Le héros d'Iwo-Jima

This is the sad and touching story of Ira Hayes, with a fine acting job by Tony Curtis. Do not expect action scenes with battles and heroics. There is only a brief section that takes place on Iwo Jima;the rest is drama. Some may argue about this or that point of historical accuracy-- with good reason probably--but when all that is done, we're left with just a good drama about a young man who could not cope with the bizarre role of 'national hero' that fate forced upon him. The story is about how events outside his control affected his relationships with friends, family, his community, comrades and his country. We wish life could have turned out better for such a decent man.

This movie "The Outsider" was a pleasant surprise from the moment it started, until the very end of it. I thought that Tony Curtis was supurb as "Ira Hayes"...a part I feel should have won him an Acadamy Award Nomation and/or an Oscar. Tony Curtis was able to give the viewer great insight of the pain felt by this misguided Hero. Also, the raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima looked so real...and gave me such a powerful patriotic feeling. This movie does not come around to view very often...and my one wish is that it would be shown more. It was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time.

This is the true story of Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who became a US Marine and was one of the famous flag raisers on Mt. Surabachi at Iwo Jima. The movie goes into Hayes life after the war as well but unlike many movies of the genre, the story and acting do not lose any steam. In fact, the emotional intensity seems to deepen.

Tony Curtiss, who is a WW2 navy veteran {submariner}, gives what I feel is his best performance ever. This story of a simple and fundamentally good man, thrust into a big and dangerous world, is shown without compromise. The movie tells a very real and tragic story about friendship, loss, war and even the dangers of celebrity.

In keeping with the authentic telling of this story, even the end is sadly accurate. If you ever visit the National military cemetery in Arlington, VA, you will see the United States Marine Corps War Memorial {often improperly called the Iwo Jima memorial}. The rearmost marine statue is Ira Hayes.

Tony Curtis as a serious actor was pretty much a joke at the height of his career when he was the darling of the teenyboppers; but he finally delivered an AAA+ role in this gritty and unforgettable saga of "drunken Ira Hayes" --- perhaps the best known World War II soldier after super-hero Audie Murphy. Audie Murphy was the greatest and most decorated soldier of World War II; but all Ira Hayes really did was help a few other men erect the flag at Iwo Jima. How this single act bestowed undeserved and unwanted fame on this fine Puma Indian man, and how this destroyed his life, are the essence of this extraordinary film. This picture knocked me out 45 years ago, a film you never forget.

This film is a somewhat accurate account of Ira Hayes' story, and is well-meaning, but it suffers from the fatal miscasting of Tony Curtis. Curtis certainly tries hard, but the very idea of a Brooklyn-voiced actor with striking good-looks slathered in bronzer playing an ordinary-looking man from Arizona is ludicrous. Granted there weren't any movie star Native-Americans at the time to fill the role, but you never get a sense of an average guy doing his job: Curtis is far too gorgeous (although the make-up people do try to hamper his looks, unfortunately transforming him into something resembling a Romulan from Star Trek.). And yet some would not only ignore this, but also claim this is Curtis' finest performance. Hardly. See 'The Boston Strangler' or 'The Sweet Smell of Success" or 'The Defiant Ones." As for the film, it is relentlessly moody and downbeat, with an equally moody music score. The Iwo Jima material is almost right, but marred by the idea that Hayes would become a mess because of the loss of James Franciscus' character. Not that the fictional character is so bad, but the dull acting of Franciscus makes him impossible to care about. Since the film takes great pains in making this character so important to Hayes, it should be handled by a much more powerful acting presence than a stiff second-rate TV actor. Meanwhile, Hayes' fame rests with his helping put up the famous flag at Iwo Jima and then be put through the war bond drive and publicity grind stateside, yet the two others(Gagnon and Bradley) who were also involved in both flag raising and publicity war bond tour are barely in this film. 'Flags of Our Fathers' takes full advantage of this character interaction, but this film ignores it almost completely (granted it could have been due to rights issues from Gagnon and Bradley).

But it IS a story that was important to tell and worth watching, regardless. Sadly it was not a success back in 1961 and remains obscure to this day. Possibly 'Flags of Our Fathers' will give it new life.