Review of Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) by Saad N — 02 Sep 2012

Viewed on 26/6/04 (Sat).

All I wanted was to have a few good laughs from this comedy. Instead I get more out of it. Now, calling this a comedy will be understating it. It has anti-war messages, not with scenes of dead bodies and explosions, but subtly conveyed in Robin Williams' performance and his humour. I may be naive but I believe Robin is playing himself, a humourous chap with a heart of gold. There is a scene his jeep was stuck in a jam together with trucks of GIs. There and then, he, upon request, puts up a stand-up comedy and in his eyes rolling are tears. Now this is not a close-up... I think he is happy not because the soldiers' applause affirm his popularity and hence 'exacting revenge' on the conservative radio station which booted him. But I think because he is wise to know that humour cheers up the soldiers better than words of encouragement or moving big talk. Now, that kind of subtle performance deserves an Oscar too, not necessarily a serious one.

The movie reminds me of how humour is so sparse at workplaces. No boss really wants to take a jokey worker seriously, unless you are a straight-faced no-nonsense worker, in short the nerdy killjoys. They may play the tune of injecting play in your work but they actually mean it as a joke.

The movie can go in all the 'right' directions to be a mushy comedy which yearns to be taken seriously. There are scenes of farewell, arguement between friends with different political views, welcoming back a beloved DJ etc but never once you feel nauseous because of a well-balanced light humour. There is a sequence of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World playing to shots of a very chaotic Vietnam. I like that very much. Sad, ironical but never insensitive.

Now, I realise from imdb's trivia that Robin's character Adrian Cronauer is based on a real person and he did not do half the things mentioned in the movie that would surely have him court-martialled. Yes, this is taking too much liberty of the facts but hey, I don't mind a bit if that would be a better story.

Rating: A-.