testify about the flight...which would have contradicted Jessep's lie and implicated him of perjury. I think Jessep felt it was time to tell it like it was, and be a marine among pussies, consequences be damned.
shareAnother instance when he could and should have used his brain.
He knows all the official documents have been doctored. He just had to call this bluff to see how these two witnesses could affect his position. At least just out of curiosity.
Instead, very unmarine like, he loses his cool, jumps the gun and admits what he never should have.
It doesn't matter if the documents had been doctored. The 2 Airmen were (supposedly) going to testify as eyewitnesses--that they were on shift at the airport when the flight landed.
shareSo there was a flight.
Who cares?
Jessep's involvement was impossible to demonstrate. The lawyers could have debated it for years to no avail.
At any rate, let me hear what they have to say, rather than confess everything before they can even open their mouth.
It was just another systematic tactic to take him where deep down his arrogance wanted to go. If he were 100% logical, reasonable, measured and careful...we wouldn't have had much of a movie. That was part of the point, Jessep, on the surface and on paper, seemed polished and on top of things.....but below the surface he had psychological problems that were coming to a boil. You could see a hint of it at the lunch in Cuba ("Ask me nicely")
shareOK, it is all true and it happens as you wrote, but he also is a very capable decorated marine colonel, so he certainly is NOT stupid.
He acts like an imbecile who cannot take THAT pressure from a faggity lawyer in a court...come on, who would do that?
No moderately smart person would ever admit to ordering the code red. It is a plot hole for sure.
Of course no moderately smart person would order a code red just for one sub par person.
He wasn't in a rational state of mind. He lost it. I think that's kinda the point of the strategy:
Slowly paint him into a corner with his lies....and then push his buttons and get him to lose his temper.
Remember, he was so incredibly arrogant (and perhaps felt he was untouchable)....that at one point, he actually excused HIMSELF from the stand and said he's going back to the base.
True, but that moment too screams of stupidity.
Who does not understand that that is a judge, this is a court martial, and you have to behave accordingly and obey that authority?
Even an idiot would, let alone a decorated marine that lives his life for authority.
Yet Jessep thinks he is talking to a strip club waitress he can push around.