Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 comedy/drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Saigon (AFRS), who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his "irreverent tendency".

Cronauer is played by Robin Williams in a career-making role. Most of Robin Williams' humorous radio broadcasts were improvised. Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

It also stars Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran, Chintara Sukapatana, Bruno Kirby, Robert Wuhl, J.T. Walsh and Noble Willingham. The movie was written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson.

The movie was shot in Bangkok, Thailand.

Synopsis

Arrival in Vietnam

Wearing "Cretan camouflage" (a khaki shirt and blue beret), radio announcer A1C Adrian Cronauer (Williams) emerges from the air-conditioned US Air Force airliner taking him to his new assignment in sweltering Saigon, where fellow enlisted man Pfc. Eddie Garlick (Whitaker) prepares to drive him to the radio station. Garlick turns the ignition key even though the engine is already on.

Upon arrival in Army 2nd Lt. Steven Hauk's (Kirby) office, Cronauer immediately encounters a nemesis in Sergeant Major Phillip Dickerson (Walsh). "Where is this man's paperwork?" he thunders, and Hauk obsequiously hands over Cronauer's orders to Dickerson, even though Hauk is the ranking soldier in the room. The conversation goes steadily downhill from there, as Dickerson starts hectoring Cronauer about his civilian clothes: "This is not standard military issue, Airman!" Cronauer infuriates Dickerson with thinly veiled mock respect and razor-sharp humor, calling him Sir ("I work for a living!), and his attempts at humor are shot down by Dickerson's warning against falling foul of him.

On the air

Garlick wakes Cronauer the next morning, and the jet-lagged disk jockey struggles to gain sufficient consciousness for his 0600 show ("I'm not even in my body yet, I may have to hurt you.") Garlick laughs this off and escorts Cronauer to the cramped studio, rapidly introducing him to Brig. Gen. Taylor (Willingham) ("Garlick, have you put on weight? Why the shadow of your ass must weigh twenty pounds.") and the eerie twin-brother news censors ("Hiya."). At 0559, Sgt. Marty Lee Dreiwitz (Wuhl), a fellow DJ, challenges Cronauer: "Can you say something funny right now?" "I doubt it." Dreiwitz cackles with laughter and says, "By the way, you're on in ten seconds, nine, eight..."

At precisely 0600, Cronauer switches his mike on, pauses as if totally lost, then half shouts and half croons, "Gooooood morning, Viet Nammmmmmm!!" He follows this with a rapid fire, apparently ad-libbed stream of topical wisecracks ("This is not a test, this is rock and roll!"), proceeds to play a Freddie and the Dreamers record at a slow speed, then pretends to play it backwards ("Oof, neef, Freddie is the devil") and introduces the first song of his show: Nowhere to Run, by Martha and the Vandellas. Then he sits casually back, and modestly asks the other guys, "Too much?"

Cronauer continues to live life at a frenetic pace, making a hash of Army regulations about what he can and cannot say or play over the air while amassing a huge following among the men in the field. Lt. Hauk, a frustrated comedian himself ("Reader's Digest is considering publishing two of my jokes..."), is jealous of his comedic talent, and Dickerson hates him because he gets away with being rebellious and disrespectful, but Gen. Taylor supports him ("I heard his show in Crete, and I busted a gut laughing.")

Life outside the studio

The same day as his first show, Cronauer spots a pretty Vietnamese girl (we later learn her name is Trinh) and follows her to an English class, where he bribes the teacher to let him take over the class so he can meet the girl. ("What subject is this?" "Is it English?" "That's right! Thanks for playing!") Soon he has the entire class convulsed in laughter as he teaches them the way people talk on the streets of New York. ("Slip me some skin" apparently does not mean a leper handing you a hunk of his face, and so on.)

Trinh's brother Tuan (Tran) stops him as he tries to follow her out of the class ("You forget the girl...You Americans are all alike, you find a girl with the shape breasts you like, put her in a fancy car, and take her to bed." "What's wrong with that?" "It's more devout here.") Cronauer switches from madcap humor to disarming honesty ("You got me, Sparky. Okay, I bribed my way into the class to meet the girl, but I'm going to stay.") and goes out with him for local food ("fish balls and lizard testicles").

At Jimmy Wah's, a bar where many GIs like to hang out, he brings Tuan in, but two Marines come over to start trouble after Cronauer bribes the bar girls to stop paying attention to the jarheads. ("Who brought in the gook?") A fight ensues, and Cronauer is called on the carpet by Sgt. Maj. Dickerson ("Talk." "These two behemoths were physically abusing a Vietnamese national..." "So you started a brawl, turned the place upside down, real intelligent solution.") Dickerson threatens Cronauer with a dangerous transfer ("Can you envision some fairly unpleasant alternatives?" "Not without slides.")

