The Outsider (1961 film)


The Outsider is a 1961 biopic film about Ira Hayes, a Native American who fought in World War II in the United States Marine Corps and was one of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. The film stars Tony Curtis as Hayes. It was directed by Delbert Mann.
Jim Sorenson, a Marine depicted as Hayes's best friend, is a fictional composite of other men who raised the flag. The movie was adapted from an article by William Bradford Huie about Hayes.

Plot

17-year-old Ira Hamilton Hayes has never been off the Pima reservation in Arizona when he enlists in the United States Marine Corps to serve his country in World War II.
Hayes is shunned by fellow Marines or mocked as "Chief" by them except for one, Jim Sorenson. By chance they are two of the six U.S. servicemen who hoist the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the violent battle at Iwo Jima. A photograph of them becomes an iconic image of the war, serving as the basis for a memorial that was installed in Arlington, Virginia. After this action, Sorenson is killed by enemy fire.
A morose and traumatized Hayes returns home, where he is proclaimed a hero and recruited to help sell war bonds to the public. As his depression mounts, Hayes, feeling unworthy of the attention and publicity, takes refuge in whiskey.
Hayes' alcoholism after he leaves the Marine Corps becomes a public scandal. Hayes wishes to be left alone, but a tribal chief implores him to go to Washington, D.C., on his people's behalf to seek political support for an irrigation bill. Not until he attends the dedication of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia on November 10, 1954, does he sober up and pull himself together.
Hayes returns to the reservation, but is deeply disappointed when the tribal council no longer seems to want anything to do with him. He begins drinking again and goes off into the hills, where he dies of exposure to the elements ten years after the Iwo Jima battle. He was 32.

End inscription

"Ira Hayes was buried with
full military honors at
Arlington National Cemetery
on February 2, 1955."

Cast

The movie was filmed on location at the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and Camp Pendleton in California, Soldier Field in Chicago, San Diego, the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington, Virginia, Arlington National Cemetery, and at Universal Studios in California.