Good Morning Vietnam Review

Picture a man going on a journey beyond sight

and sound. He's entered the demilitarized zone.

It's time to rocket from the Delta to the DMZ!

It's 0 -600. What's the O stand for? Oh my god.

It's Mr. Leo. You know, this whole camouflage

thing for me doesn't work very well. Why is that?

Well, because you go in the jungle, I can't see

you! If you're going to fight, clash! Shock is

not what we program here! Surprise, surprise,

surprise! You are not funny. You're not gonna

last long here. Boy, do I have a surprise for

you. Good morning, midnight! In 1965, Adrian

Kronauer was sent to do the impossible. His mission?

To build morale. His strategy? Keep him laughing.

His problem? Staying out of trouble. You ought

to stick to playing normal modes of music. Jim

Neighbors. Madhavani. Percy Faith. Percy Faith!

Good! Yes! He did a very off -color parody of

a film of V .P. Nixon. Seeing as how the V .P.

is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on the

QT? Because if it leaks to the V .C., you can

end up in M .I .A. and then we'd all be put on

K .P. Sure, the man is a walking keg of dynamite.

He's read unofficial news. F .L. Merman jams

Russian radar. Hello! I've got a feeling. What's

he gonna be like in six months? Deep dogs landing

on my face. What's he gonna be like when he's

ten times as popular? What's the weather like

out there? It's hot. Damn hot. Hot and wet. That's

nice if you're with a lady, but it ain't no good

if you're in the jungle. Touchstone Pictures

presents Robin Williams as airman Adrian Kronauer,

the wrong person. Very attractive man ever, Sal.

Don't think I haven't noticed. in the wrong place.

This will not look good on a resume! At the right

time. Good morning Vietnam! What a country. Heat,

humidity, terrorism. Still, it's better than

New York in the summertime. Hello and welcome

to the 43rd episode of the M -Wire movie we can

review today where we're going to be discussing

Good Morning Vietnam. I am TFJR Mike and as usual

I'm joined by Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. How

are you? Tired. Yeah. That's about the death

of it. Alone. Yeah, not nearly as bad as your

situation. Yeah, well, we're gonna save on my

situation for a while. We'll record a separate,

like, up -to -date thing, because this episode

won't air until, I don't know, what is it? Two

weeks from now or two weeks from when we're recording

it or whatever it all looks who's sad or whatever

Yeah, let's just say by the time this episode

airs. I could be homeless Which sucks, but yes,

it's possible I don't know what the hell is gonna

happen yet, and I'm not really gonna say too

much about it in this episode so anyway This

really isn't gonna be us spotlight or anything

I just kind of lumped over the next three weeks

over the next three episodes this episode episode

44 and 45 I lumped three Robin Williams movies

together because I liked all three of them Good

Morning Vietnam Bicentennial Man and Good Will

Hunting I put those three together because I

like all three of them it's not really a spotlight

to Robin's work but There are a lot of his movies

that I do like, and I was just going off of what

I had in my DVD collection. Little did I know,

I don't have Bicentennial Man. So hopefully it

will come on TV between the time we record this

and the time we record that episode. So just

getting right into it, Good Morning Vietnam is

a 1987 American comedy -drama film set in Saigon

during the Vietnam War. based on the career of

Adrian Kronauer, played by Robin Williams, 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. Williams was

nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor

in a Leading Role. This film is number 36 on

Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. When did you first

see this? Probably when I was... Little bit younger.

I saw this with my mom so I Would say I was probably

around 10 ish and I just remember like mostly

out of it from that run Robin Williams character

being goofy, you know yelling good morning, Vietnam

And then all of his satirical comments Yeah,

you know, I actually don't remember when I saw

this And it had to have been... I want to say

somebody played it in high school. I could have

sworn. Maybe I'm confusing this with Dead Poets.

