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Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran

Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog) directed this comedy-drama about an Armed Forces Radio disc jockey (Robin Williams) whose manic, hilarious delivery from a studio in 1965 Saigon gives U.S. troops i...( read more  read more... )n the field a morale boost (while upsetting military brass). Based on the real-life experiences of deejay Adrian Cronauer, the film is actually more concept than story: put Williams in front of a microphone and let him go nuts. Still, the surrounding stuff about the influence upon Cronauer of the endless deaths among his listeners--as Cronauer tries to stay funny while feeling the mounting losses--is affecting. Williams got a much-deserved Oscar nomination for his work. --Tom Keogh

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78% liked it

110,714 ratings

R, 128 min.

Directed by: Barry Levinson

Release Date: December 23, 1987

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DVD Release Date: November 10, 1998

Stats: 3,107 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,107)

  • SirPant
    September 17, 2009
    SirPant
    Good film, I have a few niggles with it but overall it's a good film.
  • DrZeek
    August 30, 2009
    DrZeek
    Dickerson: This is not military issue, airman. What sort of uniform is that?
    Adrian Cronauer: Cretan camouflage sir. If you want to blend in with a bunch of drunken Greeks there's nothing better.
    Dickerson: That is humor. I recognize that. I also recognize your brand of soldier...( read more).

    A lite war comedy that features my favorite performance from Robin Wiliams.

    Williams stars as Adrian Cronaer, a new DJ, shipped from Crete to 1964 Vietnam to bring humor to Armed Forces Radio. His broadcasts are unorthadox and become wildly popular with the troops but do not impress the middle management who think he isn't G.I. enough. While Adrian is off the air, he tries to meet Vietnamese girls, stumbles his way into becoming an English teacher, and begins to have brushes with the real war that never appears on the radio.

    The film is a mix of hilarious radio improv by Williams and some moments of reality involving the war. The war aspect is handled just right to stay in tone with the film. There are elements that don't try to dictate politics but attempt to get across the idea that the war is a large deal and Adrian only wants to bring some lightness into that perspective, even if he has to chose whether or not to censor when he is told to.

    There is a standard set of characters that both support and hate Adrian but they are cast well with Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby, JT Walsh, and Robert Wuhl all rounding out the supporting cast. Scenes between Williams and the Vietnamese people are good too.

    Also helping are the radio montages that feature all of the choice rock & roll tunes that Adrian chooses to play during his broadcasts.

    A very good movie that I always enjoy watching.

    Adrian Cronauer: Here's a little advice: Never eat in a Vietnamese restaurant next to a pound.
  • FangsFirst
    April 20, 2009
    FangsFirst
    When I was younger, I'd rapidly develop ideas of which actors were funny. Unlike my modern approach to humour, I tended toward the familiar, and toward the bigger, easily recognized and omnipresent sorts of personalities I would inherit from my parents' viewing. Of course, there ...( read more)was the filter of what I would watch at the time (it would have to be consistent humour, broad humour and in colour), so there were limits, and little was surprising. Sitcoms were funny to me then (which may or may not shock the people who know me now), and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I didn't really get George Carlin (RIP, George, even if I still don't think you're really all that funny) or many of the more atypical comics, but the energetic comedians who were starting to carry movies in the late 80s and early 90s were both familiar and automatically funny to me. It was strange, sort of an understanding of their funniness rather than an actual personal recognition for me. I remember this distinctly because when my parents settled in to watch this and I was about 8 or 10 years old, I didn't get it, even though I "knew" Robin Williams was hilarious. I remember feeling really disappointed that this comedy seemed to be unfunny and wandered away (or at least mentally wandered back into the world of my toys, I don't remember that for sure). It was knowing how much I've changed that I decided to revisit this film.

    Adrian Cronauer (Williams) has been shipped to Saigon from Crete to act as disc jockey for the Army's troop radio station, his reputation as a funny man preceding him. Arriving there, he's greeted by Garlick (Forest Whitaker), the rather submissive PFC who is charged with Cronauer's treatment and position. He's introduced to his two superiors going forward, primarily Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby), but also Sgt. Major Dickerson (J.T. Walsh). Hauk feels he shares a camaraderie with Cronauer because he has an interest in comedy as a hobby, while Dickerson is very straight-edged and disinterested. Disinterested, that is, until Cronauer's first broadcast. Cronauer begins to play modern music in violation of the standards of prior broadcasts, and use humour that leaves Garlick and fellow troops Pvt. Abersold (Richard Edson) and Cronauer's broadcasting colleague Marty Lee Dreiwitz (Robert Wuhl) in stitches. Hauk is disappointed in the humour and Dickerson is incensed by the subject matter. They bring the matter to the attention of General Taylor (Noble Willingham), who dumps the problem back in their laps because he actually likes Cronauer's approach. Cronauer spends his time away from the mic chasing down Trinh (Chintara Sukhapatana), a pretty Vietnamese girl who catches his eye. He ends up teaching her English class, but runs into the brick wall of her brother Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran), who is protective of his sister and the differing customs. Adrian decides to use Tuan as a way in to Trinh but ends up legitimately befriending him despite this, to the chagrin of his superiors.

