Although Robin Williams maintained his primary reputation as a comedian for many years, if we look at his film work, we can see that he embraced more dramatic roles almost immediately. After his debut in 1980’s disastrous Popeye, Williams next showed up in 1982’s comedy/drama The World According to Garp. That flick earned good notices and showed that Williams could do more than act like a cartoon character or a manic alien from Ork.

Although Williams occasionally went with purely comic roles after that, most of his parts fell into that merger of comedy and drama. This led Williams more and more into critical respect, a trend that eventually earned him his first Oscar nomination for 1987’s Good Morning Vietnam.

Set in Saigon circa 1965, Vietnam casts Williams as Airman Adrian Cronauer. Transferred from Crete to Vietnam, he receives an assignment to be a DJ for Armed Forces Radio. There he serves under Sergeant Major Philip “Dick” Dickerson (JT Walsh) and 2nd Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby). Cronauer quickly establishes himself as a wacky, irreverent alternative to the sedate programming normally heard on the station. Although the GIs love him – and he has the support of CO Brigadier General Taylor (Noble Willingham) – Dickerson and Hauk loathe Cronauer’s style and do what they can to tame him.

In the meantime, Cronauer falls for local girl Trinh (Chintara Sukapatana). He tries to hit on her, but custom dictates that he must go through her family. Cronauer buddies up to her brother Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran) and becomes close to him and the rest of her clan while he also gets to know her better. The film follows their attempted romance along with his antics on the air and connected controversies.

Sometimes I find it tough to view a movie on its own merits. I’d love to be able to watch Vietnam on its own terms circa its release of 1987, but that would mean I’d have to be able to ignore the impressions of Williams and director Barry Levinson that I’ve formed over the last 18 years.

I can’t do it. Granted, I’m not sure if Vietnam would play any better without that hindsight, but my view of both Levinson and Williams makes it awfully tough for me to see them with unbiased eyes. I think both are smug moralizers who condescend to audiences. Taken separately, one is bad enough, but when paired, the result becomes nearly unwatchable.

I admit it’s an overstatement to call Vietnam “unwatchable”, but I can’t help but think it would’ve been much better with a different director and/or another star. In this case, I might blame Williams more than Levinson. The movie’s only quality moments occur without Williams onscreen. A splendid supporting cast bolsters the flick, and when we don’t have to see Robin, it can be reasonably good. Kirby’s pathetic attempt to fill the DJ slot is easily the film’s most amusing moment.

Unfortunately, Williams rarely departs the screen. He has two modes: rapid-fire shtick and sappy emotion. He does neither well. Again, I may not be able to judge Williams’ comedic chops well anymore because I got sick of his style so long ago. If you like his work, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy his patter here much more than I did.

I do think Williams can be funny – heck, I still dig him in Disney’s Aladdin - but I find his material in Vietnam to be stale and unamusing. At least the DJ moments are better than his attempts at being serious. He makes Cronauer the worst kind of PC character.

This leads us down some story paths that don’t really make sense to me. Normally I’d support a character who battles against censorship. However, when it’s a case in which that character is a member of the military who broadcasts to his peers, I’d have to err on the side of caution - “loose lips sink ships” and all that. Really, what positive effect would his uncensored broadcasts about military setbacks have – to make US morale even lower?

But God forbid a character in a Levinson movie not take the road most open to condescension. This thread allows Cronauer to act superior to one-dimensional personalities like Hauk and Dickerson. The film becomes absurdly cartoony as it turns them into stock villains just to glorify the lead.

Since he also lacks dimensionality, this is a problem. Good Morning Vietnam includes many other problems, however. From its messy story to its lack of laughs, the flick goes nowhere and never engages the audience.

Good Morning Vietnam appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Movies from the late 80s don’t tend to look great, and Vietnam showed some of the standard ups and downs.

