THERE is an intense courtroom battle in the brilliant 1992 film ‘A Few Good Men’ in which Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson spar fiercely against each other in the matter of whether Nicholson’s character as a Colonel in the US Marines acted illegally resulting in the death of one of his men.
The latter arrogantly told the prosecuting lawyer, “Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns”, following it up with “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.”
Finally, he declares, “Unit, Corps, God, Country, sir. That’s our code”.
It is all strong, intriguing drama, not least as the lawyer character played by Tom Cruise seeks to blindside the Colonel with apparently irrelevant questions, to which the judge on a number of occasions has to ask the lawyer along the lines of “What’s your point, counsellor?” Indeed, it is a question that we might hear in many dramatic court scenes in films or television programmes.
The judge, in fact everyone, wants to know exactly what the lawyer is trying to say, where he is going with the line of questioning, where he is leading, what he is getting at. At the end of the day, in truth, preferably well before the end of the day, they want to be clear what the person is saying.
What is more, it is quite likely that readers of this article are also asking that very question: what’s your point? Where are we going with all this talk about courtroom films in an article on school sport?
The recently-ended Rugby World Cup certainly had its fair share of drama as the fight to become crowned champions swung one way and another.
Well might spectators who had their brilliant opinions on what happened on the rugby field be questioned by players along the lines of the Colonel in the quotes above.
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The South African spectators slept under the delightful blanket of victories while the players went through immense pressure to achieve those victories. And in some ways, just as in the film where we are led to think the Colonel is destroying the lawyer’s questioning only to be led into a trap, the South African players sucked in all their opponents to their way of playing and then emerged victorious in the end – by a point, three times by one solitary single point.
Yes, but again, what is the point? Well, might people point out that it only needs one point to make the difference? Others might point out that the victorious South African team had a similar mantra as the key to their success as the one that the Colonel proposed: “Unit, Corps, God, Country, sir. That’s our code”.
Time after time, the captain and players who worked together so closely as a team (including very much the so-called ‘bomb squad’ of reserves) said they won the trophy not for themselves but for the people back in their country (while also giving glory to God).
Some might argue that the point was that it was their defence that was the difference; others will point to the fact that they fought to the bitter end each time, under immense pressure.
In truth, there are many valuable points that could be made from the matches played during the World Cup. Many might point out the problems with the number of red and yellow cards that were handed out as well as all those that should have been handed out but were not.
Others would want to make the point that the weaker countries need more game time against the bigger countries; others pointed out how ridiculous it was that the fixtures were arranged three years before the matches. Those are all well and good but remember, the question was “What’s the point?” In other words, what is the one point to be made? One point is all it takes, remember?
The point is this: what has all this discussion of the Rugby World Cup to do with school sport? What relevance has the Rugby World Cup to do with the world of school sport?
Maybe it might be summed up in a fun photo-sequence on social media.
South Africa says “Hey, New Zealand, we have something you don’t!” and when the New Zealand player asks what it is, the South African proudly declares “4 World Cups!” Ouch! Quick as a flash the New Zealander replies with the same question, “Hey, South Africa, we have something you don’t!”.
When the South African asked, he replied, “Electricity!” Touche! The one point for our children to grasp is this: sport is not everything.
There are bigger things than sport – honour, for one. We must not lose sight of that.
That is our code.
