Good Morning, Vietnam

In honor of the life of Robin Williams, the next two weeks will be focused on films he made during his career. And while I won’t be devoting an entire category to him, the films will be ranked in categories that will be revealed after I finish with Disney.

Barry Levinson directed a war-comedy film in 1987 called Good Morning, Vietnam. Set during the Vietnam War, it stars Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker. Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the film is #100 on AFI’s top 100 laughs.

Adrian Cronauer (Williams) has been assigned to host radio programs for the Army during it’s time in Vietnam. However, his brash, off-color and offensive style gets on the brass’ nerves. However, the troops can’t get enough of him.

Good Morning, Vietnam is a very well made movie, able to effectively shift tones in the middle while still maintaining its focus. The acting is also very well done, not just by Williams, but by his other costars as well.

The film starts off by presenting itself as purely comedy, with Cronauer cracking joke after joke after joke. But later on, the film shifts tone into a much more serious movie when it’s revealed that the friend he trusted was actually VC member. Here’s the thing though, usually films that have a shift in tone like that don’t pull it off well and lose focus. However, this one does and maintains its focus. The shifting point happens with the battle scenes set to “What a Wonderful World” and after that, there are still comedic scenes, like when he’s giving an adlibbed performance in front of a convoy and it ends on a funny moment, but his discovery of who Tuan is and his ensuing discharge are much more serious.

The acting in the film is also really good. J T Walsh makes Sergeant Major Dickinson into not only an insufferable character, but an annoying one too. And it’s not an annoyance where you hate the portrayal. It’s an annoyance where you just hate the character and what he’s doing to the other characters. Richard Portnow also acts Dan Levitan, another DJ really well, making him the opposite of Cronauer in terms of personality, but not enough to put him at odds with him.

Good Morning, Vietnam is a great movie that has a good mixture of comedy and seriousness, knowing exactly when shifting tones is a good idea while still being able to maintain its credibility. It’s one of Williams’ best early roles.