'The Movie Said It All'

In an especially poignant moment of "Flags of Our Fathers," reluctant war hero Ira Hayes (played by Adam Beach) breaks down in tears seeing the mother of a friend who died on Iwo Jima. Hayes embraces the woman, telling her, "He was the best Marine I ever knew."

Almost unnerving in its raw emotion, the scene illustrates the dramatic skills Beach commands as he portrays the Pima Indian who helped hoist the flag over Mount Suribachi. It is but one of many scenes in the movie that some say could propel the Ojibwe actor to his first Oscar. If so, it would a first for a Native American actor.

In a phone interview from Los Angeles, Beach said portraying Hayes taught him a lot about the quiet, mysterious soldier.

“For the first time, we get to see a man who fell into that stereotype of being the drunken Indian,” Beach said. “Here we get to see him as a human being with human emotion and really finding why he drove to alcohol. It was to bury his emotion.”

The movie opened Oct. 20 nationwide, but Beach screened the movie a few days earlier to a packed theater in Scottsdale, Ariz. In attendance: Hayes’ family, including niece Sara Bernal.

“For me, premiering the film in Arizona before a lot of Native people and Ira Hayes’ family is the biggest reward, honor I could get,” Beach said.

Before "Flags" was released, Bernal, 62, had expressed skepticism over how Beach would portray her uncle. After the screening, she met with Beach.

She complimented him for his fine performance.

“It was heartbreaking to me,” Bernal said by phone from Sacaton, Ariz., just south of Phoenix on the Gila River Indian Community reservation. “Beach did a real good job. That’s why it’s very emotional and touching.

"To me it was more like an Ira Hayes movie because the other guys weren’t in it as much.”

Outstretched Arm

Marine Corps Pvt. Hayes was one of six soldiers who raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. The historic moment was captured in Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that inspired a nation at war. In Rosenthal’s photo, Hayes is at the far left, his outstretched arm just shy of the flagpole.

Photo Copyright Dreamworks Pictures Soldiers raise the U.S. flag over Iwo Jima in the film. Adam Beach, portraying Ira Hayes, is at left.

Three of the six soldiers in the photo died on the island fighting the Japanese. The other three, including Hayes, were sent back to the United States to help raise money for the war.

The three surviving soldiers are the focus of the movie, though it can be argued that Beach’s performance overshadows the others. Hayes’ close friendship with Sgt. Mike Strank (Barry Pepper), one of the three flag-raisers who didn’t make it off the island, reveals a hidden, soft side of Hayes.

Hayes didn’t like being called a hero, and in the movie he repeatedly says the real heroes are those who died on the island.

Beach said he ranks his portrayal of Hayes “at the top” of all his movies.

He is known for his roles in “Smoke Signals” (1998) and “Windtalkers” (2002), in which he played a Navajo codetalker. Beach is a member of the Salteaux tribe in Canada. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two sons.

“I couldn’t believe I was part of this huge movie,” Beach said of “Flags of Our Fathers,” directed by Clint Eastwood. “But seeing the story of Ira put everything in perspective. It made me realize that people are now going to really acknowledge who Ira really was.

“It’s like a dream came true. I wanted to do a movie that put us in this light, as human beings, and that really puts the strength in Indian people. I think this movie does it.”

Hayes fought more than Japanese soldiers. He struggled with alcohol, eventually dying of exposure on Jan. 24, 1955, just feet from his reservation home in Sacaton. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

During the movie, Hayes often carries some type of alcohol in his cup. One scene shows him scuffling with the police.

“It’s hard. You realize there is no help for him,” Beach said. “Now, we have medical drugs to get rid of post-traumatic syndrome. Back then you were on your own.”

Hayes was born in Sacaton, and the rest of his life is history.

“I think the movie said it all,” Bernal said.