December 11, 1992: "A Few Good Men" Premieres

December 11, 1992: The film version of Aaron Sorkin's play A Few Good Men premieres. The title comes from a recruiting slogan for the U.S. Marine Corps: "We're looking for a few good men." Rob Reiner directed. By this point, he had become better known for the films he directed than for playing Mike Stivic on All in the Family.

The play had debuted on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on November 15, 1989. Tom Hulce, better known as Mozart in the film version of Amadeus, played the U.S. Navy defense attorney, Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee; Megan Gallagher, known for her role on Hill Street Blues, as his commanding officer in the Judge Advocate General's office, Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway; and Stephen Lang as Marine Colonel Nathan R. Jessep.

The film starred Tom Cruise as Kaffee; Demi Moore as Galloway; Jack Nicholson as Jessep; Kevin Bacon as the Marine prosecutor, Captain Jack Ross; Kiefer Sutherland as Ross' adjutant, Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick; Kevin Pollak as another Navy JAG officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sam Weinberg; J.A. Preston as the presiding Judge,  Marine Colonel Julius Alexander; Michael DeLorenzo in flashback sequences as the victim, Marine Private 1st Class William Santiago; Wolfgang Bodison as Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and James Marshall as Private 1st Class Louden Downey, the defendants; future ER star Noah Wyle as Marine Corporal Jeffrey Barnes; Cuba Gooding Jr. as Marine Corporal Carl Hammaker; and Joshua Malina, an actor Sorkin would later use on the TV shows Sports Night and The West Wing, as Tom, Jessep's clerk.

The scene where Kaffee examines Jessep has become legend, Kaffee yelling, "I want the truth!" and Jessep yelling back, "You can't handle the truth!" and launching into a monologue about how the world needs walls, and people like Kaffee need men like Jessep to guard those walls, before Kaffee gets Jessep to admit that he ordered the "code red" that led to Santiago's death.

Both actors are from New Jersey: Nicholson, from Manasquan on the Jersey Shore; and Cruise, from Glen Ridge. Nicholson is known for playing crazy men, but Cruise may be one in real life. (Who's gonna dispute that? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?) I used to live in Bloomfield, and our next-door neighbors moved to the adjoining town of Glen Ridge. One of them was a freshman at Glen Ridge High School in 1980, when Cruise was a senior there. She remembered him as "weird, but quiet." I asked her, "What happened to quiet?" She says she doesn't know.

The Music Box Theatre, where the play premiered, still stands, at 239 West 45th Street.

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December 11, 1992 was a Friday. This was also the day that New York radio station WNEW went off the air, a symbolic end to the era of "Big Band" music. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Boston Celtics, 100-90 at the Boston Garden.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 125-110 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Jeff Hornacek led all scorers on the night with 36 in defeat for the Sixers.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Nuggets, 112-107 in overtime at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins scored 33 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Orlando Magic, 108-107 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107-103 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-96 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Bullets, 118-93 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 134-124 in double overtime at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Detlef Schrempf scored 32 for the Pacers.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4 at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Winnipeg Jets, 8-6 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Teemu Selänne scored a hat trick in defeat for the Jets.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 9-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.