This Marine Changed How Tom Hanks and Other Actors Prepare for War Movies

Capt. Dale Dye knew he wanted to pursue something new when he retired after two decades of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, but he was unsure how he could leverage the skills he acquired in the military. A lifelong fan of the movies, he was frustrated by the lack of authentic portrayals of service members on screen. So he set out to change that. Through a fellow Vietnam veteran, he got his first film job on the 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars, working with a group of Marine reservists he convinced the director to hire to portray the soldiers in the film. Once Invaders had wrapped, Dale got wind of a new Oliver Stone project called Platoon, a movie about young infantrymen fighting in the Vietnam War. Determined to honor his fellow veterans, Dale pitched a new idea to Stone: a full-immersion boot camp that would plunge the actors into the gruesome, grueling realities of military service during that conflict. Dale’s boot camp was a success; the picture won multiple Academy Awards, and Dale became the most sought-after technical military adviser in the business, working on projects with Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Ron Livingston, Steven Seagal and more. Together with his wife, Julia, and his friend Lt. Mike Stokey, Dale now runs Warriors Inc., which has advised and provided actor training for more than 50 films and television shows.

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