Charlie Sheen is war movie royalty. “Platoon” is arguably one of the best ever made. There’s no Cold War movie better than “Red Dawn” (just ask Chris Hemsworth about that). He even lampooned war movies in “Hot Shots,” and “Hot Shots: Part Deux,” which set up the most epic war movie joke of all time, featuring his dad reprising his “Apocalypse Now” role as Captain Willard.
There’s good news for anyone who enjoyed Charlie Sheen’s Netflix documentary series “aka Charlie Sheen.” The actor’s memoir, “The Book of Sheen,” is now available in bookstores (and as an audiobook, read by Sheen himself). In it, Sheen reveals that he was part of making “Apocalypse Now” because Martin Sheen demanded that his family accompany him on location to every movie he filmed. This meant young Charlie Sheen was on set for much of the film as a young boy. He even helped paint some of the fake corpses used to decorate Colonel Kurtz’s compound.
That’s just the start. Charlie Sheen wrote a brutally honest retrospective that describes a ping pong tournament with O.J. Simpson, his stutter, his good friends, beating Michael Jordan at basketball with Martin Sheen, and being on the run from the cops with the same elan. From helping on “Apocalypse Now” to his own starring roles, here are a few tidbits Charlie Sheen shares about making some of Hollywood’s best war movies.
1. He had lunch with Marlon Brando.
In “Apocalypse Now,” Colonel Kurtz is played by actor Marlon Brando, who contracted a “hideous” case of dysentery while filming the movie. Sheen’s mother happened to have an ample supply of bottled water on hand and gave it to Brando to help him recover. When he felt better, Brando stopped by the Sheen villa for lunch. Sheen recalled Brando as “thoughtful, funny, charming, and brilliant” (and showed off his best Brando impression).
Lunch for the group was a bowl of spaghetti smothered in butter and parmesan so large “it could have fed most of his rebel force at his compound.” The group was ready to eat, with the table set, as Brando and Martin Sheen talked. In mid-conversation, Brando reached out and pulled the spaghetti toward him and began to eat from the serving bowl.
Kurtz was supposed to be a diminished figure from his time in the jungle, but Brando arrived on the set grossly overweight, forcing director Francis Ford Coppola to change the way he filmed the movie. Apparently, dysentery had no effect on the actor’s appetite. The Sheens just watched.
2. The Do Lung Bridge explosion was massive.
Young Charlie Sheen missed all the epic on-set performances by the legendary actors in “Apocalypse Now,” but he was determined to watch the crew detonate the Do Lung Bridge. Unfortunately, he fell asleep for that scene because rigging it to blow took so long. But when they detonated the bridge, it blew open the door of the room where he slept. Robert Duvall later drunkenly kicked in his door in a similar manner, but you’ll have to read the memoir for that whole story.
3. Sheen saw the infamous water buffalo scene live.
In the film, a group of anti-communist Montagnards decapitates a water buffalo. What many viewers, even today (and producers of the film at the time), don’t realize is that Coppola filmed an actual water buffalo sacrifice for the scene. Members of the Ifugao tribe, an indigenous group from the Philippines, portrayed the movie’s Montagnards. The sacrifice of a water buffalo is an ancient tribal offering that Coppola decided to include as a display of Kurtz’s violent nature, and Charlie Sheen saw the whole thing live.
They later ate the bovine offering.
4. The family waited for a birthday party as Martin Sheen had a breakdown.
By now, most movie buffs know that Martin Sheen’s hotel room drunken nervous breakdown was real, and that the actor really punched an actual mirror. Sheen was an admitted alcoholic who used the scene to exorcise his own demons. What people may not know is that it came on the actor’s 36th birthday, and the Estevez clan was waiting at the hotel with cake and birthday candles, utterly unaware of what was happening in the room set.
When the Sheen patriarch arrived at the party, he was dressed in towels, a bloody bandage on his hand, and a K-bar knife clenched in his teeth. He also came to work on time the very next day, like the legend he is.
5. Sheen almost had Patrick Swayze’s role in “Red Dawn.”
Charlie Sheen’s first on-screen role was getting eaten by a bear in “Grizzly II: Revenge” (which wasn’t fully released until 2020). His second role is the much more memorable “Red Dawn.” He was cast as Matt Eckert, the younger brother of Swayze’s Jed Eckert. But director John Milius (of “Dirty Harry” fame) wanted Sheen to read for Jed. Sheen intentionally flubbed the screen test because he thought it would have been ridiculous for him to lead the Wolverines. Swayze, 13 years Sheen’s senior, got the role.
