It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A phenomenal movie where Tony Curtis proved what a great actor he has been with the versatile roles he has done.The make-up artist who had Curtis made up to look like an American-Indian did a phenomenal job.Curtis gives a standout performance as the American-Indian who could not cope with notoriety when he and his buddy helped raise the American flag in that famous picture at Iwo Jima.The picture is sad from the beginning. While in boot camp, Curtis lies to the folks back home in Arizona while writing them that he is one of the guys. Truth is he is shunned by nearly all and is given a very hard time by the drill sergeant. Yes, prejudice was alive and well in the U.S. Army.Unable to cope with his fame, Hayes (Curtis) resorts to drinking and this affects him badly on the bond tour that he and the other survivors are sent on. What a poignant scene when he meets the mothers of those soldiers on the portrait who did not survive the war.Amazing that the army would allow him to continue on the tour while he is boozing it up. Bruce Bennett, as the General, who finally sent him back to combat, is miscast here. He lacked the toughness needed for such a part.There is a wonderful, brief supporting performance by James Franciscus, a soldier who befriended Hayes after fighting him. When the two are called to a meeting and the Franciscus character is killed, his death sets the motion of Hayes's downward spiral.This is the story of a plain person who could not cope with fame. He saw it as hypocrisy as he felt that he was never a hero to begin with.While the tragic ending was made for Hollywood consideration, the story is one of failure of the human spirit to adapt to what happens to one.This was one of Tony Curtis's best performances and am amazed that he wasn't Oscar nominated for this.

(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"!

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 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.