The Truth About Kiefer and Jack

I recently became re-introduced to "A Few Good Men', Aaron Sorkin's amazing portrayal of high-level conspiracy within the United States Marine Corp. This play, as well as the movie, is a compelling look at the inner workings of command within our armed forces. The movie is dated (i.e. September 11th would have changed how we viewed code red's in the military, and of course Tom Cruises charisma, however I think the movie is a realistic look at how discipline works within the military,

The one problem, and call this a random observation, is the character usage within the narrative.

Let me create the scene.

LTJG Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is questioning 1LT Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). The questioning turns to the matter of the code red and whether Jonathan Kendrick ordered said code red. Now Kiefer Sutherland( in an underrated part I might add) handles Tom Cruise brillantly, and parries and jabs without any problem.

Kiefer 1 Tom Cruise 0

Later, Tom Cruise is questioning Col Nathan R Jessep(Jack Nicholson)and giving him the same hard line joust. Tom Cruise manages, through clever dialogue and a heated scene, to break Jack Nicholson into submission.

Tom Cruise 1 Jack Nicholson 0.

Is this a real world scenario? I totally like Kiefer Sutherland and Jack Nicholson, however there is no way that Tom Cruise would be able to break Jack Nicholson in the real world. To be realistic, Jack Nicholson would have jumped out of his seat and would have detroyed Tom Cruise with a round house kick or a well hidden shank. Kiefer on the other hand would never have taken the verbal abuse from Tom Cruise. I imagine that Kiefer would be like his character from that phone booth movie. He would wait while Tom Cruise was out and about and would snipe him from the 30th story of some building. It would be amazing.

Completley Random.