There is a bit of film history about A Few Good Men that I was never aware of, despite having watched the movie many times over the years, including recently with my YouTube TV subscription. Writer Aaron Sorkin, who based the screenplay on a hit play that he’d written, drew a lot of inspiration from a true story that came from his sister, Deborah Sorkin. Deborah was a JAG officer for three years in the 1980s.
As part of her duties, she was sent to Guantánamo to represent a young Marine accused of a hazing incident. The details are quite different, but the true story is full of twists and turns, and ultimately, possibly murder.
How Aaron Sorkin Was Inspired
Aaron Sorkin first wrote A Few Good Men for the stage, and it debuted on Broadway in 1989, with Tom Hulce playing the role Tom Cruise would make famous in the film, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee. Stephen Lang starred as Col. Jessup in the play, the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the film. The incident Sorkin learned about from his sister occurred in 1986 on the famous naval base in Cuba.
In July 1986, 10 Marines at Guantánamo believed that another Marine, Pfc. William Alvarado, had made an accusation that other Marines were firing their weapons into Cuba from the fence. Those 10 soldiers took matters into their own hands, performing a “Code Red” on Alvarado, which was pretty similar to the one Aaron Sorkin created for the play and the film later on. They tied Alvarado down, stuffed a rag in his mouth, and shaved his head. Unlike the Marine in the movie, Alvarado thankfully survived the attack.
Deborah Sorkin was one of the JAG officers sent to Gitmo to defend the accused Marines, and though her client pleaded guilty to the charge before trial, three of the accused took their case to court-martial. One of those, David Cox, was found not guilty of the most serious charges, but was convicted of simple assault. He was sentenced to 30 days in the brig, but was released on time served. He wasn’t discharged and finished his time in the Marine Corps two years later. Things would go sideways again for Cox a few years later, with tragic results.
After The Movie Was Released In 1992, The Lawsuits Began
In the winter of 1993, Cox and his girlfriend saw A Few Good Men, and according to the Baltimore Sun, Cox’s girlfriend noticed he was uncomfortable with the movie. By the end of the movie, he was furious. He immediately understood that the story was way too similar to his own life’s story to be a coincidence. Cox contacted an attorney, the same lawyer who defended him in the court-martial, and they discussed a possible lawsuit.
Five other Marines who were convicted in the case sued the movie’s producers in early 1994, including Castle Rock Entertainment, which was owned by the movie’s director, Rob Reiner. That lawsuit eventually failed, and the five Marines did not receive the compensation they were asking for. Things turned out much worse for Pfc. Cox
A Possible Murder Has Led To A Mystery
In January 1994, about a year after A Few Good Men was a box office hit, David Cox went missing. According to his girlfriend, he had been talking about joining in on the soon-to-be-filed lawsuit by the other Marines. Instead, he disappeared. Three months later, Cox’s body was found by a canoer on the banks of the Charles River in Medfield, Massachusetts, not far from Cox’s home.
According to reports, three shell casings were found, and Cox had been shot four times: once in the back of his neck, and three more times in his torso. He was wearing his Scout Sniper hoodie and a military-issued camo jacket. His family claims that he never wore those items after he was discharged from the military. It’s now been more than three decades since Cox first went missing, but the case remains unsolved.
According to family members, they do believe Cox’s murder was a professional hit, but the prosecutor at the time, according to the Baltimore Sun, did not believe it was connected to a possible lawsuit over A Few Good Men, or Cox’s gambling debt, nor was it drug-related. This unsolved murder is a mystery worthy of a true crime podcast.
The Filmmakers Insist That The Characters In The Movie Weren’t Based On Real People
Aaron Sorkin, whose next movie, The Social Reckoning, will hit the 2026 movie schedule in October, and the other filmmakers have denied that the characters in the movie are based on real people. There are at least four lawyers who claim to be the basis of Kaffee, but Sorkin has insisted that isn’t true, with a spokesperson for the writer telling the New York Times in 2011:
The character of Dan Kaffee in ‘A Few Good Men’ is entirely fictional and was not inspired by any particular individual.
The story was almost certainly based on his sister’s account of the incident, but beyond that, Sorkin seems to have simply used the story as inspiration for his own story.
What A Movie!
A Few Good Men is one of the best movies of the 1990s, and while I never knew it was inspired by this true story, it doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the movie. The performances from all of the cast memers (and it’s a stacked cast that includes Cruise, Demi Moore, Kiefer Southerland, Kevin Bacon and Kevin Pollack) are phenomenal across the board. The most incredible performance, of course, is that of Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup.
It’s one of the finest performances in Nicholson’s stellar career, and for it, he was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Though he lost to another legend, Gene Hackman, for his role in Unforgiven, the courtroom scene and the line “You can’t handle the truth!” remain one of the most iconic moments on screen for the legend. A Few Good Men is timeless for those performances, and it’ll always be a total “remote dropper” for me.
