Platoon (And Songs from the Era) [SOUNDTRACK]

Various Artists - Soundtracks - 1986, Georges Delerue

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (October 17, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002IKU
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #615,218 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Village

2. Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson, Mark Tarplin

3. Okie from Muskogee - Merle Haggard

4. Hello, I Love You - The Doors, The Doors

5. White Rabbit

6. Barnes Shoots Elias - Georges Delerue

7. Respect - Otis Redding

8. (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay - Steve Cropper, Otis Redding

9. When a Man Loves a Woman

10. Groovin' - The Rascals

11. Adagio for Strings

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In a musical collection that is as much soundtrack as it is score, Oliver Stone's Platoon is a breakthrough for its ability to embody the extremes of the human condition in Vietnam. While most of the songs by themselves are commonly found as representative of the era, together they become a personality. Smokey Robinson's soulful and heartfelt "Tracks of My Tears" is offset by the down-home pride of Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee." In turn, they are challenged by the escapist fantasies of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay." The glue that held these social groups together in Vietnam, however tenuous this bond, was the common experience of combat. Here this combat takes form as Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. Barber's violins play first at the aftermath of the torching of a Vietnamese village and then again as the undercurrent for Charlie Sheen's reflective monologue at the film's finale. Each time, they embody the pain and anguish of the previous moments, searching for cause but finding only loss and despair. The strings become the screams of the wounded, the souls of the lost, and the conscience of the living, and in so, the Adagio for Strings itself serves as a testament to an experience that must be faced to be understood. --James Stockstill

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Barber's Adagio & era songs set Platoon's musical mood..., January 24, 2004

By	Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Platoon (1986 Film) - And Songs From The Era (Audio CD)

Oliver Stone's 1986 Oscar-winning Platoon is, even after 18 years, still one of the best movies about the Vietnam War. Based on Stone's true-life experiences as a young infantryman who served "in-country" with the 25th Infantry Division in 1967, Platoon began the trend of combat films about Vietnam (Hamburger Hill, Charlie 84MoPic) that spanned the late 1980s and paved the way for more realistic combat films about any war, including Saving Private Ryan.

Platoon was, of course, well-acted, directed magnificently and photographed in such a way that viewers left the theater feeling as though they, too, had been "in the bush" for a combat tour of duty. Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Berenger all created indelible characters in their portrayals of Sgt. Elias, Pvt. Taylor, and Sgt. Barnes, the trinity upon which the tale of Stone's film is centered. But adding its own emotional firepower is the spare but effective score by composer Georges Delerue.

Not that Delerue goes the Williams/Horner/Goldsmith path of composing a wall-to-wall symphonic score with themes and cues to underscore Pvt. Taylor's year of combat and confusion and the various battle sequences in the film. No, Delerue apparently only composed one original cue worthy of inclusion into this 11-track "compilation" soundtrack album. The piece, "Barnes Shoots Elias," is a spooky, atmospheric, almost claustrophobic composition that evokes both the oppressive atmosphere of the jungle and the darkness of Sgt. Barnes' resentment of the free-spirited but disillusioned Sgt. Elias.

Delerue and the music coordinator for Platoon chose Samuel Barber's elegaic Adagio for Strings as the film's signature orchestral "theme." While it is heard throughout the film as a recurring motif (particularly during the main title sequence when Pvt. Taylor arrives in Vietnam and as underscore for the end credits, track 1, "The Village," is heard when the platoon destroys a Vietnamese hamlet in revenge for the killing of one of the GIs by the local Viet Cong. The Adagio is not played in its entirety; rather, only a fragment of Barber's beautiful but haunting hymn-like piece is played by the Vancouver Symphony, with the boom of explosions and crackling of flames in the background. The Adagio is reprised at the end of the album with, as in the final film, a Martin Sheen voiceover as the older Chris Taylor reflects on his life-changing experiences in Vietnam.

Because the soundtrack is supposed to evoke the time period of the movie's setting, most of the tracks are "songs from the era." They include Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears," an ode to lost love, the conservative anti-hippie "Okie From Muskogee" by country singer Merle Haggard, the almost hallucigenic but riveting "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, and Aretha Franklin's classic "Respect." Other artists featured are the late Otis Redding (with his classic "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and The Rascals' catchy "Groovin' ."

Although this is not really one of the best soundtrack albums ever, it did introduce me to several songs that I do enjoy ("White Rabbit" and "Groovin' " in particular) and it made me want to find a recording of Samuel Barber's Adagio in its entirety.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Adagio for Strings" is ruined!, August 31, 2002

By	Peter Byrom (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Platoon (1986 Film) - And Songs From The Era (Audio CD)

This CD has some enjoyable songs which represent the era and the soldiers of Vietnam extremely well, such as "Hello, I Love You" and "Tracks of My tears". The one track of original score ("Barnes Shoots Elias") is excellent and very creepy and the stereo gunshot takes you completely by surprise at the end!

The sound quality of most of these songs is not the best, but still listenable, (this is due to the songs being recorded years ago on old analog equipment, as is explained on the CD cover). It's a cheap and cheerful release, but there is a major spoiler that has dragged my rating of the CD down from five stars to only two...

...and that is "Adagio for Strings". The CD treats this beautiful music horribly! For a start, the last part of the song (the reprise of the main theme after the high-pitched crescendo) has been cut off from the track and slapped onto the start of the CD as a separate track called "The Village", where the music is drowned out by sounds of fire and explosions. While this is moderately effective, they could have at least left the proper version of Adagio intact.

The worst part however is the main Adagio track at the end of the CD. The beginning of the song (which I personally believe is the best part) is again drowned out by pointless sound effects. This time it is the noise of helicopter blades and then dialogue by Charlie Sheen (the speech at the end of the film). This is disgusting! The rhythm becomes ruined and the monologue becomes predictable and boring on repeated listens - which is a shame as it is actually a pretty good one *when* *used* *in* *the* *film*! But to have this on the CD obscuring the music is ludicrous! The whole point of a soundtrack is that you separate the music from the film so that you can appreciate it properly in its own glory and allow it to take you anywhere you want - not just where the film used it! A separate track with this dialogue on would have been acceptable, but dubbed over the Adagio track it makes me very angry!

The producers probably thought that they could use Adagio for their own "artistic" means and try to directly portray Vietnam by cutting the song up and adding these effects. That's fine if that's what you're looking for, but the CD cover doesn't mention this anywhere (there's a mention of the dialogue on the inside slip but you don't get the chance to see it before buying it). I know that there are loads of other CDs with Adagio on it, but I still think that they could have given the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra a bit of credit and not slashed up their wonderful performance.

Conclusion: Songs are great, the one score track is great, but don't buy this for "Adagio for Strings" - for it is too messed with. Only buy it if you *really* want cut versions with sound effects.

I do sort of see the producers' intentions because it is an interesting experiment and portrays 'Nam well to an extent. But I just wish they had written something on the cover so that I could have known what I was getting. Luckily for you though, I've now given you the warning that the CD did not, so you hopefully won't make the same mistake I did.

B*Y*R*O

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it's been a long time...., May 2, 2002

By	richard (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Platoon (1986 Film) - And Songs From The Era (Audio CD)

Ever since I saw this film, when I was young, the soundtrack never left me.'Adagio for Strings' has got to be THE best song ever written with more emotion than anything that you could compare it to including the beatles. Its took me tens years to find it and now it's all mine...