Platoon (1986 Film) - And Songs From The Era [Soundtrack]

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.

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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

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