It invites parallels with the famous Hollywood film A Few Good Men, but the military court drama played out this week was real life.
It didn't quite have the action of a defiant Jack Nicholson character shouting, "You can't handle the truth", but the common theme of thecourt martial about a young "weak link" being picked on by his superior was there for all to see.
In the rare court martial, at Canterbury's Burnham Military Camp, Corporal Paul Dudley was the real-life bully and young privates Mark Pullan and Samuel Millar the victims.
The two privates were on their first overseas mission when they flew to East Timor last year.
While the pair had been trained for the threat they would face from roaming gangs, the violence to come from the head of their section, Dudley, was not so easy to combat.
A lawyer described them as the "weak links" of the section, and Dudley used his fists and boot to try to bring the pair up to speed.
The case is a blow to the Army's image, but it has condemned Dudley's actions and insists his methods are not part of a wider culture.
On one occasion, an angry Dudley struck each of the privates in the chest with a loaded Steyr rifle hard enough to knock them both backwards.
When Private Pullan did not draw his pistol fast enough for his liking on another patrol, Dudley punched him in the head as a lesson.
Dudley also threw a cup of coffee at Private Millar when he became angry with the young soldier over an indiscretion on a laptop computer.
Dudley did not hold himself to the same standards as his subordinates, and chose to ignore orders he did not like and do it his own way.
Unlike Jack Nicholson's character, there was no outburst when the court proceedings for Dudley concluded.
After a salute to a military panel that found him guilty on 13 of 15 charges, he was marched off to begin a 60-day stint in military jail and will then be booted out of the Army.
For Privates Pullan and Millar, life in the armed forces goes on.
