Based on Airman Adrian Cronauer, of 'Good Morning Viet-Nam' fame.

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2015)

This movie has a special meaning for me, I was a 20-yr-old college student in Air Force R.O.T.C. in 1965, we all knew of the Vietnam war, most of us were starting to think about what it would be like to go. I ended up not going, but many of my friends did, and those who returned were changed by the experience. Seeing this movie and the scenes, although not filmed in Vietnam, bring back those memories.
In one of his defining roles Robin Williams was Adrian Cronauer, an Airman who was a radio disk jockey for the military, coming into Vietnam from Crete. On his first day he starts his 6AM radio show with his now famous 'Good morning viet-nam.' This is actually accurate. And a few other things are accurate, but as Cronauer says that if he had done all the things depicted in the movie he would still be in Leavenworth prison (in 2008, when he said that).
But what is realistic is that the radio personalities were supposed to help keep up the spirit of the GIs, many who had never left home before and were now in this very foreign place. So hearing some American humor and music would help take their minds off where they actually were.
For me the most memorable part of this movie is when Louis Armstrong's rendition of "A Wonderful World" was playing while the film clips showed fighting, destruction, and killing. That is the political message of this movie.
Forest Whitaker was also great as what became Adrian's sidekick (at least in the movie) as Edward Garlick, and who would take over the spot after Adrian was drummed out for misbehavior. In reality he was not drummed out, he followed his orders, and served his full one year there.
So the movie is mostly fictitious in the way Adrian was depicted but is is more entertaining than it would have been if they had simply shot it in documentary style.