Are People Always Ready to Handle the Truth? – Many people believe that they need to and want to live a truthful life. Still, not all of them are actually ready to handle the truth and accept it as it is. The movie A Few Good Men directed by Rob Reiner is a good opportunity to learn how truth may influence and direct human lives and promote the development of interpersonal communication.
What Do People Know about Uncertainty, Self-Disclosure, Social Penetration? – These are the three main interpersonal concepts for discussion. Their essence may be understood through the movie.
Does the Military Stand for Justice? – The answer to this question should be given as soon as the movie as well as the concepts are discussed. People should know their rights, define their opportunities, and learn what to expect from those, who are protecting them.
Interpersonal Concepts and Their Role in Human Lives
Experts define interpersonal communication (IC) as a type of interactions that take place between two or more people, who may share a relationship, and aim at sharing and receiving information (Berko, Aitken, & Volvin, 2010). IC consists of a number of concepts, and the most crucial are social penetration by means of closeness’ development, self-disclosure that gives more information about a person, and uncertainty reduction throughout knowledge and abilities to listen.
Social penetration helps to develop a kind of relational closeness between different people. This concepts aims at discussing cultural, ethical, and other issues in order to find out the ideas that may unite people.
Self-disclosure is the concept that reveals information about a person. Berko et al. (2010) admit that “revealing a depth and breadth of yourself” provides people with an ability to “begin, maintain, and develop a relationship” (p. 222).
Uncertainty reduction makes it possible to predict what a person may do during the process of communication. This helpful concept is used by many people to develop thoughtful and interesting communicative process within a short period of time.
A Few Good Men and Its Ability to Show Actions through Words
A Few Good Men is a movie about honour, loyalty, and human abilities to survive following a number of rules and orders and meeting all the expectations. The connection between the interpersonal relations mentioned above and the ideas offered in the movie is obvious. The movie is about the military life and the necessity to obey the orders given. People want to believe that the army is the place, where orders and rules direct people.
However, they should also understand that all these directions should protect human rights, consider people’s ideals, and provide weaker people with protection if it is necessary. Self-disclosure is all about discovering the truth. One of the main ideas offered by Nathan Jessup (the character in the movie) is that people “can’t handle the truth” because they prefer to use such words like “honour, code, loyalty” as “the backbone of a life spent defending something” (Reiner, 1992). Finally, when the truth is discovered and the communication is developed, people may think about their duties and responsibilities upon the society. The last question takes place: “What did we do wrong?” (Reiner, 1992).
Conclusions
The attention to all these points is crucial for the life we live and the relations we try to develop. The movie helps to understand that the military people are the best examples of how interpersonal relations should be developed. Though people like Kaffee, Ross, or Weilnberg are not always ready for the truth, the movie teaches what they should do to become closer to the desirable truth. The evaluation of the lessons taken from the movie, skills, developed though the communication, and questions asked during the discussions is a good opportunity to become better and more helpful to the society we live in.
Reference List
Berko, R., Aitken, J.E., & Wolvin, A. (2010). ICOOM: Interpersonal concepts and competences. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Reiner, R. (Executive Producer). (1992). A few good men [DVD]. Culver City, United States: Columbia Pictures.