73OF ALL THE grenades thrown at Dale Dye, only one has come close
to causing lasting damage. The thrower? Tom Hanks. “The shitbird,”
grumbles Dye, mock-outraged at the memory. “He just got up and fi red it
right into my groin from 35 metres. I doubled over.” The rogue projectile
struck Dye — website motto: “You just don’t get it” — during the pre-shoot
military boot camp his company, Warriors Inc., had organised for Saving
Private Ryan. Unfortunately, when it came to hand-grenade training,
Hanks had got it. Too well. “The standard dude can’t throw that hard,”
rues Dye. “I underestimated Tom.”
The 72-year-old Dye has survived 31 combat operations in Vietnam,
helped make Platoon a Best Picture winner, spent 30 years working to
reinvent the Hollywood war movie, and can offer up Steven Spielberg,
John Milius and Oliver Stone as references. When Tropic Thunder needed
someone steely enough to homage him, they picked Nick Nolte. He is, in his
own well-honed slang, one tough hombre. Somehow, though, it’s reassuring
to know Captain Dale Dye USMC, ret. still feels pain like the rest of us. ❯
THIRTY YEARS ON FROM PLATOON,
MILITARY ADVISOR TO THE MOVIES
DALE DYE IS STILL GIVING TINSELTOWN ITS
MARCHING ORDERS. AS HE TELLS EMPIRE,
“I’M NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOLLYWOOD DUDE”
WORDS PHIL DE SEMLYEN PORTRAITS STEVE SCHOFIELD