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“There are people in show business who speculate I may be among the world’s worst businessmen. They may be right. Or I just might be a little too cagey and unconventional for their yardsticks to measure. As long as we keep succeeding ... I reckon it doesn’t matter.”

- Dale Dye, commanding officer, Warriors, Inc., military adviser to numerous Hollywood films and director of “No Better Place to Die,” now in production

Capt. Dale Dye, U.S. Marine Corps, retired, could be any other white-haired veteran among the many visiting Normandy the first week of June. He sits alone on a bench outside a stone manor and squints across the quiet meadow where the Merderet River flows. He imagines what it must have been like 64 years earlier when, for three days, the air whizzed with bullets, and the narrow causeway road was soaked with the blood of fallen American soldiers. Dye, a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War, has a unique way of imagining such things.

For nearly 25 years, in fact, he’s made a career of it. Dye has served as military adviser on 35 feature films, including two that won Oscars for Best Picture, and a dozen television projects, including the acclaimed “Band of Brothers” series.

Dye gives Hollywood a perspective that few film-school students can provide. The Missouri native brought three Purple Hearts home from the Vietnam War, having survived 31 combat missions. He later served in Beirut and spent time in Central America, helping to train troops in guerrilla warfare.

Since his retirement from the Marine Corps in 1984, Dye’s missions are much less likely to get him killed. But as commanding officer of a company called Warriors, Inc., he applies all the training, organization and techniques of his military experience to help Hollywood produce more realistic war movies. He puts the cast and crew through boot-camp training before the cameras ever roll. His program turns young actors who’ve never fired a weapon into believable combat soldiers, not the simplest of metamorphoses.

Last June, Dye was in Normandy scouting locations for his newest endeavor, “No Better Place to Die,” based on the book by former 82nd Airborne Pathfinder Bob Murphy, which chronicles the bloody battle of LaFiere Bridge in the early days of the June 1944 Allied invasion of France. Dye spoke with The American Legion Magazine about the project and his career.

Q: Movie audiences seem to have an unquenchable thirst for World War II history and drama. As a director, how do you distinguish one film from all the others?

A: It is a difficult proposition. Some of the great films that I have been fortunate enough to be involved with – “Saving Private Ryan,” “Band of Brothers” and so on – have really rekindled and whetted that appetite audiences have for World War II. It’s phenomenal. In an age of uncertainty, it’s one of the last black-and-white objects. We have clear cheering elements. We have clear booing elements. We know who the bad guys are.

We are now looking at military history in a way we have never looked at it before. So the difficulty is really to make something special, something that stands out in the crowd. Now, I am willing to say I know how to do that.

Q: The American Legion members who voted “Saving Private Ryan” the No. 1 war film of all time seem to validate that.

A: I was very, very proud of that. I called Steven Spielberg and said, “I don’t know if you have seen this or not, but The American Legion has this list of best war movies, and we’re sitting right on top of it.” Of course, we appreciated that.

Q: How did you get the urge to work in the movie industry?

A: All during my years on active duty and all of my life, as a matter of fact, I’d been a fan of war movies, for obvious reasons; I was a professional soldier.

I began to look at these films and ask, “Why am I not satisfied here? Why am I not enthralled? Why am I not entertained, except by a couple of them?” And it occurred to me I was having what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. I was having a disconnect. The reason for that was, what I was seeing on film – what Hollywood was showing us – was not at all my experience. I was seeing characters who were portrayed as dummies who had no chance to do anything but soldier, or who were victims. I wasn’t seeing any of the great inspired patriotism or volunteer spirit that soldiers have. I was seeing all of these horror stories, and I said, “That’s not right.” Not only is that not right, it upsets me. It angers me. Being a Marine, if things upset me and anger me, I’m going to go after them and fix them. So that’s what I attempted to do: fix it and make it right.

Q: Now you have been doing it longer than you were in the Marine Corps.

A: I spent 20 years in the United States Marine Corps. Three tours in Vietnam and a tour in the Middle East, Beirut in ’82 and ’83. When I decided it was time to retire, I was looking around for something to do. I did one of those evenings of fuzzy-headed navel-gazing. I sat there with a legal pad and drew a line: assets and liabilities. By the time the evening was over, I had three pages of liabilities and two lines of assets. I needed to find something that I was passionate about, would keep me happy, and keep me gainfully employed. And it occurred through this sort of examination of my background that I was really a war movie buff. But all of those war movies I had seen upset me because they were just wrong.

Q: How old were you then?

A: Hmm, let’s see. 42, something like that.

Q: And you’d never previously considered a career in motion pictures?

A: No, not really.

Q: What was it like, as a 42-year-old neophyte, to walk onto your first movie set?

A: The very first film I did was a remake of a science-fiction classic called “Invaders from Mars.” And it was directed by Tobe Hooper. A friend of mine from Vietnam was the storyboard artist on the film. He got me the job. In this particular remake, the Marines kill the Martians and save the day. I wrangled my way onto the set as the guy who was going to run the Marines against the Martians. What I really did was go to school. I went to school on every department. I learned what cameras are about, what lighting is about, what grips are about, what acting is about and so on. Through that school, that little film, I found out how to sell myself, how to say what’s wrong and fix it.

Q: “Invaders from Mars” was not the blockbuster the second film was.

A: The second one was “Platoon.” Four Academy Awards. Up until that time, I had trouble selling Hollywood on my methods and my way of doing things. They said to me, “We’ve been making war movies forever, and we’ve been making money on them. Why should we pay you to come in here and upset the apple cart?” Well, Oliver Stone was not like that.

