Film Review: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

As years passed by, American public was beginning to come to terms with the aftermath of Vietnam War. Hollywood producers were sensing the public sentiments and became comfortable with previously unimaginable idea of the traumatic conflict being used as setting for a comedy. The risk paid off and Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 film directed by Barry Levinson, became one of biggest hits of its time.

The film is very loosely based on real life exploits of military radio DJ Adrian Cronauer. The plot begins in 1965 when Airman First Class Cronauer (played by Robin Williams) is sent to South Vietnam and assigned to work on Armed Forces Radio Saigon. He takes over the morning show which would begin with the phrase “Good morning, Vietnam” and quickly gains enormous popularity with combination of irreverent jokes, impressive voice imitations and taste for rock’n’roll music. While the troops love him, some of his superiors, like Lieutenant Hauk (played by Bruno Kirby) frown upon on his rebellious streak, tendency to mock authorities and trying to work around censorship. In the meantime, Cronauer meets Trinh (played by Chintara Sukapatana), beautiful Vietnamese girl on the street with whom he falls in love. He tries to be close to her by volunteering as a teacher in her English class. His romantic plans fail, but he meets and befriends her brother Tuan (played by Tung Thanh Tran), unaware that this friendship would get him in serious trouble.

Film originated as Cronauer’s idea for television series, very much like Korean War-themed MASH, which have dominated American airwaves for a decade. In the end the series was transformed into feature, written by MASH veteran Mitch Markowitz who, according to Cronauer’s words, invented most of the plots and characters. The person who could be named as the real author and the prime creative force behind the film is Robin Williams. At the time he was known mostly for his stand up comedy and television roles. He embraced opportunity to show his true talents on the big screen and director Barry Levinson was wise enough to let him improvise in scenes depicting Cronauer’s radio show. Those are the most memorable and most entertaining parts of the film and in it Williams shows incredible comedic talent. He also shows his (rarely used) ability to play character with pathos, which was quite useful in the second part of Good Morning, Vietnam, when the general tone gets slightly more serious. All this helped Williams received Oscar nomination for his role. The rest of the cast is good, especially Forest Whitaker as his assistant Garlick, while veterans like J. T. Walsh and Bruno Kirby are stuck in thankless roles of stereotypical villains.

While entertaining and mostly funny, Good Morning, Vietnam is hardy perfect film. Like in many of his films, Levinson has problems with pacing. Script also leaves some things to be desired. Whenever camera leaves Cronauer’s studio, film succumbs to cliches, including somewhat unconvincing plot resolution near the end. Another issue might be in film makers’ somewhat ambivalent relation to the war itself. Good Morning, Vietnam tries very hard to suggest that Cronauer was irreverent rebel and that he was, just like many Boomers and Hollywood film makers, opposed to the actual war. In reality, Cronauer was politically conservative and pro-military, just as the most American people in during the early stages of the war, when the film takes place. Those suggestions lead to somewhat ambivalent and confusing ending. Much of those flaws, however, could be forgiven to the film that allowed Robin Williams’ talent to shine so magnificently.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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