I know that one of my high school professors

played either this or Dead Poets Society. It

was probably Dead Poets Society, but... You know

I watched this back in this is a pretty violent

film for the most I mean it's not violent like

it's not all the time violent, but just the Just

the things that he goes through As far as you

know just as far as what you know his bosses

are going after him And you know he almost gets

blown up in a bomb Yeah, there's a lot of crazy

ass scenes that are either life or death. Yep.

So getting into the plot here. In 1965, United

States Air Force Airman Adrian Cronauer, played

by Robin Williams, arrives in Saigon from Crete

to work as a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Service.

His first contact is with private first class

Edward Garlick, played by Forrest Whitaker, whom

he unsuccessfully tries to persuade to help chase

down a couple of pretty local girls before taking

him to the radio station. Kronauer's irreverence

contrasts sharply with the rest of the staff

and soon arouses an air of two of his supervisors,

Lieutenant Stephen Hawk, played by Bruno Kirby,

and Sergeant Major Dickerson, played by J .T.

Walsh. Hawk adheres to strict Army guidelines

in terms of humor and music programming, while

Dickerson is annoyed by Kronenauer's behavior

in general. However, General Taylor, played by

Noble William, and the other DJs quickly grow

to like the new man and his brand of comedy.

Kronauer's show consists of unpredictable humor

segments mixed in with news updates vetted by

the station's censors and rock and roll records

that are frowned upon by his superior stock finds

nothing funny about any of it and tries without

success to get him to change his approach. After

Kronauer goes off the air, he spots Trane, I

can't even pronounce the name of the actress

who plays the chick he's going after. one of

the Vietnamese girls he tried to chase down earlier.

He follows her to an English class, bribing the

teacher to let him take over the job. He 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, Thuong,

who tells him to leave her alone. Instead, Curnaub

befriends Thuong and takes him into the local

GI bar to have drinks. with Garlick and the station

staff. Two other soldiers, angered at Twan's

presence, start a fight with the group that rapidly

escalates into a full -scale brawl. Dickerson

reprimands Crown Hour 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 Trane and the

rest of the family, chaperoning them. While relaxing

in the bar one afternoon, he is pulled outside

by Tuan. Moments before, the building explodes,

killing the two soldiers and leaving Kronauer

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,

and mid -report, Cronauer is suspended. Hawk

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 Cronauer

be put back on the air. Um, I laugh so hard at

that scene. It's like, oh god. Yeah, it was always

fun watching Robin Williams character butt heads

with everybody else Yeah, but the scene with

Hawk on the air. Oh my god. Give me a break It's

like let me just hawk a loogie or something.

I don't know It's just oh my god polka music.

Give me a break And then the whole bit about

Reader's Digest is is gonna be publishing two

of my jokes Like, yeah, that's... that's not

comedy. That's just bad comedy. In the meantime,

Crown Hour spends most of his time drinking and

trying to pursue a relationship with Train, only

to be rebuffed at every attempt. Taylor intervenes

on his behalf, ordering Hawk to reinstate him,

but Kurama refuses to go back to work when Garlic

brings him the news. He now fears that Dickerson

will send him to the front lines if he does anything

else wrong. Garlic drives up to the convoy of

soldiers stuck in traffic jam and persuades him

to do an impromptu broadcast for them. The performance

reawakens his love of radio and he is soon back

on the air. You know, I really like that, the

impromptu broadcast thing. That was kind of cool.

When he's talking to all the soldiers, so it's...

You know, when you first watch this film, the

first, you know, like, I don't know, half hour

of it, or whatever it is, when he's actually

on the air before the whole bomb thing happens,

you know, you get that he's a really, really

cool DJ and whatever else, and then, you know,

later on, obviously, he kind of gets into a slump

and then... This kind of reawakens him, and I

think it was really cool that they did that,

that they, you know, had him interact with some

of the soldiers. Yeah. Dickerson devices a ploy

to get rid of Kronor by sending him and Garlik

into, to interview soldiers in the field, knowing

that only a road into this particular area is

controlled by the Vietcong. As the two men drive

in the road, their jeep is blown off it and they

are forced to hide from the VC patrols. Back

in Saigon, Ton learns of their trip after Kronauer

fails to show up for English class and steals

a van and drives off after them. He finds them,

but the van breaks down and they must fly down

an army helicopter to take them back to the city.

