Good Morning, Vietnam follows Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) who is an Air Force disc jockey transferred from Greece to Saigon in order to help boost the morale of the troops. From the moment he starts off his first show with what would become an iconic greeting, Cronauer shakes things up. Not only does he get a bit too lively for his immediate superiors, Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby, The Godfather: Part II) and Sgt. Major Dickerson (J.T. Walsh), but he plays rock and roll, something that is definitely not on the approved list. Thankfully, it seems like the Lt. and Sgt. Major are the only ones not liking what he is doing. Cronauer quickly befriends fellow servicemen Edward Garlick (Forrest Whitaker) and fellow DJ Marty Dreiwitz (Robert Wuhl).
Cronauer's fresh approach to the air waves garners him immediate attention from the troops who start to look forward to his broadcasts. The only part of the job that the new DJ seems to disagree with is the editing of any reports that come into the station that occurs before anything can be broadcast across the airwaves.
Meanwhile, a local girl, Trinh (Christara Sukapatana) has caught his eye and he takes on the role of an English teacher at a local school in order to get in her good graces. Also in the class is her brother, Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran). While Cronauer first sees the younger Vietnamese as a way to get at his sister, the two quickly become friends.
Adrian's perspective changes greatly when he narrowly avoids being in a local G.I. bar when a bomb goes off. Unable to hide the incident from his listeners, Adrian is taken off of the air, and despite the many letters from Cronauer's fans, Hauk is very against reinstating his role.
Good Morning, Vietnam is an odd movie in that it starts off like a comedy with Williams shouting into the mic in that non-stop fashion only he does so well, but then it shifts to a much more serious film as Adrian not only has to deal with the bombing and the censoring of information, but also the possibility that one of the people he has befriended could be Viet Cong. It really feels like two different films, but it also works really well.
As the 25th Anniversary Edition of the film, this release gets a good bit of special features. There are five production diary entries that cover everything from the early development of the film, to the music, to the filming and even an interview with the actual Adrian Cronauer. Interestingly enough, while the real-world person was a DJ in Saigon during the period portrayed in the film, both the filmmakers and Cronauer confess to the film being a work of fiction with many seeds of truth to lay the foundation of a good film.
Another amusing special feature is the raw footage of Williams at the microphone as he tries out different ideas and rants. This is an amusing extra since you can really see how some of the jokes portrayed in the film evolved from their root ideas.
While Good Morning, Vietnam isn't the prettiest movie to hit Blu-ray, it still looks nice in high definition. You shouldn't expect to see spectacular special effects that will really sell the more expensive media type, but what it has is good. I will warn those out there haven't seen Good Morning, Vietnam, this isn't the typical Robin Williams laugh-a-minute film. If you are expecting non-stop comedy, then you will want to rent the film first.. just in case.
