This present study analyses the use of language to express power and the use of violations of conversation principles of Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in the movie A Few Good Men.

The aim is to establish how these violations are made and how they aid him in maintaining a power position.

The character's dialogues have been analyzed according to three theoretical principles: Turn-taking Principles, Adjacency Pairs, and The Cooperative Principle.

Results show an even distribution of strategic violations of conversational principles and this further links to his power position in conversations.

This might suggest that the dialogue is consciously written to have this outcome and thereby becoming a strong and powerful character. His violations of conversation principles are also closely linked to his power position within the United States Marine Corps (USMC). This ability in the character seems in its turn to be closely linked to a lack of fear for any negative social consequence; thereby the character's ability to act free from rules of social behavior could be considered one of the reasons behind his everlasting impression on people.