I went out to the set where Stanley was supposed to be filming in a little place called Beckton, near Essex. It's on the Thames, an abandoned gasworks. I wanted to see in fact whether the picture was being made. I was contemplating legal action at the time, and it would've been pointless if there were no movie.
I took a couple of friends along with me. We dressed up in tiger-stripe clothes. Our idea was that they'd be shooting and we'd simply blend in as though we were extras. We went in, and this little go-fer took us over to the commissary tent while somebody checked out who I was.
We were having doughnuts and the go-fer asked: "Who are you? Why'd you come here?"
I said: "Well, I'm the guy who wrote the book that this film is based upon."
His eyes lit up and he said: "You're kidding! You're the guy? That's you?"
I said: "Yeah, yeah, I wrote the book."
He said: "Well, I want to shake your hand, because Dispatches is the best book I ever read."
"Hey, I think so too," I said.
--from The Several Battles of Gustav Hasford, LA Times Magazine, 1987
1 comment:
Hello Everyone, I hope nobody minds but I wanted to share my thoughts on the Short Timers, which is a great book, and a little bit about the differences between the book and the film.
heres the link
https://youtu.be/hP43VfDZVb8
thanks for keeping this website going. it'd be great to get Mr Hasford's books back in print as he deserves more recognition.
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