Adagio for Strings (1936). Samuel Barber /The Sheens/

I just had an associative moment...

The Adagio track from the Platoon soundtrack popped up via iTunes shuffle.  I heard the sound of helicopter blades and then some dialogue from Martin Sheen.  So, I started thinking how young Martin sounds and in my mind I'm seeing the scene where he is drunk and angry in a hotel room.  Then I realized I'm listening to the son Charlie Sheen in Platoon and not the father Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.  Finally, it dawns on me that father and son each had their own excellent Viet Nam war movie.  I had never linked the two. 

Continuing the disambiguation exericise, I placed the right Sheen in the right TV show (West Wing versus Spin City).  I also knew that Francis Ford Coppola directed Apocalypse Now and his wife Eleanor Coppola the fine documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Film Maker's Apocalypse. But then I had to cheat via imdb to determine that Stanley Kubrick directed Full Metal Jacket and Oliver Stone directed Platoon rather than vice versa, which seems obvious in hindsight.

I also knew the Vancouver Symphony performed Adagio on the Platoon soundtrack, in what is presumably the most listened to performance of the work.  What I didn't know, as reported in a review by Brendan Kelly, was that the conductor, George Delarue composed an alternate adagio theme for the movie that Stone rejected in favor of Barber's.

 

Comments

[David Irwin]

Shades of Alex North/Stanley Kubrick and Bernard Herrman/Alfred Hitchcock!

Nice-looking weblog here, and your right next door in Typepad!
Davei

[David Irwin]

Ever read the Rolling Stone interview with Martin Sheen where he describes his heart attack in the Phillippines while filming Apocalyse Now? It is great.

I play operas here in the Tampa Bay area with conductor Anton Coppola, the uncle of Francis. He is still sharp as a tack and a true master.