Movies - TV
Aaron Sorkin Wrote Most Of A Few Good Men On Cocktail Napkins At His Bartending Job
By WILLIAM BIBBIANI
Do you want the truth about how Aaron Sorkin wrote "A Few Good Men," the hit play that became an Oscar-nominated box office smash starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson? Well, we've got good news: You probably can handle the truth, because it's actually a very pleasant and amusing story.
Right out of college, Sorkin worked various jobs, including bartending in Broadway theaters. In 2020, Sorkin said, "I wrote most of 'A Few Good Men' on cocktail napkins at the Palace Theater during the first act of 'La Cage aux Folles,'" referring to the successful musical version of the hit 1978 French comedy film.
Sorkin said when he showed “A Few Good Men” to his first agent, he said “This is terrific” and thought it could get him a writing job on a TV show. However, part of the reason why “A Few Good Men” became a success was Sorkin’s stubborn insistence on rejecting film and television jobs and turning “A Few Good Men” into a play.
A Few Good Men" debuted on stage in 1989, and Tom Hulce, the Oscar-nominated co-star of "Amadeus," originally played the part of the heroic lawyer, Daniel Kaffee. The villainous Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Jessup was played on stage by Stephen Lang, who later co-starred in "Avatar" as another villainous Colonel, Miles Quaritch.
By the time "A Few Good Men" reached the big screen in 1992, celebrated filmmaker Rob Reiner was at the helm, and the movie earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It kickstarted Sorkin’s impressive film and television career, but the prolific screenwriter did tell Vanity Fair that he does miss bartending “a little bit.”