Oliver Stone was, himself, a combat veteran. He said, “You know, you are right, and we need to fix this.” So he gave me a shot to do it my way. We won four Academy Awards, and at that point, Hollywood didn’t challenge me anymore.

Q: Did you participate in every part of that film?

A: Every part. Oliver has been a very, very good friend, and believes in me and believes in what I do. He has taught me a lot of stuff. Hollywood – and a lot of people – may not like him because of his political views and everything, but that doesn’t have anything to do with him as a human. He has been a good friend to me and has helped me advance my career. We did “Born on the Fourth of July,” “JFK,” “Heaven & Earth,” a number of films together. Then I sort of began to spread out in movie-making. I formed a company, and we did entertainment at amusement parks, we did music videos, we did all kinds of things that had military attachment.

Q: The war films you have advised seem to inject a deeper realism than earlier war movies, right down to the anguish on the faces of soldiers. How do you accomplish that?

A: That’s one of the reasons we have a system of training people before we ever, ever allow them on film. We need to explain the heart and psychology of the soldier. Look, you take actors today. Actors, just by nature, grow up thinking the sun rises and sets on their posteriors. “How many lines do I have?” – that’s really what they care about. Well, you can’t do passionate war movies that are truthful and accurate, and you can’t get actors to do accurate portrayals, unless you are willing to spend some time walking in the other guy’s boots. So, we spend a lot of time getting their hearts and minds right before we ever put them on film.

Q: What do you think when you see others emulate your technique?

A: They do, and that’s fine. The agenda remains the same. I need to serve and celebrate the people who fought for this nation. I do it in the popular media. And that’s OK, as long as it gets done. There’s room out there for all kinds of things. As long as the audience remains hungry for it, let’s all do it.

Q: A lot of people come back to Normandy every year and can tell you where every boot fell. That must be a nice resource when you’re making a film like “No Better Place to Die.”

A: Yes and no. It’s a nice resource, but the resource provides enormous conflict. We have experts and re-enactors who, God bless them, are doing everything they can to keep the spirit alive. And I applaud that. I think anybody who understands the service and sacrifice of the men in World War II applauds that. But you can get conflicting information. At some point, I have to say, “Cease. This is what I believe happened. This is how I am going to portray it.” Since I have been here scouting for this new film, “No Better Place to Die,” I have been assaulted by folks who knew exactly what color the buttons were and where every boot fell, as you say. I have examined a number of sources, and I have hired one guy. He is my military adviser. And he knows the history backwards and forward. Plus, he understands that I only get two hours to get this whole battle on film. And so, he is willing to cooperate with me.

Q: “No Better Place to Die” is a little-known but historically important battle, a story you wanted to tell.

A: I did, indeed. I am passionate about this story. I knew generically about it and then some producers who are very, very interested in it said, “Look, we’d like you to come aboard as our military adviser, so here’s the information.” They sent me some books and a number of other things. I read the books. It’s amazing. I didn’t know the detail of it. Then I began to get really passionate about it. I said, “Look, there is only one way to do this right, and that’s if I direct it.” They were very excited about that. They said, “Absolutely. Let’s get you on an airplane, go to France, and let you walk the ground.”

We hired a director of photography, and he’s here with me. We’re scouting the ground right now. My executive officer for Warriors, Inc., my company, is here with me, and he is looking for training areas. We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do this with great passion.

Q: Why do you think the battle to secure LaFiere Bridge, which has been described as one of the bloodiest small-arms battles in the history of U.S. warfare, hasn’t been described more often?

A: The beaches, particularly Omaha, were such a meat grinder that people became focused there and forgot what happened with the paratroops. We tried to correct that with “Band of Brothers,” and to some extent, we did. (The battle for LaFiere Bridge) simply slipped in the overview of things. It was a three-day fight. World War II was four years. This is one little piece in a huge panoply, a huge landscape.

Q: Have you cast anyone in the film yet?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you reveal any of that?

A: No.

Q: Can you give any sense, even generally speaking, of who might appear?

A: Sure. I am not going to use movie stars. I don’t think that’s needed. I think we proved in “Band of Brothers” that we don’t need big movie stars. It’s about the story, more than any marquee character. You’re going to see a known actor as (Gen. Matthew) Ridgeway. You’re going to see a known actor as (Gen. James) Gavin. But from that point on you will see young actors who are up and coming who have the kind of heart that I am looking for.

Q: There were more than 500 casualties here, on both sides. Are you going to portray the fight from both sides?

A: The Germans will play a very, very crucial part in this, as they did. They weren’t cartoon characters. They were out there hitting and running. But we will not get to know them, except for one or two characters, as well as we get to know the Americans.

Q: Having worked with some of the biggest directors in the business, and now directing your own film, you must be pretty satisfied that you made the right decision after you retired from the Marine Corps.

A: It’s been enormously rewarding and enormously fun. The movie industry is a lot like the military. It’s true. We are like a committed battalion out there running a special mission, and there are platoons and companies and department heads and various other things. So, I see that connection and run a set that way. Folks get a kick out of it because it’s organized. Other than that, it’s a flying circus. We come together, real talent, real experts, we build up passion and emotion about something, and then we rock and roll through it for three or four months. Then we go fishing, or whatever we want to do. You can’t ask for much better.

- Jeff Stoffer

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