    The selling point of this film for essentially anyone seems to be the comedy of Robin Williams, especially his "on-air" monologues, which are rapid-fire with their sudden changes in direction and approach. As I say, I was first totally unimpressed, with a slew of jokes that were too referential (and often political) for my young mind to really get. My sense of humour has changed in the interceding years, but I've also become a lot more stone-faced when it comes to humour. It's not easy to get me really laughing, simply because it's difficult for humour to really get in enough of a surprise on me that I can have that instinctual kind of laughter. All the same, I can see a more natural flow and a good delivery and respect it for what it is. A good delivery is still very engaging for me, even when the humour doesn't do much for me, where a bad delivery is repulsive and obnoxious to me (hence my distaste for Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and a handful of others). Williams, when he was doing so much comedy, was always enthusiastic, warm and natural, and never felt false. This was no exception--even when I wasn't doing much more than smiling at his rapid banter, I was interested in what he was saying.

    This comes to the other aspect of Robin Williams that is more fascinating. There's this perception--which I fully admit I might have been alone in--that he was no dramatic actor, or rather, that Good Will Hunting and the like gave him a chance to shine as one. I've since seen a chunk of his work prior to that, some after this and before that, some contemporary to this. There's also this itself. The movie gets a bit darker and more serious toward the end, though Williams' Cronauer remains devoted to humour. He really is a very good lead in all capacities, often doing well enough at it that it's lost behind the bombast of his loud and emphatic comedic senses. It's natural for this character (and I say character because the real Cronauer is very different and has a different sense of humour) to make tension-relieving quips, so that only enhances the moments where he is within the character and responding in less humourous ways to less humourous situations. It makes me regret pigeon-holing him in my youth, unfair though that may be to criticize a no longer existent ten-year-old. It's a very good performance from Williams, not necessarily one I would call his best, as it does still hinge on his comedy more than anything else, but it is one that is never let down.

    I do recognize the concerns the studio had at the time, too--a comedy about Vietnam? That doesn't seem like the best idea in the world, not like something that would go over well, but it works, and it works in part because Barry Levinson's direction (including an ironic montage to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World") and in the other part because of Mitch Markowitz' script. The film itself finally turns and not only becomes darker but becomes a sort of microcosmic examination of the conflict in Vietnam. We see the macrocosmic issue of troop morale, of soldiers dropped in by draft from a life that had none of the hardship of soldiering and how a little familiarity can help with that, but we also see the issues of infighting and generational conflict, as well as the confusion about who has what role in a foreign country, and in what part of the country was on the US' side, and what part wasn't, and what side the US itself was on (if any, sometimes), and just how confusing it was in general. I'm not going to say it was a perfectly accurate discussion of this, nor that it's the best example of it, but it is a nice surprise to see the film manage to work this in organically and address the issue of Vietnam without getting openly preachy or discussing the actual issues. It deals only in interpersonal relationships within the structure of the story, and it manages to use these perfectly to illustrate its points.

    This was a lot better a movie than I knew once, and further strengthens my appreciation of Levinson's work as a director.
  • hypathio7
    January 22, 2009
    hypathio7
    Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July (and I understand Apocalypse Now though I haven't seen it yet) all contain the important element of the rock songs of the time. This movie gives the impression that it is just a string of music montages without much of an important message ...( read more)to deliver or a complete story line that connects it all. Robin Williams is high energy except for a couple moments of quiet depressed "dramatic" Williams. For people who enjoy this movie, I imagine multiple viewings allow them to pick up more of the jokes. For someone like me who didn't love the movie, I don't care to view it a second time even though I realize that some of the humor blew by too fast. So, what makes up the plot is the character of Cronauer becoming familiar with Vietnam culture, rebelling just a little bit against his military superiors though the general is in support of him all along, and discovering that a Vietnamese boy and girl (brother and sister) are not what they seem. Probably because the people playing the Vietnamese villagers had Robin Williams as their main English speaking example, they were all hard to understand. And that is unfortunate.
  • kiriyamakazou
    September 3, 2008
    kiriyamakazou
    The playful side of war. Well not exactly, but it does show how one man can bring just a tiny bit of joy to those in terrible times. Williams offers the escapism so deserved by the troops and the film details his struggles with his superiors. Though he doesn't struggle too much. ...( read more)The most interesting aspects are his interaction with the Vietnamese and it builds a wonderful amount of emotional tension. Williams sometimes is TOO Robin Williams, his ad libbing sometimes becoming tiresome but he really excels in capturing the harder moments of acting such as the bombing scene and directly afterwards. The actual battle scenes are few but get to the horrific point. Uplifting but without showing in too much detail what the soldiers, who respect and enjoy Williams radio shows, are going through it's hard to imagine exactly how important his character is without imaging other films.
  • Yelverton
    November 20, 2009
    Yelverton
    When Robin Williams is in the control booth, you think you're going to split your side.
  • louisa2466
    October 31, 2009
    louisa2466
    Fantastic. I love Robin Williams.
  • HateYouIgnorant
    October 28, 2009
    HateYouIgnorant
    Comercial or Stupid!
  • karenpackace
    October 22, 2009
    karenpackace
    This was a good movie but would have liked it better if the language weren't so bad.
  • GreenGoblin92
    October 8, 2009
    GreenGoblin92
    Very funny film. Robbie was hilarious. But the plot wasn't that good.

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  • SoulSweeper
    January 4, 2008
    SoulSweeper
    GREAT MOVIE
  • rickles37
    September 8, 2006
    rickles37
    You don't get williams funnyer than this. Never have I split a gut this hard without the aid of drugs...
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Good Morning, Vietnam Trivia

  • Name the film that his audio clip comes from  Answer »
  • What actor links the movies "Popeye", "Seize the Day", "Moscow on the Hudson", "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Jacob the Liar"?  Answer »
  • Who sang I Get Around from the Good Morning Vietnam soundtrack?  Answer »
  • which movie has robin williams playing as a disc-jockey and which features the song "what a wonderful world" by louis armstrong?  Answer »
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