| Good Morning, Vietnam | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Barry Levinson |
| Produced by | Larry Brezner Mark Johnson |
| Written by | Mitch Markowitz |
| Starring | Robin Williams Forest Whitaker Bruno Kirby J. T. Walsh |
| Music by | Alex North |
| Cinematography | Peter Sova |
| Editing by | Stu Linder |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 23, 1987 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13 million[1] |
| Box office | $123,922,370 (USA) |
Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 American comedy-drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his "irreverent tendency." The film was written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson.
Most of Williams' humorous radio broadcasts were improvised.[2] Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film is number 100 on "AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs."
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In 1965, Airman Second Class Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams), of the United States Air Force, arrives in Saigon from Crete to work as a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Service there. Cronauer is greeted, and also befriended, by Private First Class Edward Montesquieu Garlick (Forest Whitaker). Cronauer's irreverence contrasts sharply with many staff members and soon rouses the ire of two of his superiors, Second Lieutenant Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) and Sergeant Major Dickerson (J. T. Walsh). Hauk adheres to strict Army guidelines in terms of humor and music programming, while Dickerson is annoyed by Cronauer's behavior in general. However, Brigadier General Taylor (Noble Willingham) and the other DJs quickly grow to like the new man and his brand of comedy. Cronauer's show consists of unpredictable humor segments mixed with news updates (vetted by the station censors) and rock and roll records that are frowned upon by his superiors. Hauk finds nothing funny about any of it and tries, without success, to get him to change his approach.
Cronauer meets Trinh (Chintara Sukapatana), a Vietnamese girl, and follows her to an English class. Bribing the teacher to let him take over the job, Cronauer starts instructing the students in the use of American slang. Once class is dismissed, he tries to talk to Trinh but is stopped by her brother Tuan, who tells him to leave her alone. Instead, Cronauer befriends Tuan and takes him to Jimmy Wah's, the local G.I. bar, to have drinks with Garlick and the station staff. Two other soldiers, angered at Tuan's presence, start a fight with the group that rapidly escalates into a full-scale brawl.
Dickerson reprimands Cronauer for this incident, but the broadcasts and unorthodox English classes go on as usual. Impressed with the DJ's behavior, Tuan sets him up on a date with Trinh, with the rest of the family chaperoning them. While relaxing in Jimmy Wah's one afternoon, he is pulled outside by Tuan moments before the building explodes, killing two soldiers and leaving Cronauer badly shaken. The cause of the explosion is determined to be a bomb planted inside; the news is censored, but he locks himself in the studio and reports it anyway. Dickerson cuts off the broadcast signal in mid-report and Cronauer is suspended. Hauk takes over his time slots, but his poor attempts at comedy and insistence on playing polka music, instead of rock and roll, lead to a flood of letters and phone calls from servicemen who demand that Hauk be removed and that Cronauer be put back on the air.
In the meantime, Cronauer spends most of his time drinking and trying to pursue a relationship with Trinh, only to be rebuffed at every attempt. At the radio station Taylor intervenes on his behalf, ordering Hauk to reinstate him, but Cronauer refuses to go back to work when Garlick brings him the news. He now fears that Dickerson will send him to the front lines if he does anything else wrong. During a traffic jam, Garlick and Cronauer's vehicle is stopped by a convoy of soldiers; the GIs persuade him to do an impromptu "broadcast" for them, giving them a good laugh before they go off to fight. The performance for the troops – many of whom Cronauer realizes won't come back alive – renews his sense of purpose and reminds him why his job is important during the war, and he is soon back on the air.
Dickerson devises a ploy to get rid of Cronauer by sending him and Garlick to interview soldiers in the field – knowing that the only road into this particular area, An Lộc, is controlled by the Viet Cong (VC). Their jeep is blown off the road by a mine and they are forced to hide in the jungle from the VC patrols. Back in Saigon, Tuan learns of their trip after Cronauer fails to show up for English class, then steals a van and drives off after them. He finds them, but the van breaks down and they must flag down an Army helicopter to take them back to the city.
