The Underappreciated Lieutenant Kendrick from "A Few Good Men"

Colonel Jessup gets all the attention. To highlight the underappreciated Lieutenant Kendrick, here's an excerpt from "Different Spanks for Different Ranks: a Critical Appraisal of Character Evidence in Courts-Martial" (2025):

The military courtroom thriller “A Few Good Men” illustrates how unofficial character evidence matters just as much as gatekept evidence. During an early scene at a basketball court, the defense counsel and prosecutor discuss a possible pretrial agreement. The core disputed issue is whether the defendants assaulted a fellow Marine on their own or were ordered to do so by their platoon commander, a Lieutenant. The negotiation comes down to whether the defendants or Lieutenant will be more credible in a swearing contest. The prosecutor argues that he holds the stronger hand because the Lieutenant will deny giving the order and has “four letters of commendation.”[1] The defense counters that another officer, Markinson, will inculpate the Lieutenant. The prosecutor retorts, “You know what Markinson did for the first seventeen of his twenty-six years in the Corps? Counterintelligence. Markinson’s gone. There is no Markinson.”[2] The prosecutor’s cold math reveals that in courts-martial, those with high military status such as the Lieutenant will be considered more credible than lower status witnesses, even when their military status has nothing to do with the content of their testimony.[3]

The Lieutenant continued to reap benefits from his elite military status when he testified. During the defense counsel’s questioning about whether the Lieutenant ordered a hazing ritual called a Code Red, the military judge interrupts counsel: “I would remind you that you are now questioning a Marine officer with an impeccable service record.”[4] Here we see unofficial character evidence emerge from the shadows to the forefront. Unstated in the judge’s admonition is that the Lieutenant is unlikely to have ordered a Code Red because he has a track record of exemplary service, and for defense counsel to even ask about improprieties that would be out of character for a good Marine is an affront to the court. In a civilian trial, it is difficult to imagine a judge chastising a counsel’s impeachment of a witness because the witness excels at work as a barista, teacher, or accountant. In “A Few Good Men,” though, the military judge is not the villain. The movie’s narrative arc pushes the audience to accept the judge’s intervention as reasonable, with defense counsel seeming like a disrespectful renegade for ignoring customs about kowtowing to military elites. In the military, high status affords many privileges, including the right to be believed in court.

            A note on the Lieutenant’s appearance and demeanor. Before he testifies, we see that he (played by Kiefer Sutherland) is a White man with an athletic build in a military uniform.[5] He wears an oversized ring signifying from a distance that he is a graduate of the elite United States Naval Academy. He wears the crossed rifles insignia of an expert marksman and numerous decorations. He is a commander in the Infantry, an elite Marine subspecialty that at the time was foreclosed to women[6] and had few racial minorities.[7] His buzzcut hairstyle could indicate an embrace of a warrior ethos or a rejection of civilian professional appearance norms, or perhaps both. He glowers. When he testifies, he evades a question about whether he had reported an instance of misconduct, and instead launches into a nonresponsive jeremiad about Marine values. [8] He twice shouts in anger in response to other questions. [9] Any other witness whose professional standing did not matter might be deemed not credible for such evasions and eruptions. This Lieutenant, though, conveys to the military jurors that he is a high-status Marine whose impatience is understandable so that he can return to unstated but pressing national security matters of the day. The trial transcript would capture very little of this dynamic, and the episode entirely circumvents the gatekeeping of the rules of evidence. Yet this unofficial character evidence is essential in understanding what is really happening in the court-martial. The Lieutenant literally gets away with murder.

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[1] A Few Good Men (Castle Rock Entertainment 1992), Amazon Prime Video time mark 49:48.

[2] Id. at 49:58.

[3] See also John Lancaster, In Military Harassment Cases, His Word Often Outranks Hers, Wash. Post, Nov. 15, 1992, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/11/15/in-military-sex-harassment-cases-his-word-often-outranks-hers/b0fb4012-fcef-481f-b6f5-f163a3d0fa61/.

[4] A Few Good Men, supra note 1, at 1:34:10.

[5] Id.

[6] See Hope Hedge Seck, Marines Continue to Make Female Infantry Officers, with Little Fanfare, MarineTimes, Oct. 28, 2024, https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2024/10/28/marines-continue-to-make-female-infantry-officers-with-little-fanfare/ (chronicling the first women who joined the ranks of Marine infantry officers in 2020).

[7] See Hope Hedge Seck, Behind Closed Doors, Marines Struggle with a Glaring Diversity Problem, Wash. Post, Oct. 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/10/16/marines-black-fighter-pilots/ (describing how the elite Marine subspecialties of aviation and infantry are still predominantly white).

[8] A Few Good Men, supra note 1 at 1:32:30 (“I have two books at my bedside, Lieutenant: the Marine Corps Code of Conduct and the King James Bible. The only proper authorities I am aware of are my commanding officer Colonel Nathan R. Jessup and the Lord our God”).

[9] Id.