krocheav This version of the story of Ira Hayes was certainly an uncommon movie for Hollywood in 1961. It was also somewhat uncommon for pretty boy Tony Curtis to play such a downbeat and totally sympathetic character. Curtis proved here that he was a first class actor who could turn in well rounded performances - displaying a wide range of human emotions. While it could be said the script took some liberties with certain aspects of the facts (but don't they all) it fairly well represents a reasonable outline of this tragic man's life and the dangers of propaganda 'Hero' worship. Fine direction, cinematography and production values maintain the sombre atmosphere needed to bring this realistic drama to vivid life. The public don't seem to take very well to stories that tell it like it sadly can be for some - so this classic disappeared and rarely surfaced following its initial release. With many above average elements making up this compelling story it's worth finding on DVD to see this rare, almost overlooked mini masterpiece. The theatrical trailer of the day was one of the few commercial promos that gave audiences an accurate introduction to the power of the story it was selling - that's also rare & commendable. Don't be distracted by Curtis playing a Pima Indian he carries the role admirably and there were very few performers of the day who could have done better.

clanciai Ira Hayes was not alone. He was an Indian from Arizona who wanted to do something good and ended up a war hero more or less by accident. The Iwo Jima venture comes rather quick in the film before half of it is done with, while it's the rest of the film that is really interesting. Ira Hayes was only one out of innumerable anonymous post war casualties, getting lost in their traumatic memories, vainly trying to cure them by drink. This was not Tony Curtis' only drive for a serious performance, he made more such than what is generally known, and it's for them he will be remembered in the long run, and this one is perhaps the foremost of them.What is especially remarkable about his interpretation of the role is the extreme sensitivity he displays, his awkardness, his sense of being lost, his painful discomfort when he is first introduced to drink, which actually is one of the main themes of the film: in the US it's against the law to sell liquor to Indians, and not without reason. Their constitution is not fit for alcohol, they can take marijuana and dathura and whatever but not alcohol, which makes them lose control. In the case of Ira Hayes, this is the real tragedy, as drinking is the American way, which he as a celebrity cannot avoid.It's a deeply moving and heart-rending film, while its greatest strength is the consistent and merciless realism. This is American film realism at its best, daring to face any depth of any human tragedy, here even going into a deep-set psychological war trauma, perhaps the worst trauma of all.

sol (Slight Spoilers) The true and tragic story of US Marine and Native American Ira Hayes, Tony Curtis, one of the six US servicemen 5 marines and 1 navy corpsman who were depicted in the famous World War II photograph of the raising the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi during the bloody battle with the Japanese garrison on Iwo Jima. Ira was the US Marine in the far left of the photo.Very introverted and living all his life on an Arizona Indian reservation Ira felt that serving his country in wartime would bring him into the mainstream of American life by blending into it. During his boot camp training Ira made friends with the very All-American Boy looking James Sorenson, James Francisus, who became his best and lifelong, in Sorenson's case, friend. That friendship came to a sudden end on the island of Iwo Jima where Sorenson was killed by a Jap sniper and died in Ira's arms. It was during the battle of Iwo Jima that Pvt. Ira Hayes almost by accident ended up being one of the six men in the flag raising photo. In fact the original flag raising took place earlier but there was no one around to photograph it so a second, with a larger American flag, took place with Ira being in it.No one could overlook the significance of that dramatic combat photo and overnight Ira and the five other US servicemen in it became national hero's. This had the very modest, who never thought of himself as being a hero, and very non-talkative Ira Hayes immediately start to suffer from depression in being put under the microscope by the media which drove him, who until he became a US Marine never touched a drop of alcohol in his entire life, to drink. The pressure of being involved in US War Bond rallies all over the country turned Ira into a such a severe mental case that he become so afraid of meeting people, even his fellow Native Americans, that the only escape he could find from it was either in a bar or a bottle.Arrested for public drunkenness 52 times over ten years Ira finally had his last drink on January 24 1955 when he fell head first and unconscious into a drainage ditch and ended up drowning himself. In the film Ira's death was made more dramatic in him dying, after getting juiced up, in the Arizona Desert from exposer, from the bitter cold winter weather, with his hand extended like it was in the photo of him raising the flag on Mount Suribachi.Very accurate, despite it's made up ending, depiction of the life and death of Ira Hayes that turned out to be a true life, not fiction, Amerian tragedy. Ira who wanted to become a part of the American mainstream didn't realize how to act before the cameras and news reporters in him being honest about what he did on Iwo Jima. Ira never considered himself to be a hero feeling that all the hero's of the war, like his good friend James Sorenson, were already dead. With the pressures of being something that he felt he really wasn't, a full blooded American war hero, Ira slowly fell apart and the kicker was when he was't elected to the local Indian council on his reservation. Hurt and depressed in being rejected by his own people Ira let the booze, that was slowly killing him over the last 10 years, finally finish him off for good. Ira Hayes was buried at Arlington Cemetery on February 2, 1955 with the top US military brass as well as the President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower in attendance.P.S Also in the film "The Outsider" is the great Gregory Wallcott as Ira's US Marine drill instructor Sgt. Kiley. Wallcott became immortalized in Ed Wood's bad movie masterpiece "Plan 9 from Outer Space" two years earlier as the film's hero Jeff Trent. It was Jeff who ended up belting Eros, the outer space alien, for his uncalled for and nasty remark about Jeff and his fellow earthlings in telling him that "All you on Earth are Idiots"!

jkin355871 This is one of the best wartime movies that I have ever seen. It was very touching and very well acted. This movie is a good dramatisation of what it is really like in the military. As a military vet I know what it was like to have good friends and how to work as a team.