It finally hit me when I watched Good Morning Vietnam what this film reminded me of. It was the famous Preston Sturges classic, Sullivan's Travels which coincidentally as it turns out is one of my favorite films.

Both the real life Adrian Cronauer and Joel McCrea's fictional John L. Sullivan have to come to the same realization, that what they do matters a great deal. In Sullivan's Travels it's to the movie going public in general, in the case of Cronauer it's to the GIs in Vietnam stuck in a war where no one could ever know who the enemy was. A few laughs from a comic genius was necessary to get them through the day in their very cockeyed world.

Adrian Cronauer was a real life person, but if he didn't bear a resemblance to Robin Williams, he should have. One of the great comic masters of any era in entertainment, Robin Williams is given full range for his zany sense of humor to work its magic with Cronauer. He's ably abetted and assisted by the other staff members of Armed Forces Radio Forest Whitaker and Robert Wuhl. Bruno Kirby is great as the clueless lieutenant in charge and so is J.T. Walsh who represents the limits of the military mind as the sergeant major out to get Williams by hook or very dirty crook.

Williams himself doesn't understand the complexities of the Vietnam situation. That fact is brought home to him graphically when he's betrayed by his own innate decency.

Next to Williams my favorite in the cast is Noble Willingham who plays the general who has overall charge of Armed Forces Radio there. He's a tough, but compassionate military man, the exact opposite of J.T. Walsh whom he has to reign in.

Good Morning Vietnam is a frank portrayal of a war experience told with humor and irony through the eyes of Robin Williams.

Preston Sturges would have absolutely adored this film.

Director Barry Levinson takes a more comedic take on the Vietnam war like other great war comedies such as MASH. Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) is the new DJ in a stiff Armed Forces Radio. Edward Garlick (Forest Whitaker) is his best friend and Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) is the humorless superior. Adrian's life gets more complicated as he falls for a Vietnamese girl and befriends her brother.

Robin Williams is doing his crazed manic persona. He lets his mouth run wild. Some of it work great. Some of the humor is era sensitive. How funny is a Lady Bird Johnson joke today? But how funny was it back in the 80s? Luckily, there is a story behind the crazy wise-cracking Robin Williams rants. The story works well with a good performance from the Vietnamese brother played by Tung Thanh Tran. But it is all Robin Williams and he shows that maybe he could be a great actor for the first time.

Robin Williams found fame on television with Mork & Mindy but his early foray into movies was hit and miss.

Williams had yet to have a vehicle where his brand of humour can go at full flow. Good Morning Vietnam was it. The story is loosely based on the experiences of Armed Forces Radio DJ Adrian Cronauer.

By playing the DJ, Williams could free-wheel it on the mic, provide laughs and annoy the authorities in this case Bruno Kirby who certainly does not get his humour. He and JT Walsh conspire to get him off the air. These two certainly did not want soldiers to be happy.

As the story progresses you get some drama, but it's not quite the horrors of the Vietnam war in the way films such as Platoon would show it.

After all this is still a comedy and the drama is secondary.

This was Williams movie where he could be anarchic. It started a run of performances in comedy and drama that rewarded him with an Oscar a decade later.