Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
This news is not official.
THE SUMMARY: The Armed Forces Radio Service assigns an airman to a new DJ job in Saigon and he becomes a hit morale boost for GIs, but he tells too much truth and accidentally befriends a Viet Cong terrorist kid while chasing some jungle tail, so he has to say an emotional goodbye. It’s a perfectly fine movie - funny, heartwarming, and even a little heartbreaking, but there’s not enough depth to earn my higher Wickies.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER DRACULLAMA: Censorship kills humor. Robin Williams at his best as a radio DJ in Vietnam. This is a go-to for comedy.
THE BEST:
Some decent lines and bits: For the most part, at least to me, Robin Williams is the exact same guy in every movie. He’s the same as Adrian Cronauer as he is as Mrs. Doubtfire as he is as the Genie in Aladdin. You either love that or you don’t, and for me, I mostly don’t, because it’s the same repetition of off-the-wall high pitch and low pitch voices bouncing back and forth.
Still, there were a few lines and bits that got me laughing. The riffing about the ‘protective dike’ was great, complete with the line about a woman in comfortable shoes. Credit is also due for Robin Williams improvising each of these broadcast scenes. The edited Nixon interview bit was also excellent. I’m not sure if this is the origin, but that’s a bit I still see re-used in radio shows and podcasts today, and it’s almost always funny.
If you have to tell people how funny you are, you aren’t: It’s certainly a deep sub-point to this movie, but it’s one I appreciate greatly. Like Second Lieutenant Hauk, if you have to tell everyone how funny you are, you aren’t. You achieve funny by doing, not by declaring. It’s a truth that’s readily apparent with humor, but it applies to almost all traits. If you have to tell everyone how smart you are, you aren’t. If you have to tell everyone how strong you are, you aren’t. People assess you by observing you in action, not by accepting your own self-description, so earn these descriptions by demonstrating them. As a side benefit, you’ll remain humble as well.
A true story, kinda: Adrian Cronauer was a real guy who lived this general experience - he was a beloved military radio broadcaster in Saigon in the mid ‘60s. Many of the major plot points are complete fiction - he wasn’t forced out of Vietnam, he didn’t have a Viet Cong terrorist friend, and he was never landmined behind enemy lines - but the general theme of a radio voice being a morale boost for troops in need is a real piece of history.
Cronauer died in 2018, and as you can see in the video news piece below, Williams’ presentation is fairly similar, if only in the trademark namesake greeting. Cronauer actually wrote the movie script himself originally, but upon sale for Hollywood production, many of the plot points were significantly changed.
There are few GMV clips on YouTube, so here’s a montage
The real Adrian Cronauer
THE WORST:
Tighter information control makes more sense in the military context, actually: Normally censorship themes are something that fascinate me. And they are interesting in this movie: whether it’s better for everyone to know the immediate report of the bombing, whether the professional compromise of crude jokes is worth it for troop morale, etc. But it’s less meaningful to me in the military context, because the philosophy of free speech principles doesn’t strictly apply here.
As a matter of government and social interaction, we uphold free speech principles for two primary reasons: because the individual holds a right to perspective, and because by protecting the free marketplace of ideas, we protect the discovery of the truth.
But the organizing principle of the military is entirely different. The organizing principle of the military is not to philosophize - it’s to achieve the strategic objective. Thus, where there are strategic disadvantages to information release, the primary purpose of the military is damaged. Indeed, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines all sign away nearly every right they hold as civilians, including their free speech rights, at least while in uniform and on duty. You don’t say whatever you want whenever you want in basic or in the foxhole and get away with it, for good reason. To allow such a thing would create chaos and compromise unit integrity, thus compromising the objective.
It’s not to say that Cronauer was wrong to want the truth out, necessarily. It’s just to say that this is a context in which I can respect the perspective of command, far more than I can respect the perspective of government withholding the truth from civilians, or punishing them for distributing it.
Get a woman your age, dude: As far as I observed, her age is not revealed, and I guess technically Cronauer raided an adult school and not a junior high, but damn does this love interest look sketchy, even by loose jungle standards. Somebody should have told Dickerson it didn’t take some sophisticated intel about the Viet Cong kid to get Cronauer - just give Chris Hansen five minutes on the case.
When this movie was released, Robin Williams was about 36. The actress who played Trinh, his Vietnamese crush, was about 22. So perhaps what appears to be her extreme youth is something of an Asian optical illusion, but it’s still a massive age gap.
Regardless, the romance plot is almost entirely pointless anyway. Trinh only serves to bring Adrian to her brother Phan Duc To, the Viet Cong kid, and that’s something that could have easily developed without her. Despite Adrian creepily begging for whatever he can get, the romance goes nowhere but the friend zone, and only wastes time.
That suicide joke for Robin, oof: This isn’t the movie’s fault, but damn does that suicide joke at the start hit hard. In today’s context, it’s an unfortunate bummer to start a movie that’s otherwise fairly uplifting. Or maybe it fits right in, actually. This is a movie about finding humor and joy in hell, so I suppose joking about the hellish is perfectly appropriate.
Picking up a school girl
Big oof
THE RATING: 3/5 Wickies. This movie is acceptably okay at everything - comedy, drama, a plot twist, and more. I was entertained, but not lost in thought afterward. It’s perfectly watchable and enjoyable, but I won’t be eager to rewatch it any time soon.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇
NEXT WEEK: Team America: World Police (2004)
AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! July’s movie nominations are from listeners Jamie & Jeanne.
Want to be the movie nominator for the month? Here’s how - fill out the form below. Note: once you are entered, you are eligible for selection on an ongoing basis. One entry per participant - multiple entries will be rejected.