It was neither. What happened to Ira Hayes is probably the most pathetic story of a human to come along. He was thrown into a limelight he felt that he did not deserver to be in, only to be found dead in a ditch.
"What happened to Ira Hayes is probably the most pathetic story of a human to come along. He was thrown into a limelight he felt that he did not deserver to be in, only to be found dead in a ditch."
"So far Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" has escaped that kind of criticism, protected by the passage of time and its air of realism. But even its people are problematic. The character of Bud Gerber -- the political sharpie who puts the heroes on the bond tour -- is fictional (and veers perilously close to the old cliche of the wily, cigar-chomping, show-business Jew). And although the film suggests that Ira Hayes' alcoholism stems solely from his war service, he had a history of drunk-and-disorderly arrests before he ever put on a uniform."