At the station, a gleeful Dickerson confronts Cronauer, declaring he is now off the air for good. His friend "Tuan" is actually Phan Duc To, a VC operative responsible for the bombing of Jimmy Wah's. He will be killed if the Army catches up to him. Dickerson has arranged for an honorable discharge, provided Cronauer leaves "quietly." Brigadier General Taylor arrives, and informs Cronauer that he cannot help this time; a US Armed Forces member being friends with a Vietcong could be a serious PR problem for the Army. Once Cronauer has left, however, Taylor informs Dickerson that he is being transferred to Guam as punishment for his vindictive attitude.
Cronauer finds Trinh and angrily persuades her to take him to her brother. Calling out his real name, he chases him into a back lot, where the boy angrily accuses Cronauer and the American forces of being the real enemy in this war and killing most of his family. He then slips away.
The next day, on his way to the airport, Cronauer sets up a quick softball game with the students from his English class. As he boards the plane, he gives Garlick a taped farewell message; Garlick – taking Cronauer's place as DJ – plays the tape on the air the next morning. It begins with a yell of "Gooooooooooooooooodbye, Vietnam!" and runs through a few of Cronauer's impressions before ending with his wish that everyone will get home safely.
In 1979, Adrian Cronauer pitched a sitcom based on his experiences as an AFRS DJ. TV networks were not interested, because they did not see war as comedy material, despite the fact that one of the most popular shows at the time was M*A*S*H. Cronauer then revamped his sitcom into a script for a movie of the week, which eventually got the attention of Robin Williams. Very little of Cronauer's original treatment remained after writer Mitch Markowitz was brought in.[3] The film was shot in Bangkok, Thailand.
Although Adrian Cronauer wrote the original treatment of the film script, it was heavily altered once it was picked up by Williams and the production team, and is not a biographical account of Cronauer's real story. Commenting on the accuracy of the film the real-life Cronauer said "I'm very happy with it. Of course, it was never intended to be an accurate point-by-point biography. It was intended as a piece of entertainment, and (Williams) was playing a character named Adrian Cronauer who shared a lot of my experiences. But actually, he was playing Robin Williams."[4]
While the film appears generally critical of the US policy in Vietnam and shows the failings of the American side,[5] Cronauer has always maintained his full support for the USA's involvement in Vietnam, and has no doubt that their actions were necessary, saying "When I left, we were winning. The thing that very few people realize is that we never lost a single significant military battle in all the time that we were there in Vietnam, including the Tet Offensive."[6] William's character is never critical of the Vietnam campaign, (although he mocks Richard Nixon in one scene) and at the end of the movie says "We're here to help this country!", a viewpoint that is consistant with the real Cronauer's.[7] Levinson's direction leaves the film's view more morally ambiguous.
Levinson deliberately kept Cronauer and Williams from meeting as he did not want Williams to adapt his performance to impersonate Cronauer. The pair finally met at the film's New York premiere.[4] Commenting on his portrayal in the film, Cronauer said "Anybody who has been in the military will tell you that if I did half the things in that movie, I’d still be in Leavenworth right now. A lot of Hollywood imagination went into the movie. I was a disk jockey in Vietnam and I did teach English in my spare time. I was not thrown out of Vietnam; I stayed for my full one-year tour and I was honorably discharged." None of the people in the film are based on actual people Cronauer met, although he described them as stereotypes of military personnel who existed at the time.[6] Cronauer also did not receive bags of fan mail or telephone requests as shown in the film. "Naah, never happened. That was Hollywood. You think about it: There aren't any phone booths out in the rice paddies. Where are they going to call from?" He also was not often recognised by name by G.I.s, although they did recognise his voice when he said "Good Morning Vietnam".[4] The scenes where Cronauer teaches his class to swear and use "street slang", his pursuit of a pretty Vietnamese girl, and his Jeep being blown up in the jungle are constructs for the plot and never happened to Cronauer.[7]
American Film Institute recognition
Robin Williams was nominated for an Academy Award, and was awarded a Golden Globe.
The soundtrack album included only the songs indicated with an asterisk above. It was certified platinum in the US.[8] The Louis Armstrong song was released as a single and became a top 40 hit twenty years after its original release.
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