Adrian Cronauer

“Good Morning Vietnam!”

How many times did that phrase echo through my dorm room, accompanied by all the other sights and sounds of the so named movie? I don’t have an exact count for you (except for my freshman year, when I kept track of all the movies I watched – somewhere around 220 – a rebellion against not being allowed to watch many movies in my youth), I do know Robin Williams graced us with his presence many a time.

I have often heard what a comedic genius Robin is and would love to read the original script of Good Morning Vietnam just to see what he might have added to the movie. It would not surprise me to find major improvements over the text. I think I can point out one part of the movie that catches the very instant Robin goes off script. He is having a conversation with his ‘friend’ from military intelligence and halfway through the ‘conversation’ Robin laughs his way through the question, “And how do you use to look for them (the enemy)?” I like to think that at that very moment, he realized that what he was supposed to say really wasn’t that funny and this new and spectacular revelation he just had would be much funnier. He continues, “Well, we ask people, ‘Are you the enemy?’ and whoever says ‘Yes,’ we shoot them.” Don’t remember that line? Have a listen Have a Listen. (Linked from www.moviewavs.com.)

In my search for this audio clip, I did make a very startling and disturbing discovery. It seems that one of my favorite and most used quotes from the movie is actually a misinterpretation of the movie’s mumble. There are very few conversations that Andy Guffey and I have ever had that did not somehow include the line “Sorry sir, I haven’t been listening.” It turns out, that may not be the line at all; instead he says something like “I haven’t been to sleep.”

Never fear, noble friend. I’ll just pretend we got it right. After all, like the line I suspect Robin Williams added to the movie, our line is a great improvement over the actual script.