After helping Tuan he arranges a meeting between Cronauer and Trinh and the whole family ("In Vietnam, family often comes...").

A terrorist incident

After the date with Trinh, Cronauer settles into his routine of the morning radio show, teaching the English class, and then his afternoon show at 1600. There is a very funny scene where we learn that Cronauer has taught his English class how to curse like (American) sailors, and how to apply such words to real-life situations.

One afternoon, while Cronauer is drinking in Jimmy Wah's, Tuan suddenly arrives and tells him that Trinh wants to meet him again. Moments after the pair leave the bar, an explosion knocks them to the ground and destroys the place. Cronauer helps the local ambulance crew as the spray from a fire hose falls on a corpse.

Returning to the studio, Cronauer furiously rips printouts from the news teletypes, then passes by the censors without stopping. One of the censors runs after him, takes the news from him, then gets into an argument with Cronauer, who is shouted down by a passing Sgt. Maj. Dickerson. Cronauer adopts an apologetic tone to extricate himself from the argument, then goes into the studio. Visibly shaken from what he had seen earlier that day, his delivery is absent its usual rapid-fire, razor-sharp wit. He goes quickly to news: "In Saigon today, according to official sources, nothing actually happened. A bomb unofficially went off at Jimmy Wah's, and 2 G.I.'s were unofficially killed." An incensed Dickerson tries to get in and stop him, but Cronauer has locked himself in the studio, so Dickerson orders the engineer to turn off the transmitter. Cronauer is suspended from broadcasting.

On suspension

The general refuses to discipline Cronauer ("He made a mistake. For now, suspend him.") Dickerson suggests that Lt. Hauk take over the Cronauer show, and the fellow DJs beg him not to: "Sir, you're not funny." "Then why were you laughing when you were typing my jokes?" "I was thinking of something else." On the air, Hauk adopts a terrible French accent, makes some awfully lame puns, and plays polkas.

Phone calls and letters pour into the station, demanding that Hauk be taken off the air and Cronauer put back. Garlick reads one: "Hauk sucks the sweat from a dead man's balls. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds pretty negative to me, sir." Hauk reluctantly concedes after speaking with Taylor, taking to heart the overall rejection from everyone over being on the radio.

Over Dickerson's misgivings, the General puts Cronauer back on the air. ("This is a tempest in a teapot, much ado about nothing. Reinstate the man.") Meanwhile, Dickerson plots his revenge.

Feeling dejected after recent events, Cronauer takes to hanging out in a local restaurant and drinking heavily. He puts three shrimp tails on the tips of his fingers and spoofs the Supremes: "Set me free, why don't you, babe?" The waiter comes up and asks him why he drinks so much, and Tuan translates. ("Tell him I drink so I can be this funny." "He say, 'You not funny at all.' "Tell him thanks, it's nice to bomb in another language.")

They drive out to the rural village where Tuan and Trinh come from. He soothes a crying baby with his comedic ability, wearing a kettle top as a hat and singing nonsense. He tries to see Trinh, but she tells him, "Vietnamese lady not friends. My country maybe no future."

Garlick tries to get Cronauer to do his show again, but Cronauer refuses ("I'm going to phone it in. I'm out of here.") Garlick tracks him down in a restaurant and confronts him ("What the fuck? A lot of guys went to the mat for you, and you owe it to them to get your ass back on the air!" "Eddie, that's two nasty words in one year.") Driving back to their compound, they're caught in traffic behind a GI truck convoy. Garlick has an inspiration.

"Hey, guys, guess who the hell I got in here." "Don't do this." "I've got the one and only Adrian Cronauer." "You're a dead man, Garlick."

One soldier calls from the back of a truck, "How do we know it's him?" Another asks him to say "Good morning, Vietnam". Cronauer tries to beg off ("C'mon, guys, it's too hot for radio shit.") Finally, reinvigorated and re-inspired by his compatriots, he gives in and puts on a brief show, replete with Mick Jagger imitations. He asks several of the men to introduce themselves and wishes them luck in the field. It ends when a corporal comes out and shouts, "Say goodbye to the radio star. We're out of here!" Having seen the soldiers reinvigorates him and it's this personal encounter with these men, and Cronauer's realization that many of them may not come back home alive, and he helped brighten their day a little by making them laugh, that makes him return to the airwaves.

