What is the point of this movie?

I watched this thing a LONG time ago, and dismissed at is 'boring war crap', where Williams doesn't shine the way he has before in other projects, TV shows, interviews, performances and so on.

However, I started thinking about this thing lately, wondering if I might have missed something, having been in a much younger body at the time, and thus much stupider (presumably). Maybe I can see perspectives, ideas and other valuable things in this that I missed the first time, if I just watch it again.

So I watch this thing, not even knowing what to expect, realizing I don't remember almost anything about it. I get a bit confused about things, as in "why was Williams' character invited to do a radio show for murderers in Vietnam?"

Can't they murder effectively without being bombarded with unfunny imitations of irrelevant people? (At least irrelevant to their situation and lives, as in 'they will never meet those people')

The more I watch this thing, the less sense it makes. It doesn't seem to take ANY kind of stance in something as universally shocking as the Vietnam war - there would've been plenty of stances to take from all kinds of angles, especially looking at from an 'outsider' to the whole thing (like an otherplanetary individual).

When the movie ended, all I could conclude was that it's just another vehicle for Williams, and I have seen this movie before. I don't mean literally, I mean figuratively (BTW, the 1988 in this site is wrong, this movie came out in 1987).

Robin Williams' character goes to a 'difficult, emotional situation', does his comedy schtick (which is often a bit of hit and miss), then authorities (of some kind) get mad at him and he's forbidden or banned from continuing, he goes to a depressed mode, not doing it anymore, then someone convinces him to continue, and he finds his 'spark' again, and keeps doing it, until the movie somehow ends in a sad note.

HOW MANY friggin' movies do they have to make that follow that pattern?

So I am trying to find the hidden clues, maybe there's some underlying parody, satire or theme that's poignant, like in Robocop, it's not _REALLY_ about a robot (not that it's a robot anyway, it's closer to cyborg, but really, just individual with augmented body that should've actually left that body a long time ago, but somehow stuck with it, unless it's a zombie movie, where no soul actually inhabits the body, and it's just a dead body with computer programming its behaviour), it's about the governmental OCP and the ridiculous stupidity of the people and the society and so on (who would make, sell or buy a car with 'SUX' in its name, unless they're all idiots?).

But nope. I can't see it. There's nothing there, this movie is as shallow as can be, and the whole Vietnam 'conflict' is undermined with unnecessary close-ups that don't show the environment and then stock footage-looking crap that shows meaningless stuff happening, but never a lot of meaningful interaction with the environment and the main characters.

Why would the Viet Cong blow up their OWN bar? I mean, a Vietnamese-owned bar?

Robin's character is somehow SHOCKED that in a horrible, hellish war where his audience consists of MURDERERS, explosions happen and people die. Like, what? What is this guy? Why is he SUDDENLY shocked, but before that explosion, he's casually enjoying life and his bad beer? Does it make any sense?

In any case, it's based on a real guy that was nothing like Robin or his character here, and everything is so predictable, you see it all coming long before anything happens. A vietnamese teenager (that looks too young and inept to be an effective Viet Cong member) cries, some REALLY horrible, mutilated and super old faces are shown (don't watch this while eating), then they waste a lot of good food smilingly, and the movie ends with a pollution scene.

What was I supposed to gleam out of this? That war is bad? That Vietnamese people are murderers, too? That Vietnamese beer is awful? That USA military is a secretive hypocrite murder-machine that doesn't want people to know how psychotic it is? Didn't we all KNOW these things already, OR are these things really interesting or relevant to know?

I don't get it, what is the point of this movie, that doesn't seem to have much of a story besides some radio guy going into Vietnam, told he can't tell the truth and then goes back home?

Military-Industrial Complex has produced yet ANOTHER useless 'war movie', where paint-by-the-numbers exposition of 'that horrible conflict' is shown to yet another idiot audience, where institutionalized murderers are normalized, where standing armes are accepted as a very usual, common, casual thing, where murderers have to be entertained, so they can go murder those Vietnamese people in their own country more effectively...

So here we have yet another 'military movie' where the military is never truly shown as the bad guy or unacceptable thing to even exist. Hurrah!