Bud Gerber: People on the street corners, they looked at this picture and they took hope. Don't ask me why, I think it's a crappy picture, myself. You can't even see your faces! But it said we can win this war, are winning this war, we just need you to dig a little deeper. They want to give us that money. No, they want to give it to you.
Bud Gerber: Hey, you know what? I don't give a shit. You're in the picture, you raised the flag, that's the story we're selling, boys.
Ira Hayes: Are you deaf? Hank isn't in the picture. Harlon is in the picture.
Bud Gerber: Well, who the fuck is Harlon?
Ira Hayes: Harlon Block. That's whose mother who should be here if anyone's should be. You know, I think this whole damn thing is a farce, you ask me.
Answer: Following WWII, Ira Hayes hated the fame and sensational publicity associated the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. Deeply depressed, Hayes descended into alcoholism over the next few years, and it eventually killed him. Director Clint Eastwood actually underplayed the true extent of Hayes' sad decline, and the scene you mention was no doubt dramatized for the screen. In real life, Hayes was arrested 52 times for public intoxication and disorderly conduct at various places across the country before his death.
Would that be a yes, or no? I've got autism.
It's yes, but he/she is saying that the incident was probably exaggerated for the purpose of the movie, to make it more dramatic. It likely combined a number of similar drunken incidents into the one scene.
raywest