The Outsider (1961)

Best movie of this year hands down!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The official U.S. release date of "The Outsiders" is given as December, 1961, but in late August/early September of 1961, Tony brought the movie to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA. to give all us Marines a sneak peek. He had filmed much of the movie at MCRD, plus in Oceanside and downtown San Diego, so he let us "locals" have the first look. Before and after the showing, Curtis came on the stage at the base theater along with his wife Janet Leigh and MCRD Commannder Gen. Victor Krulak, and we jar-heads were totally impressed with ourselves for getting the VIP treatment from such bigshots. Curtis didn't play the usual featherweight role as Ira Hayes, but gave a tough, gritty performance as an alcoholic on the skids. I don't notice "The Outsiders" listed among Tony Curtis's credits in all these obituaries, but if you get a chance to see it don't pass it up.

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"!

Clint Eastwood in Flags Of Our Fathers has probably given us the definitive version of the story of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Three of the six were later killed in action before the the flag raising became a Marine Corps symbol. The other three came back to all kinds of publicity because they became media heroes. Probably you couldn't find three more ordinary guys than Jesse Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes. The first two lived long lives in respectable obscurity after their 15 minutes of fame finally died down. Ira Hayes was unique in that he both survived and was a minority group member. When Branch Rickey decided it was time to integrate baseball Jackie Robinson was chosen after a very careful selection process. Ira Hayes was part of a group photograph of a flag raising during a lull in a great battle. Fame chose him and as we see in The Outsider, he wasn't ready to deal with it. Tony Curtis gives one of his best screen performances as Ira Hayes, the Pima Indian kid who mere chance at being in the photographer's lens when an immortal picture was snapped gave him fame he didn't want to deal with. How could he, really he was probably no better or worse than any of the other men and simply raising a flag during a lull of battle wasn't anything heroic. Hayes was acutely aware of this and felt himself unworthy to be the Jackie Robinson for the Pima Indians.Such a sad story that Tony Curtis brings to us on the big screen. How would we deal with fame if it was suddenly thrust upon us for no discernible reason? Something Ira Hayes asked until the day he died.Ira Hayes and Tony Curtis, himself a World War II veteran, wouldn't mind if this review was dedicated to all the men who served in the Marine Corps and fought for that volcanic island in the Pacific called Iwo Jima. Just another hero in the company of thousands of heroes, that's what Ira Hayes would have wanted.