This review is of the edited TV 14 version of the film. Note that all of the statements above only pertain to this version and that the original version would likely be lower.

Good Morning Vietnam is a story that is loosely based off of real events and it takes place during the Vietnam war. That was definitely a pretty sad time for Americans and I watched a documentary on it a while back. It’s one of the only wars that we basically lost and we also had to deal with a lot of political drama back at home with rebellions happening all around the place. This film just focuses on the Vietnam aspect and how one man could try to keep the morale of the troops up.

Adrian gets transferred over to Vietnam to be the broadcaster for a radio station that is around to keep morale up for the troops. He enjoys the job and he’s pretty good at it. Adrian becomes friends with a native as he tries to romance a woman that he meets over there. Not everything is dandy though as his superior and his superior’s superior don’t like him. Luckily, his superior’s superiors superior does think he is doing a good job and that’s what counts. Will it be enough to keep him safe?

Well, that’s basically the gist of the film. The war is pretty grim so Adrian has to help everyone forget about it as they go about their daily duties. There is a lot of drama that is added through the subplots. The main character gets to see firsthand how destructive the battle is and that’s when he decides that the troops have a right to know what is going on. That really puts him at odds with the higher ups and things get pretty dangerous for him. Should he say what is happening?

Well, in this case I would have to agree with the government. I don’t think Adrian should lie about what is happening, but he just shouldn’t mention the war and what’s going on. For one thing, the transmissions could easily be intercepted by the enemy. We don’t want to them to know exactly what is going on. (Nowadays, information is definitely more available thanks to the internet) It’s like with the recent Snowden leaks. Many are glad about them because we know what the NSA has been up too, but it’s also compromised a lot of our data to the enemy and to our “allies.” Giving out any tactical information over the radio could definitely be dicey. I don’t think mentioning the place blowing up would be that bad for the government intelligence, but maybe the enemy would be glad to know just how many agents were injured during the blast. It’s probably good that we don’t supply them with that kind of information.

The end of the film seems to definitely take on a political stance as we get a traitor to the cause. He then gets emotional and tells the main character that the Americans aren’t wanted here. They keep on shooting innocent people and messing with government affairs that they don’t comprehend. The film is basically echoing the sentiments that many people had about the war. Many people think it was a mistake to get involved in the first place and especially our decision to keep on sending more and more troops to a losing battle. So, the film is on that stance and I have to wonder about mine. I’m pretty sure that it was a good move to come in to help and I like to think that not all of our soldiers became corrupt and started shooting innocent people everywhere. Back in those days, it unfortunately did happen sometimes, but to every country. No country is completely safe from that.

The Army did look pretty bad on a few occasions here though. One scene shows that some of the military personnel just hang out at a bar indulging their sinful pleasures when they could definitely be doing something more constructive. Did I mention that they are also shown to be racist? They don’t make up the majority of the troops and I would easily put them in the vast minority, but it’s still sad to see them portrayed like that.

The film can be pretty violent at times so I would advise you to think twice about seeing it if you don’t like realistic violence. It’s made in a way to look very similar to real battlegrounds after a fight and you definitely see the injuries on the soldiers. We also see people shot point blank inside a house and a chicken is almost murdered. It escapes, but it’s all pretty gritty at that point. Gritty is an appropriate word to describe the film as Adrian goes to the poverty sections of Vietnam and gets to see what the living arrangements are like. It’s all very bleak.

I can’t say that I cared for Adrian in this film. He’s just not the kind of main character that I can root for and he’s way too interested in romance. One of his first scenes makes sure to show this as he keeps believing that he sees the same person over and over. He’s way too desperate to get to her and he should be more focused on his radio broadcast. He’s a natural comedian though and he does a good job of thinking up his lines as he goes along. It’s definitely amazing to see him switch his voice so effectively. His jokes do go a little over the top at some points though so his style isn’t my favorite. The army seems to really love it, but I can’t say that I found most of the jokes to be funny. I suppose that it was before my time.

The main character’s friend is mostly around to be the comic relief of the story. He gets a bike that doesn’t fit and he’s there to laugh at Adrian’s jokes. The main superior thinks that he’s a great comedian as well, but nobody finds him funny, which can be pretty sad for the guy. He tried so hard and it just wasn’t enough this time. The superior of that guy is the main antagonist and he just wants Adrian out of the way. He didn’t like him from day 1 and that doesn’t change during the course of the film. Their styles are just too different and they weren’t going to get along. Due to a twist, the native that Adrian gets along with is definitely not likable and I didn’t care for the main heroine either. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go with Adrian, but then just completely tell him no and end it. She shouldn’t even let him take her out to the movies if she wants to stay away.

I didn’t care for the romance subplot and I could have done without the war stories. I think this film could have definitely scored a 5-6 if it had just stuck to the radio plot. Imagine if the film took place in NYC and Adrian had problems with his higher ups about his broadcasts. That definitely could have been an intriguing plot and it would have been able to hold up pretty well. It wouldn’t have been quite as “deep” but it still would have been pretty intense.

Overall, This film is an intriguing adaption of the Vietnam War. I shouldn’t call it an adaption of the war I suppose, but of something that happened in the war. Still, I don’t think that real life events should be crossed over with films. If it’s going to be an event, then just make it a documentary and vice versa. We should keep these two things separate for the time being. If you are interested in the Vietnam war you are likely just going to want to see a documentary. Robin William’s acting for his broadcasts is pretty good so fans of his may want to check this film out to remember him in one of his biggest roles. Otherwise, I would sooner recommend that you watch the current Naruto Shippuden episodes if you want to watch a big war.

Overall 3/10