Why I like this movie
I like it so much because it explains to the audience that the concept of right and wrong isn't as simple as black and white. Life is never as simple as saying "this is the right way of doing things and this is the wrong way of doing things". One of the marines that was court martialed didn't understand why they were dishonorably discharged. If they did what they were supposed to do. Follow orders without question. That's the first thing they drill into your head when you enlist in the military. Do as your told without question. So he didn't understand why they were DD for following up on a "code red" on private Santiago. Because that was exactly what they were ordered to do. Even though a "code red" was not allowed per official guidelines (on paper anyways). When the aforementioned private Santiago formally requested a transfer off the base. Jack Nicholson's right hand man agreed that transferring him was "the right thing to do" and would allow all parties involved to save face. But Jack Nicholson didn't see it that way. From his point of view transferring private Santiago in his current state would only compound the situation because they'd just be giving the problem to someone else. And according to him that could potentially endanger lives because if they allowed one soldier to become complacent then it would create an unnecessarily dangerous precedent. If Santiago was given a free pass then other soldiers would start demanding similar treatment. And this lax attitude could potentially carry over during wartime. This is what he meant when he said that if private Santiago was allowed to have his way it could end up costing lives. In other words he didn't want his soldiers becoming "lazy". So for all intents and purposes Jack Nicholson was supposed to be the "bad guy" in this movie but his character's motivations were anything but one dimensional. This is what I mean when I say that life is never simple. There's always going to be a gray area.