At the station, Dickerson confronts Cronauer

with evidence that Twan, not his real name, is

a VC member and one who planted the bomb and

that blew up the GI bar. He will be killed if

the armor catches up to him. Cronauer's association

with the known enemy operative is enough to get

him honorably discharged and off the air for

good. Once he leaves the office though, Taylor

informs Dickerson that he is being transferred

to Guam as punishment for his vindictive attitude.

Oh, that's a good place for him. Guam. Yeah.

Cranauer finds Trini and persuades her to take

him to her brother. Calling out his real name,

he chases him into the back lot where the boy

angrily accuses Cranauer and the American forces

of being the real enemy in this war, killing

most of his family. He then slips away. The next

day, on his way to the airport, he sets up a

quick softball game with the students from the

English class. Trane thanks him for warning her

about the danger her brother was in. As he boards

the plane, he gives Garlick a taped farewell

message. Garlick taking Cronauer's place as DJ

plays the tape on air. The next morning, he begins

with a yell of, Good -bye, Vietnam, and runs

through a few of Cronauer's impressions, before

ending with his wish that everyone will get home

safely. I think it's good acting on a lot of

these people. You know, you got Dickerson and

Hawk, who are technically the villains of the

piece, and Cronauer and Garlick, which, at first,

when I first watched this, before we recorded

this, well, I watched it a couple of days ago,

but I couldn't stand the way Forrest Whitaker

made that little snicker laugh that he does.

at first. I'm like, okay, that's getting annoying.

But overall, a really, really great film. I don't

think there's anything I can say bad about this

movie. I really, really enjoyed it. I mostly

enjoyed the on -air stuff. What about you? Most

of what I liked of the film was that it had a

little bit of a serious part. Well, give or take

throughout the movie, but at the same time, Robin

Williams' comedy was able to flow through into

the story and actually fit with it. Yep. Being

that he could do his little impersonations and

make fun of political people like all of us wish

we could do on air. Which sometimes we do on

air, but... It was just cool to see that and

then see him pretty much just say, F you, I'm

doing whatever the hell I want. Not going to

be censored, which is basically like how podcasting

is. Yeah, pretty much. So, but yeah, it was pretty

cool of his character and also to see that he

does, despite all of his goofiness, actually

care and have a side that That you wouldn't have

expected his character to have at the beginning.

Mm -hmm. Oh, yeah Well this movie came out in

97 and I'm just looking at the cast here Robert

Wall Wow, I never knew I don't know if it really

hit me because I don't know but that is um Alexander

Knox from Batman I'm the 89 Batman. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So two years before he was Alexander Knox,

he was Marty Lee Drowitz. Jeez. Yeah. As far

as the production goes, in 1979, the actual...

Because this is based off of a real guy. I mean,

this isn't just some period piece. that they're

making up. This is based off of a real person.

Adrian Kryor decided to pitch 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

MASH. Cronauer then revamped his sitcom into

a script for 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. The film

was shot in Bangkok, Thailand. Awards. It was

recognized by American Film Institute in 2000.

AFI's 100 years, 100 laughs. It was number 100.

Wow. That's kind of hitting it below the belt.

This movie has a ton of 60s and 70s music in

it. I think it has a great soundtrack to it.

The soundtrack album included only the songs

indicated with an asterisk above, certified platinum

in the US. The Louis Armstrong song was released

as a single and became a top 40 hit 20 years

after its original release. Possible sequel.

