The wrong man. In the wrong place. At the right time.
Director: Barry Levinson
Writer: Mitch Markowitz
Producer: Mark Johnson, Larry Brezner
A disk jockey goes to Vietnam to work for the Armed Forces Radio Service. While he becomes popular among the troops, his superiors disapprove of his humor.
121 min
Rating: 7.309/10
Released
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Top Cast
Robin Williams
Adrian Cronauer
Forest Whitaker
Edward Garlick
Tom T. Tran
Tuan
Chintara Sukapatana
Trinh
Bruno Kirby
Lt. Steven Hauk
Robert Wuhl
Marty Lee Dreiwitz
Movie Info
Director: Barry Levinson
Writer: Mitch Markowitz
Producer: Mark Johnson, Larry Brezner
Production Companies: Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners III
Countries: United States of America
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What Others Said
r96sk:
Good, if a little underwhelming.
Robin Williams (Adrian) is in strong form, while it's amusing to see a less experienced Forest Whitaker (Edward) in a rather dorky role. 'Good Morning, Vietnam' all makes for satisfactory viewing thanks to Mr. Williams' humour, even if I didn't have a great deal of interest in the plot et al.
Wuchak:
**_An unseen side of the Vietnam War_**
Airman Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) is a DJ in Saigon, 1965. While Cronauer is a hit with the troops he incurs the wrath of his superiors for what they consider irreverent and subversive tendencies. When he's off the air, Cronauer pursues a cute Vietnamese woman (Chintara Sukapatana) while befriending her brother (Tung Thanh Tran). Forest Whitaker plays Cronauer's friend at the station while J.T. Walsh and Bruno Kirby play his nemeses.
Based on the real-life story, "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) came out when Vietnam films were popular. While categorized as a war comedy, it's more of a war drama with amusing touches, mostly due to Williams' antics. It was a box office hit when released and hailed by critics. Roger Ebert, for instance, gave it a perfect rating. I didn't see it until a couple of nights ago, far removed from the hoopla of the period, and found it decent and somewhat amusing, but a tad overrated.
Nevertheless, there's an unexpected twist in the third act and the movie is a necessary companion-piece to movies like "Platoon" (1986) in that it provides the non-grunt, political side of the infamous conflict. For instance, the story takes place just _before_ the troop levels were beefed up to 385,000 in 1966, which would escalate to 536,000 by 1968.
The film runs 2 hours, 1 minute, and was shot in Thailand.
GRADE: B-