Trip to An Lac

Dickerson suggests Cronauer interview some men in the field, taking the precaution to question military intelligence about the safety of the area he's going to. It's definitely not safe, but Dickerson recommends giving a 24-hour pass to Cronauer and Garlick anyway. Their jeep is blown off the road, and the two wander in the jungle for hours while their friends in the city wonder what happened to them.

Tuan meets Dreiwitz outside the radio station and asks where Cronauer went. They question the one of the guards at the entrance to the compound. When he hears, "An Lac", he breaks into a run, steals a car and races off.

He finds them in the jungle, where they've been walking in circles, as a youthful Viet Cong commando squad lurks nearby. The car won't start, so they head back on foot and flag down a helicopter. Cronauer acts like a girl trying to hitch a ride. ("Hello, sailor!")

Last day in country

Back in Saigon, Cronauer is confronted by Dickerson one final time ("Boy, I got your pansy ass in a sling, now.") Dickerson then proceeds to tell him that Tuan is a Viet Cong terrorist, also known as Phan Duc To, wanted by the South Vietnamese police for several bombings in Saigon, including the one at Jimmy Wah's.

Cronauer still doesn't get it. (Dickerson: "Isn't it strange how a South Vietnamese boy is able to get into and out of VC territory without a scratch? Didn't you wonder how he got you out of that bar moments before it blew up, or are you normally not that inquisitive?") Dickerson then shows Cronauer pictures of Tuan's associates before and after the South Vietnamese police executed them, and tells him that his friend is next.

General Taylor then comes in and tells Cronauer he's sorry, but he can't cover for him since the association with Phan Duc To could give the Army a black eye. After Taylor leaves, Cronauer asks Dickerson why he was so eager to be rid of him. Dickerson responds, "I don't like your style, your politics, or your sense of humor. I don't like what you say or how you say it. From now on, the fighting men of Vietnam will hear what they're supposed to hear." Cronauer starts to leave and prior to departing, turns to Dickerson and says, "You know. You are in more dire need of a blow job than any white man in history." Dickerson is angered by this and starts to go after Cronauer, but he is stopped by General Taylor, who informs him that he's being transferred to Guam. Insulted and infuriated at this change, which was decided personally by Taylor, Dickerson demands to know why he's being transferred. Taylor simply tells Dickerson that he's mean, and that he needs to leave Vietnam before any more situations erupt. Shortly after leaving Dickerson, Taylor erupts in laughter over Cronauer's comments toward Dickerson, despite appearing earlier as if he didn't hear them.

Cronauer finds Trinh and asks where Tuan is. She says she doesn't know. He explains carefully, "The Army knows about your brother. They have pictures of him. If they find him, they will shoot him. If you want to continue to have a brother, take me to him now!"

They go to a very run-down Saigon neighborhood of filthy back alleys, the underbelly of a Third World city. Cronauer has to make sure of what Dickerson told him, calling out "Phan Duc To", and Tuan. Cronauer chases him at top speed, but the well-prepared and fast spy disappears into a courtyard. Cronauer confronts his hidden friend verbally.

"They know about the bombing, Sparky. I have to leave the country because of my association with you. I fought to get you into that bar, and you blew it up. My friend is the goddamned enemy."

"Enemy? Who is the enemy? You think we're little Vietnamese. We not the enemy. You're the enemy."

"This is not going to look good on a resume!"

The following day, prior to Cronauer's departure, he and Garlick (and the MPs escorting him to the airport) engage in an impromptu softball game with the students in his English class, using melons instead of softball and books instead of bases. He then departs, although not before handing Garlick a tape of what will be his last broadcast.

Trivia

In 1979, with M*A*S*H and WKRP in Cincinnati going strong on TV, Adrian Cronauer decided to try combining the two and started pitching a sitcom based on his experiences as an AFRS DJ. What resulted was more like something out of Catch-22: the networks weren't interested because they didn't see war as comedy material. Cronauer tried to counter this by pointing out M*A*S*H, which the networks recountered by saying M*A*S*H is about Korea, not Vietnam, the movie on which the series was based nonwithstanding.

Down, but not out, Cronauer revamped his sitcom pitch and tried again...and failed, again. Then he changed tactics and his sitcom pitch became a movie of the week pitch, which somehow ended up in the hands of Robin Williams. Very little of Cronauer's original treatment remained after Mitch Markowitz was brought in.Adrian Cronauer interview by Paul Harris, The Paul Harris Show, KMOX, April 28, 2006

References

External links

Vietnam - History links for US involvement in Indochina, casahistoria.net

1987 films | Vietnam War films | Comedy films | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award nominated performance | Touchstone Pictures films

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