Overall sharpness was good but not great. Interiors tended to seem a little soft, and I noticed light edge haloes as well; those made the image a bit on the fuzzy side. Exteriors fared better and showed fairly nice clarity; though the picture was never tremendously concise, it seemed more than acceptable. I saw no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, and print flaws were absent.

Another 80s artifact, colors tended to be erratic. Exteriors demonstrated pretty good tones, actually, but interiors were a bit flat and drab. Still, the hues were usually fine given the movie’s setting and film stock. Blacks were fairly dark and tight, and shadows looked decent; a few shots seemed a little murky, but most worked well. Nothing here excelled, but as a product of its era, the image was more than adequate.

Similar thoughts fell upon the dated DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Good Morning Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the film provided a mix that remained fairly heavily anchored in the front speakers. In that realm, it showed reasonable stereo spread for the music, and the effects also provided a pretty decent sense of ambience. A few active elements emerged due to helicopters, but mostly the track stayed with general environmental audio. As for the surrounds, they kicked in with little more than vague reinforcement of the front spectrum. A few shots – like helicopters and vehicles – made decent use of the back speakers, but the track usually concentrated on the forward realm.

The quality of the audio was erratic. Speech could seem a bit distant and reverb-heavy, but the lines remained easily intelligible and were usually reasonably natural. Effects also varied; some seemed accurate and concise, but others felt more artificial. Bass response could be boomy, such as when we heard explosions, but we also got some fairly deep, tight low-end.

Music was also a mixed bag. The score seemed full and rich, but the many pop songs were more up and down. Some of that stemmed from the source material, but the track also added a sense of reverb to many of the tunes. Though I felt this was partially an attempt to give the music an “AM radio” vibe, that choice didn’t make a ton of sense and rendered the songs as less impressive than they should sound. Despite the various inconsistencies, the track remained fine for its era and deserved a “B-“.

How does this Blu-Ray compare with the Special Edition DVD from 2006? The audio showed many of the same concerns but still fared better, as the lossless mix was tighter and less edgy. The visuals also demonstrated growth, as the Blu-ray looked cleaner and better defined with more vivid colors. You won’t use the Blu-ray as demo material, but it’s a good representation of the source material.

The Blu-ray duplicates the DVD’s extras. Moving to the set’s extras, the main attraction comes from a Production Diary. A collection of six segments, the Production Diary fills a total of 34 minutes and 32 seconds. We find footage from the set, movie clips, and comments from producer Larry Brezner, screenwriter Mitch Markowitz, director Barry Levinson, the real Adrian Cronauer, producer Mark Johnson, and actors Robert Wuhl and Bruno Kirby. The show covers the project’s origins and backstory, separating fact from the movie’s fiction, the flick’s tone, Robin Williams’ monologues and the film’s humor, approaches to the characters and the Vietnamese, the songs used in the flick, the signature cry of “good morning Vietnam”, shooting challenges in Thailand, and general thoughts about the movie.

Don’t expect the “Diary” to present a smooth, coherent look at the production. It jumps from one subject to another without much logic, and it doesn’t come across as particularly concise. That said, it offers a nice general overview of the shoot. We get a good feel for the various issues and we hear plenty of interesting stories. I’d still prefer a proper documentary, but these clips work well.

In addition to the both teaser and theatrical trailers for Vietnam, we get a set of Raw Monologues. This 13-minute and nine-second package starts with some remarks from Levinson about Robin Williams’ working style. After that we get about 12 minutes straight of Williams’ uncut monologues. These include plenty of material not found in the final flick, and it’s especially interesting to see Williams stumble and further develop a gag.

How times change! I liked Good Morning Vietnam 25 years ago, but in hindsight, I can more easily see its flaws. Most of those stem from its smugness, though I’d forgive that tone if it actually delivered more than a smattering of laughs. The Blu-ray offers dated but generally good picture and audio along with some decent supplements. I don’t care for this smarmy film, but the Blu-ray does represent it well.

To rate this film visit the Special Edition review of GOOD MORNING VIETNAM