All's Fair in Love and War: Military Justice in the Movies

Abstract

This chapter in the book Law and War in Popular Culture (Stefan Machura, editor, Nomos 2024) surveys military justice in English-language films. These movies tell a consistent story of injustice arising out of flaws inherent in the military justice system—in particular command influence and abuse of the following-orders defense.  The brass exercise command influence over military court martials to select and punish scapegoats or cover up their own  errors. Command influence is the subject of such classic films as Paths of Glory, Breaker Morant, and Man in the Middle, among others. The following orders defense applies if the accused was acting pursuant to orders, unless the accused knew the orders were unlawful or a person of ordinary understanding would have known the orders were unlawful.  Of course, this defense is inherently problematic, since it is unlikely that trained soldiers will disobey orders, regardless of their legality.  The following-orders defense and its abuse are memorably portrayed in such films as A Few Good Men and Breaker Morant. 

Keywords: Law and popular culture, law and humanities, military justice, court martials, following orders, law and film, , Command influence