Music Album Review: ‘Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’

Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Year of Release: 1986

Record Label: Atlantic, Warner Records (International)

Genre: Film Score (Classical/Pop/Rock)

Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) remains, nearly four decades later, one of the most searing and authentic portrayals of the Vietnam War ever committed to film. Drawing from Stone’s own harrowing experiences as a young infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division in 1967, Platoon didn’t just win four Academy Awards—it ignited a wave of Vietnam War films (Hamburger Hill, 84 Charlie MoPic) that redefined how combat was depicted on screen. It also laid the emotional and cinematic groundwork for later war epics like Saving Private Ryan.

The film’s power lies not only in its visceral realism and moral complexity, but in its haunting emotional architecture. Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Berenger form a tragic trinity as Sgt. Elias, Pvt. Chris Taylor, and Sgt. Barnes—each embodying a different facet of war’s psychological toll. Stone’s direction and Robert Richardson’s cinematography immerse the viewer in the oppressive, chaotic jungle, making us feel as though we, too, have been “in the bush.”

But Platoon’s emotional firepower is amplified by its music—both the spare original score by Georges Delerue and the carefully curated period songs. Delerue avoids the sweeping symphonic approach of Williams or Goldsmith. Instead, he contributes a single original cue, “Barnes Shoots Elias,” a claustrophobic, atmospheric piece that captures the moral rot festering beneath the surface of the platoon’s unraveling.

The film’s true musical soul, however, is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Used sparingly but devastatingly—during Taylor’s arrival in Vietnam, the destruction of a village, and the film’s elegiac conclusion—it becomes a requiem for innocence lost. The Vancouver Symphony’s rendition, layered with the sounds of war, is both beautiful and brutal.

The rest of the soundtrack is a time capsule of 1960s America, evoking the cultural backdrop of the war. These aren’t just needle drops—they’re emotional counterpoints, ironic juxtapositions, and sometimes, aching reminders of what the soldiers left behind.

🎵 Platoon (1986 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Tracklist:

1. The Village – Adagio for Strings – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (1:44)
2. Tracks of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (2:53)
3. Okie from Muskogee – Merle Haggard (3:02)
4. Hello, I Love You – The Doors (2:11)
5. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane (2:34)
6. Barnes Shoots Elias – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (3:08)
7. Respect – Aretha Franklin (2:25)
8. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding (2:43)
9. When a Man Loves a Woman – Percy Sledge (2:50)
10. Groovin’ – The Rascals (2:27)
11. Adagio for Strings (Reprise) – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (6:57)

While the album may not rank among the greatest soundtracks in terms of cohesion or original scoring, it introduced me to unforgettable tracks—especially “White Rabbit” and “Groovin’.” And it led me to seek out Barber’s Adagio in its full, unfragmented glory—a piece that now lives in my emotional archive alongside the film itself.