Overview: Humor and war often make strange bedfellows but sometimes humor can have a therapeutic effect for postwar sentiments of anger, frustration and loss, especially in the case of the bitterly divisive Vietnam conflict. In the tradition of Hogan's Heroes and M.A.S.H. came Barry Levinson's 'Good Morning Vietnam,' a pithy blend of satirical comedy and tragedy.

Blu ray Verdict: As I hope you all know by now, 'Good Morning, Vietnam' stars Robin Williams. He plays the lead character of a radio announcer/comedian who makes the trip to Vietnam and gives the soldiers the morning news by way of humor, honesty and quick-witted cleverness.

However, the entire movie is not quite a comedy film. Every so often, you will be probably be surprised by a few really accurate portrayals showing what it really was like living in Vietnam during the war involving the way the Vietnamese were living.

However the storyline mostly centers around Robin Williams' character getting to know the Vietnamese and communicating with them by walking around town and meeting them. He even becomes a temporary teacher at one point, teaching the Vietnamese the English language and entertaining them in a goofy manner.

Robin immediately takes an interest in this one Vietnamese woman who initially doesn't give a darn about him at all, but eventually things change later on. Another storyline element involves the brother of the girl he has an interest in. He plays a crucial (and surprising) part in the storyline later on and gives one heck of a great speech at the end of the film.

I'm really shocked at a few of those accurate surprises I mention above. One scene in particular shows an explosion that totally caught me by surprise because of the timing, and other scenes show Vietnamese teens being forced to stand up against a wall and immediately be shot. These are really shocking scenes to me.

Luckily the really violent and brutally honest portrayal of Vietnam back in the early 70's only takes up a very small portion of the actual storyline. The movie mostly focuses on Robin Williams' role as the comedian.

Now those of you who've seen Robin Williams stand-up comedy routine, don't worry- he's not nearly as crude in this film as he is during those comedy acts on stage. I'd say 80% of the jokes in 'Good Morning, Vietnam' are clean and completely appropriate for the entire viewing audience. That other 20% isn't really that bad either. To sum it up, the film mostly shows Robin Williams just being his typically goofy self.

In the Special Features, you learn that many movie studios turned down 'Good Morning, Vietnam' because they only wanted a comedy film from Robin Williams! I highly recommend this movie for the drama and comedy elements, however if you dislike Robin Williams style of humor, it's probably best to steer clear of this one. That said, for me, listening to Robin as a radio host put a HUGE smile on my face! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Production Diary (5 features): How The Movie Came To Be, Actor Improv; Music Of The Movie, Origin Of The Good Morning, Vietnam Sign-On, Shooting In Thailand & Overview Of The Film A Year Later
Raw Monologues
Original Theatrical Trailer
Original Theatrical Teaser Trailer