Good Morning Vietnam is the story of a funny, honest man in a serious, censured world. Robin Williams stars as airman Adrian Cronauer, an irreverent, uncouth, fast-paced disc jockey/comedian transferred into 1964 Saigon. While accepted at once by his peers and lauded for his hilarious antics, he also straight away earns the enmity of Sgt. Maj. Dickerson, his boss, and Lt. Steven Hauk, his immediate supervisor. These two vehemently oppose his humor and feel-good attitude, Dickerson insulting Cronauer’s “type of soldier," and Hauk reprimanding his “coffee remarks." But Cronauer continues to deliver the funniest radio broadcasts the troops have ever heard. And as the conflict in Vietnam escalates, so does the conflict between Cronauer, Hauk, and Dickerson. Cronauer not only has the gall to broadcast humor, he feels constrained by the amount of news he allowed to report. He sarcastically refers to the edited sheets of news he reads as “all the news that’s new and approved by the U.S. army, the sweetest-smelling army in the world."
But when Cronauer himself is present at a bombing in a popular G.I. bar in downtown Saigon, he will not let the brass stop him from reporting it on air. This causes him to be taken off the air for a period of time, replaced by Lt. Hauk, whose shockingly unfunny humor immediately causes a disturbance among troops throughout Vietnam. But Cronauer has by this point become very tired of his constant fight with authority, and it is only when Pfc. Garlick forces him to speak to a van of troops headed off to fight that he remembers the true reason he was broadcasting. He then gets the idea to travel out to a base in the field and interview troops there. He chooses An Lac, which Dickerson assures him is completely safe. However, Dickerson knows that the route to An Lac is under the control of the Viet Cong. Cronauer and Garlick barely escape capture, helped out by Cronauer’s friend Tuan. When they get back, however, he finds out that Tuan is actually a VC terrorist known as Phan Duc To, and it was he that blew up the G.I. bar. Disillusioned and heartbroken, Cronauer leaves for the U.S., and his post taken over by Garlick.
The movie touches on a range of topics: honesty, friendship, love, politics, war, and racial discrimination. The major moral battles are between Cronauer, Hauk, and Dickerson, and also between Cronauer and Tuan. Cronauer struggles against the censorship imposed by the military, believing that troops have a right to know what is going on. “That’s censorship, Edward," he says to Garlick, “That’s is not what America’s all about." The conflict between Cronauer and Tuan is one of trust. Cronauer feels betrayed by Tuan, who is the reason he must leave. When he confronts Tuan at the end of the movie, he is stumped by Tuan’s accusation of U.S. atrocities, showing Cronauer the other side of the war, and supplying the movie with one of it’s most poignant evaluations of war.
Good Morning Vietnam is also a showcase of hilarious and vulgar humor, ranging from the most outrageous slapstick to the extremely dry. A good example of the latter is when Staff Sgt. Dreiwitz is talking to Brig. Gen. Taylor, insisting upon Lt. Hauk’s incredible unpopularity: “Sir, these letters are unequivocal! Uh, e.g. [reads a letter] ‘Hey, Hauk. Eat a bag of shit. You suck.’ Now that's pretty much to the point, sir, not much gray area in this one." The gut-wrenching humor is not only an appreciable part of the story, however, it is juxtaposed against the serious side of the movie in order to drive home the deeper messages about war, about trust, and about one’s responsibility to tell the truth.
My reaction to the movie was that, beyond it’s humor, it supplied a very meaningful and personal message about these three issues: war, truth, and trust. It was a great commentary on the Vietnam war, indeed, war in general, and showed the problems inherent in any conflict: the rightness of opposing views, the attitudes of different people who are part of the conflict, the temptation to pervert the facts, or hide the facts, to suit your purposes. It is Gen. Taylor who comments in the movie, “Military intelligence. Now there’s an oxymoron."
The dilemmas Cronauer faces force you to think about what you might do in his situation, and if you are guilty of the faults of any of the characters. I thought about my relationship with others, if I ever lied to them, hurt them, if I ever took the time to see things from their point of view. Cronauer’s fight for truth both inspires and frightens me— would I be able to stand up for what is right if I knew it might cost me everything? Or would I allow others to be deceived and deprived of the truth?
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