GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM
A film review by Eugene Miya
(In the public domain)
Adrian Cronauer is a USAF DJ transferred from Crete to an early Vietnam police action (1965). This film is about his adjustment to Nam, and Nam's adjustment to Cronauer. The other characters include the General who brought him there, his CO and NCO, and his fellow DJs. Cronauer also takes an off-duty stint teaching English to get close to a Vietnamese girl (Crete apparently lacking women). There are run-ins with terrorist bombs, mines in the jungle, new foods, smiles from 'helping' people in a different culture: all the things which people join the Armed forces for.... Note: since realism is being discussed there really is an Adrian Cronauer (see the TIME review on this).
In some ways, the film is kind of a "downer" (mimic Robin Williams surfer voice). There many amusing moments with Williams, but these are short-lived. The problem is there are no good complementary (antagonistic) characters for Robin to bounce his lines off. M.A.S.H. had the Frank Burns and Hot Lips characters to a minor degree. Unlike M.A.S.H., Cronauer does not completely spoof the bureaucracy. He's constantly put down by it.
My favorite scene in the film (you have to see it, no real spoiler) is when Adrian (being driven to the radio station) gets caught in a traffic jam as troops are heading to the front. This is Robin as his best.
GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM appears like Bill Murray's attempt to cover some serious material as in THE RAZOR'S EDGE. This film will do well, initially, because of Robin William's following. Too much is made of his comedy. Perhaps, he should have had a better hand with his writing.
I really like Robin Williams and have seen him live many times. What's great about him isn't so much his comedy but his observations of the "human condition." I don't own any of his comedy albums because his visual coordination is important to his delivery. This is also a problem in this film. Williams has noted the problem himself between trained actor versus comic. By far and away, his best material is what's shown on HBO.
Go see BROADCAST NEWS. (It's better, sort of. . .).
>From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: --eugene miya NASA Ames Research Center eugene@ames-aurora.ARPA {uunet,hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene
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