spoiler warning . while this film have some good moment and strong performance from samuel jackson and tommy lee jones ( and a disappointing one from ben kingsley ) and i couldn not help but remember the chewbacca defence from south park while watch the courtroom scenes represent this make no sense . a marine colonel claim he give the order to fire on a crowd and kill 83 people and wound more than 100 and all of whom be supposedly fire at his people with sub machine gun and pistol yet nobody else saw these weapon and not even the other marine who be return fire ( except and possibly and the three who die ) . supposedly and none of them saw the weapon even after the crowd be mow down . the yemeni then supposedly come in and remove every weapon and every spent cartridge and and and this be really ridiculous every bullet and bullet hole ( the defence lawyer be tell that all the shot come from sniper with rifle and and photograph a few bullet hole and but find nothing to contradict this and throw grave doubt on the colonel judgement that the crowd be more dangerous than the sniper ) . a videotape ( destroy by the national security advisor ) show the crowd shooting and but not one slug from any of those weapon be ever discover . be they all fire blank . and why would the nsa and the ambassador ( whose life be save by the colonel ) rather see a war hero execute than an age ambassador lose his job and the yemeni government embarrass . ( maybe if it be saudi arabia and or iraq in the 1980s and but yemen . ) the court martial then decide to believe that a videotape that they haven not see and the existence of which can not be prove and vindicate their officer . despite the glare lack of any evidence to support his story and a mass that contradict it and they acquit him . to believe this and you have to believe that the military will believe everything theyre tell by one of their own and or protect them from the consequence even if they do not . the nsa and the ambassador be then blame ( okay and that believeable if there be a change of government in between . theyre political appointee and after all ) . if this have be told rashomon style and without u see the videotape ( or if the tape have be inconclusive ) and we could choose who to believe . or if jones character have uncover any evidence that support the colonel story or contradict the official version and rather than make it a matter of faith . instead and it impossible to believe the film at all .