MovieChat Forums > Good Morning, Vietnam (1988) Discussion > Sgt. Major Dickerson

Sgt. Major Dickerson

posted 10 years ago by fountaincap
17 replies | jump to latest

Anyone else feel like this guy deserved a much worse fate? I mean, all that happens to him in the end is he's transferred to a boring assignment. But isn't he pretty much guilty of the attempted murder of Garlic and Cronauer by sending them on what he knows to be a VC-controlled road? I'm guessing this part is fiction, but from a film standpoint, I don't think this character got enough punishment. And don't you think it would have come out eventually, that he witheld information from men under his command that nearly got them killed?

[–] Altho73 10 years ago

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Anyone else feel like this guy deserved a much worse fate?
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Up until that point when he crossed the line I was totally on the side of the Sgt Major. I intensively disliked the Robin Williams character from the beginning of the movie and thruout because he was an idiotic, childish p***k who had never grown up and still behaved like he was a kid at school.

I could name dozens of people like this that I have encountered in school, work etc, wherever you go there always seems to be one!!!! And guess what, in real life they are NOT great guys as portrayed in movies but are exceptionally annoying and are hated by their compatriots.

I remember one instance in school when one of these jerks made a series of smart-ass remarks to a very angry teacher. The teacher was not amused, he went ballistic and punished the entire class with a week's detention which did not go down very well. A few days later some of the boys got hold of this annoying jerk and snow-boarded him all the way down a 200 yard corridor and then all the way back again. He didn't like that much, but he fully deserved it.

[–] Futurefan 10 years ago

I loved Robin Williams in this movie, and his portrayal of Cronauer was hilarious. It was one gag after the other nonstop. I know that in real life a guy like Cronauer would probably be an annoying idiot, but he was a great DJ on the radio and the troops loved him.

Dickerson and Hauk were the jerks in my opinion. They needed to enforce some standards, but I didn't like the way they came down on Cronauer for playing rock music, joking about the weather, and making humorous gags about the Vietnam situation. Big deal!

And what was with the policy about not reading real news stories on the air? Cronauer went against the censors and reported that incident on the air in his own way, but was reprimanded because it wasn't official. What does it take to make a story official anyway? It happened, and innocent people were injured & killed from it. Their so-called standards were too tight.

Both Dickerson and Hauk were tight-asses who needed to loosen up a little because as General Taylor said to Dickerson toward the end of the movie: this is only radio.

[–] lllflypaperlll 10 years ago

god you're a fa44got

[–] bsu_oak530 10 years ago

Altho...you're an idiot.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 10 years ago

Let's pretend he did. After all, we don't hear what happens to any of the characters when the movie ends. I'd like to think Dickerson's plane was shot down over the ocean, no survivors.

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

What about the people on board the plane with him? Did they all deserve to die too?

[–] ExplorerDS6789 10 years ago

You can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs.

[–] Altho73 10 years ago

Pathetic response.

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

We're talking about human beings with families and friends, not eggs. I don't want innocent people to die just because I find one person among them unlikable.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 10 years ago

We're not talking about REAL people here, they're just characters in a movie. Characters that don't really even exist in the movie's universe!

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

Of course I know that, but I find that people who have that wanton disregard for fictional human life often don't have that much more, if any, for real human life.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 10 years ago

Did you ever see the M*A*S*H episode where Col. Blake was killed on his way home? Radar's report stated "there were no survivors." I don't recall viewers mourning for the loss of any of the passengers on Henry's plane.

But alright, let's do it your way: DICKerson is placed on a plane full of convicted rapists, arsonists, pedophiles and Republicans.

How do you like THEM apples?

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

How do you know they didn't? Because it wasn't published? As for your example, I don't like them apples. Dickerson wasn't as bad as any of them, and none of them committed crimes punishable by death. even in fiction, death is never a laughing matter to me. By the way, I didn't like Robin Williams' character either. He and Dickerson deserved each other.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 10 years ago

You are INCORRIGIBLE! I think YOU and Dickerson deserve each other.

[–] Maegnas 10 years ago

I believe if you left out the Republicans he may have felt differently! :P

Cute and cuddly boyz!!

[–] eddieinportland 10 years ago

My father is a Vietnam vet. And we talked about the scene when Dickerson was transferred to Guam and why he was upset about it. Back during the Vietnam war, if you were sent to Guam. You pissed someone off. You're in Guam. You're in exile. You're career is finished. The only way for Dickerson to leave Guam was to retire.

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 7 years ago

Enlisted people in the Army back then for the most part came from hard backgrounds and lived very hard lives making Dickerson part of the way he was. Lt. Hauck was your typical goofy young officer that thinks he knows it all, but looks like a fool to most