Recently, I've been watching a great deal of things relating to the war in vietnam, most of them consisting of actual footage that was recorded there during the fighting. This movie is not a war movie in the traditional sense and has a prominent element of comedy thrown in, but it's important to remember that it does take place in vietnam during the 60s. While I thought it was good, I don't know if I would consider it one of Robin Williams' best. The story opens with Adrian Cronauer (Williams) being sent to Saigon, south vietnam's capital city. He isn't there to fight, but instead is assigned to hosting a radio station to boost the morale of american soldiers. A soldier named Ed who works at the base is assigned to be Adrian's partner. However, his boss, Second Lieutenant Hauk and his subordinate, Sergeant Major Dickerson, do not approve of Cronauer's radio antics. They accuse him of encouraging negative behavior, saying his personality is too energetic and wild. Because of this, Cronauer is constantly at odds with them and struggles to keep his job. Lieutenant Hauk's boss, General Taylor, is a fan of Cronauer's radio station though, and overrules the lieutenant's wish to get Cronauer suspended. Later, Adrian, goes to a vietnamese schoolhouse and takes over the lessons there, teaching the students in the class to use american slang and profanity. While there, he meets a girl named Trinh and her brother Tuan. After bringing Tuan with him to a GI's only bar, two marines get into a fight with Adrian, which leads to him getting scolded by his superior officer. After going back to the bar and then leaving one day, it explodes violently and some people are killed. Adrian notices that Tuan somehow managed to escape the blast. Intent on letting this important news reach american ears, Adrian locks himself in the broadcasting room one day and starts spilling the details. An enraged Dickerson pounds on the door and disconnects the machine. Not only this, but Adrian is fired. This immensely pleases Dickerson and lieutenant Hauks, allowing the latter to replace Adrian as the radio host. However, no american servicemen like the new host and he receives a flood of hate mail. Meanwhile, Adrian tries to win Trinh's love, but she keeps turning him down. General Taylor overrides Hauk's decision to serve as radio host, and Adrian is reinstated. Despite this, he doesn't want his job anymore. Some time later, Adrian comes across a bunch of soldiers ready to be sent out on trucks, and one of them convinces him to ad-lib one of his broadcasts. Reluctantly, he does so, and the applause he gets from the men convinces him to get back to his work. Upon seeing Adrian back on the job, sergeant Dickerson is infuriated. He phones some marines in the field to find out if a certain road that Adrian is likely to travel on is unsafe, and they say yes. Dickerson sends Adrian and his friend on a car ride through this area, and their jeep explodes from a land mine. Adrian and Ed survive the explosion and begin making their way back to safety when Tuan suddenly appears and leads them to a rescue helicopter. Back at base, Dickerson bullies Adrian relentlessly for his behavior, calling him a moron. More importantly, Adrian learns he has lost his job permanently because Tuan is revealed to be a vietcong agent. He was the same one responsible for bombing the bar earlier, and was able to slip out before it exploded. Dickerson and general Taylor tell Adrian that sadly, they're not able to save his job because coming to the defense of a spy would be hypocritical for the United States. Adrian pressures Trinh into showing him where her brother is, and he tells Adrian he hates americans because they're responsible for bombing his village. At the end, Adrian says goodbye to Trinh, gives Ed an audio cassette containing his last broadcast, and leaves on a plane back to New York. Dickerson also starts complaining about how general Taylor has transferred him to Guam. I have to say, I typically don't regard many movies made in the 80s as classic, because the "classic" era of cinema was gone for some 2 decades by that point, but overall, this movie's ok. It is incredibly funny in certain parts, such as when Williams is tasked with broadcasting a speech by President Nixon and he edits his voice to answer out of context questions, such as whether or not the US Army has a marijuana problem. It's also pretty impressive how most of the snappy and very fast radio talk Williams does in this movie was improvised, and he managed to say all of it without making a mistake. On top of this, I also liked the setting of the movie itself. Saigon is not a place we often get to see in film, and here, it is portrayed as a dirty, rundown, dangerous hell on earth where there's way more people than houses and attacks by north vietnamese can come at any moment. The resemblance to reality is stunning. In all, I thought Good Morning Vietnam was a good addition to the list of well made vietnam war movies, even if it does have a macabre subject for a so called comedy.
Review of Good Morning, Vietnam