6. The Wolverines almost froze to death.
Freezing cold weather might have been okay for the Soviets, but it was miserable for the cast and crew. “Red Dawn” was filmed just outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Sheen says that during most of the shoot, the wind chill was minus 80, and the actual temperature was 30 degrees below zero. Acting miserable in that weather, he says, required absolutely no effort.
As many veterans know, hot brass from firing weapons can find its way into uniforms, under coats, and other areas. The Wolverines also had trouble with hot brass, despite shooting blanks for the movie. In the New Mexico cold, the hot brass casings were almost welcomed by the cast.
7. Sheen bombed his audition for “Platoon.”
According to Sheen, Oliver Stone basically told him that he sucked. It was his brother, Emilio Estevez, who originally landed the lead role of Chris Taylor in “Platoon.” Sheen was genuinely happy for him, but a delay in production meant Estevez couldn’t take the role. Sheen somehow got a second audition. Based on his two previous films and his short performance in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Sheen was offered the role.
8. He partied for two days before basic training.
Sheen refers to “Platoon” as his second tour in the Philippines (after spending months there during “Apocalypse Now”). He had two days after arriving to prepare to go out into the jungle to train to portray a Vietnam War soldier. He decided to call a few ladies up for some fun, what he described as a “naked, jet-lagged blur on the vodka express to Elysium.”
With about zero sleep and an hour to go before basic training, his ladies of the night helped him pack his field gear while he showered.
9. His was a star-studded basic training platoon.
Captain Dale Dye, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, has long been Hollywood’s drill instructor. After “Platoon,” he worked with the casts of “Saving Private Ryan,” “Band of Brothers,” and “The Pacific.” Dubbed “Camp Dye” by Sheen and Johnny Depp, his training weeks are no walks in the park. Or jungles. He took the entire cast into the dark of the Philippine jungle for three weeks in 115-degree heat. It’s where they did the first table read for the movie.
They learned the weapons, lingo, and maneuvers of the Vietnam War as they marched 10-20 kilometers a day. It was so rigorous that actor Forest Whitaker lost 30 pounds. It didn’t stop one of Dye’s instructors, a corporal, from waking Sheen in the middle of one night to go drinking with the Philippine Constabulary — with PT in the morning.
10. Everyone hated Ramucci.
In their time at Camp Dye, the cast of “Platoon” dug their own hooches, had battle buddies, and pulled guard duty, even at night. Sheen’s hoochmate was actor Francesco Quinn, who played “Rhah” in the movie, and a guy Sheen said “took himself a bit seriously.” Which might be understandable, considering his father was the legendary actor Anthony Quinn. But animosity only grew toward Rhah, as tensions among everyone grew.
It culminated in an incident where Quinn kicked actor Willem Dafoe in the face. After filming the party scene (the one that featured a monkey on Sgt. Elias’ shoulder). Dafoe tore from the chair and slammed Quinn down “like laundry.” Dafoe, who Sheen describes as “infinitely patient,” was on Quinn so hard it took Dye, Tom Berenger, and John C. McGinley to separate the two.
11. He almost got killed by Filipino troops.
The Philippines was not entirely stable while Oliver Stone was filming “Platoon.” The regime of Ferdinand Marcos was unseated by the People Power Revolution of February 1986. Corazon Aquino came to power in the aftermath of the revolution, but not everyone was thrilled with it, and coup attempts continued throughout her term.
After his last day of filming, Sheen and Corey Glover caught a cab back to a hotel, still dressed in their “Platoon” fatigues. Along the way, they were stopped at a roadblock manned by Filipino soldiers. The heavily-armed guards ordered the cab driver out of the car. As the driver and commander exchanged heated words, soldiers surrounded the the cab. The cabbie couldn’t prove they were American and the actors didn’t have passports. They were ordered to step out of the cab, still covered in mud and fake blood.
Somehow, the driver convinced the soldiers his fare was just a couple of actors and they were mercifully allowed to leave, with a sigh of relief.
For more stories about Charlie Sheen’s life or behind-the-scenes tales from his other movies, like “Wall Street,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” or even his work with George Clooney on “Grizzly II,” check out “The Book of Sheen.”
