Review of Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) by Byron B — 22 Jan 2009

Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July (and I understand Apocalypse Now though I haven't seen it yet) all contain the important element of the rock songs of the time. This movie gives the impression that it is just a string of music montages without much of an important message to deliver or a complete story line that connects it all.

Robin Williams is high energy except for a couple moments of quiet depressed "dramatic" Williams. For people who enjoy this movie, I imagine multiple viewings allow them to pick up more of the jokes.

For someone like me who didn't love the movie, I don't care to view it a second time even though I realize that some of the humor blew by too fast. So, what makes up the plot is the character of Cronauer becoming familiar with Vietnam culture, rebelling just a little bit against his military superiors though the general is in support of him all along, and discovering that a Vietnamese boy and girl (brother and sister) are not what they seem.

Probably because the people playing the Vietnamese villagers had Robin Williams as their main English speaking example, they were all hard to understand. And that is unfortunate.