Early in 2007, Robin Williams was seen mulling

over a script that was written for a sequel to

the movie. Williams said that he has been, quote,

reading over the script, and it is really good

so far. No other information is known as yet.

I hope to God they don't do a sequel. Well, I

mean, with original people, yeah, it could be

pretty decent, but at the same time, that war's

been done and over with. What the hell are they

going to do now, the Iraqi War? You're like an

old man. Yeah, well, you see, that's the thing,

though. You know, that's the thing. Now, I'm

kind of going to contradict myself a little bit

here. I mean, there are some actors that can

re -enter a role that they've done for, like,

say, well... the obvious one would be Eddie Murphy

as Axel Foley because I was gonna go for Mel

Gibson as as Riggs but Mel's to he's changed

way too much physically to even As far as looks

to even you know try to play Riggs again, but

you know there's some that can kind of come back

to it and Be oh, yeah, that's that's great. You

know whatever, but it just I I hope to God Robin

Williams does not do a sequel to this. I hope

to God this sequel is never made because it's

going to take away from the original film and

plus it was a period piece made in 87. I mean

it's kind of like It's kind of like updating

a Christmas story now. It's kind of like, you

know, say they made another Christmas story.

Well, what are you going to base it off of? You

can't base it off of the 30s and 40s that the

original was based off of. You know, it's like,

what the hell? God. Yeah. It pisses me off. And

that's what he has to say about the sequel. Yes,

exactly. Hey, I muffled that, so I don't want

to hear another, I don't even care. Michael Wilson

isn't here, he doesn't even listen to this podcast,

so, oh well. The complainer. Yes, exactly. Let's

not get into that. Oh shit. Alright, um, you

have any other thoughts on Good Morning Vietnam?

Uh, Good Morning Michigan. Okay. Yeah, I don't

think that would work as a sequel. Oh, why not?

I don't know, I just don't think that would work

as a sequel. You'd have people with guns, knives,

bulletproof windows. What more could you ask

for? Some actual comedy? There is poverty and

bumps in the street that piss themselves. They

take shift changes on the corner with their signs

and their bicycles. For a second there, I thought

you were going to say shit changes on the corner.

Sometimes do see them take a leak. Oh, God. I

was going to say, unless there's a Megatron fucking

a Barney, I don't want nothing to do with it.

I don't think anybody would want to see Megatron

fucking a Barney. Talk about putting your gun

up somebody's butt Thank you for joining us here

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we hope you enjoyed this episode of Empire wish

you'll join us next time we'll be reviewing Bicentennial

man for now. I am TFG on Michael with Thank you

for listening until next time Good morning, Vietnam.

This is Eddie Garlick coming to you live from

AFRS, Armed Forces Radio Saigon. It's 1629 hours

here in Saigon, and Airman Adrian Kronauer is

going home today. But he left a farewell message

for all you guys out there still sweating it

out in the fields. So, without further ado, here's

a farewell extravaganza. Goodbye, Vietnam! That's

right. I'm out of here. I got the lucky ticket

home, baby. Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep the

wagon rollin', roll hard. Yeah, that's right,

the final Adrian Kronauer broadcast. And this

one is brought to you by our friends at the Pentagon.

Remember the people who brought you Korea? That's

right, the U .S. Army. If it's being done correctly,

here or abroad, it's probably not being done

by the Army. I heard that. Oh, you're here. Good

to see you. I'm here to make sure you don't say

anything controversial. Speaking of things controversial,

is it true that there is a marijuana problem

here in Vietnam? No, it's not a problem. Everybody

has it. I don't know, Adrian. Leo. Leo. Adrian,

take care of yourself. I just want you to know

one thing. If you're going to be dressing in

civilian clothes, don't forget pumps. Thank you,

Leo. Thanks for these. Oh, these are special.

They're ruby slippers, Adrian. Put these on and

say, there's no place like home. There's no place

like home and you can be there. I hope. I hope

we're all good. New world. There, I said it.

Happy.