Actors - Good Morning, Vietnam

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	Actors - 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", radio announcer A2C Adrian Cronauer 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 prepares to drive him to the radio station. Garlick turns the ignition key even though the engine is already on.

Upon arrival in Army Lieutenant Steven Houck's office, Cronauer immediately encounters a nemesis in Sergeant Major Dickerson. "Where is this man's paperwork?" he thunders, and Houck obsequiously hands over Cronauer's orders to Dickerson. The conversation goes steadily downhill from there, as Dickerson starts dicking Cronauer around about his clothes: "This is not standard issue, Airman!" Cronauer infuriates Dickerson with thinly veiled mock respect and razor-sharp humor, calling him Sir ("I work for a living! What does three up and three down mean to you?" "End of an inning?")

On the air

Garlick wakes Cronauer the next morning, and the jet-lagged disk jockey struggles to gain sufficient consciousness for his 6:00 A.M. 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 the General ("Garlick, have you put on weight? Why the shadow of your ass must weigh twenty pounds.") and the eerie twin news censors ("Hiya."). At 0559 hours, Marty Dreiwitz 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 hours, Cronauer switches his mic on, pauses as if totally lost, then half shouts and half croons, "Good 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!"), pretends to play a Freddie and the Dreamers record 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. Houck is jealous of his comedic ability, and Dickerson hates him because he gets away with being rebellious and disrespectful. But the General supports him ("I heard his show in Crete, and I busted a gut laughing.")

Life outside the studio

He spots a pretty Vietnamese girl 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 City. ("Slip me some skin" apparently does not mean a leper handing you a hunk of his face, and so on.)

The girl's brother 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, but I'm going to stay.") and goes out with him for local food ("fish balls and lizard testicles").

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