"Lock 'n loll, baby! Lock 'n loll!"

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2019)

If you ever witnessed a Robin Williams interview after he broke out his Mork from Ork character, you'd know that he took his manic persona into overdrive whenever he appeared on variety or talks shows of the era. It always struck me that he couldn't do enough to outdo himself, to the point that sometimes he looked like he was trying too hard. His character here, airman Adrian Cronauer, is sort of representative of what I'm talking about, whenever he's quipping on the radio or doing a version of stand up while stuck in military motor traffic. The movie is definitely an anti-war vehicle, cleverly disguised as a Robin Williams comedy, or as close to comedy as you can get while bringing the Vietnam War to the big screen. That stunning sequence of napalm ignited jungle juxtaposed with the lyrics of Louis Armstrong's 'It's a Wonderful World' creates just the sort of conflicted emotions the film is expected to arouse in the viewer, while the consequences of Cronauer's relationship with the young Vietnamese Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran) brings the horror of war into direct focus for one so unsuspecting. Bruno Kirby and J.T. Walsh bring a callous naivete to their roles as Cronauer's clueless superiors, and after the film was over, I though a more suitable ending would have had Cronauer reassigned as a DJ to a radio station in Guam. That would have been right after General Taylor (Noble Willingham) sent Sgt. Major Dickerson (Walsh) there to temper his rigidity as an officer. Would have served him right.