Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3304 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-29
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Synopsis
A very strong anti-war message film, set during World War II and told entirely from the German perspective. A German Army Sergeant doggedly struggles to keep his platoon intact while surviving the horrors of the Russian front in 1943.

Customer Reviews

An Essential War Movie
Cross of Iron is still, nearly 30 years later one of the great (anti) war movies. Its 1943 and the Germans are being overrun on the Russian front. Peckingpah's trademark slow motion is used to good effect in the battle scenes. Yes this being Peckinpah the battle scenes are very well done.
The cast give marvellous performances:
Maximilian Schell as Captain Stranszky perhaps steals the acting honours as a cowardly Prussian seeking the Iron Cross.
Coburn pushes him close as the officer hating Steiner.
In a supporting role an ageing James Mason gives a seemingly effortless demonstration of how doing very little can amount to a superb performance.
There are occasional lighter moments, but mostly this film is relentlessly grim. Even if you don't see their deaths, you know that all the characters will die.
Strangly though this is a film I want to watch again (and look forward to watching). This is because the main characters are so well drawn (and acted) and as I said above you don't see them all die.
In a typically perverse move Peckinpah ends the film on a moment of black comedy relating to Stranszky's incompetence; Steiner can't stop laughing. A great film.

Great film spoilt by some cheesey music!
After tiring of this film NEVER being shown on any of my TV channels, i decided it was time to invest in a copy. I soon realised how little i actually knew it, only recognising the odd snippet, right from the brilliant opening title sequence.

Coming a couple of years after the average "Killer Elite" and just a year before the abject "Convoy", the extremely gritty "Cross Of Iron" is Sam Peckinpah's last great film. ("The Osterman Weekend" does, however, rate an honourable mention.) It is an intelligent, well-crafted drama which unfolds during the German retreat from the Russian front. The acting is generally excellent, with James Coburn especially convincing in his portrayal of Corporal/Sergeant Steiner. Max Schell, similarly, is perfect as the obnoxious and loathsome Captain Stransky. There's even a brief role for the luscious Senta Berger, who is abandoned by a man for the second time in a Sam Peckinpah film. Given James Coburn's dilemma, i'm not sure i'd have gone back to the eastern front!

The only real let-down with "Cross Of Iron" is its relatively poor music, apart from the opening and closing title sequences. Ernest Gold's overly soupy intervention, coupled with a bit of over-the-top acting contrive to spoil the pivotal scene where the remnants of James Coburn's platoon return from behind enemy lines. Given its climactic positioning in the narrative, i found it detracted from an otherwise excellent film.

However, this is yet another Sam Peckinpah film which i will find myself returning to from time-to-time. Just a shame that the cheapo "War Collection" copy's quality is a bit poor. There are a couple of "frozen" moments in the film, which would suggest some kind of transfer problem.

The bloodiest front
Peckinpah made few bad films and this one is no exception. The Russian front of WW2 an ideal setting for his particularly visceral style of filmmaking. The setting is shortly after the Germans major reverse at Stalingrad. The tide of the war had changed and Hitler was facing Stalins vast red tide that would push them all the way back to Berlin. It was a brutal withdrawl, the Russians only too eager to exact vengeance for earlier German atrocities. The Eastern front was a huge factor in the defeat of Nazi Germany. A front sadly neglected by Western film makers. All to the credit of Peckinpah that he chooses this setting for his powerful anti war movie.

The story revolves around the enigmatic Sgt Steiner and his closely knit platoon of men. The cameraderie of the group is evident. They have fought long and hard on the front and look and act like the real deal. Like all good soldiers they watch each others backs and any loss is painfully felt. The equilibrium is threatened by the arrival of the Prussian Officer Stransky, a martinet and a bully. He is a man of no battle experience who sees Steiners group as an uneducated ill disciplined rabble which he sets about changing. Maximillian Schell plays the role to good effect. His nemesis Steiner is a world weary, battle fatigued veteran who is plainly sick of war and of misguided Military autocracy. He is tolerated by by his own battle hardened Officers (James Mason as one of these Officers deserves special mention) because they know he is good at his job. Which conversely is war and the killing fields. A man for this time and place. James Coburn fills the role well. The clash of ideologies between these two characters is at the heart of the film.

The film is a bleak picture indeed but is representative of the unremmitting bitter fighting on that front. The battle scenes are gritty and realistic. The Russian tanks are the real thing so it does not get more authentic. The films anti war message is not always subtle but it does not lack power for all that. As the fighting intensifies the two protaganists become increasingly crazed which culminates in a surreal ballet of death finale. The strong ending is a potent anti war message endorsed further by Bertolt Brechts stark warning at the very end. It is heady breath taking stuff and not for the faint hearted. The music which was criticised by one reviewer I feel works perfectly given the tone of the film. The music at start and finish was nothing less than brilliant. A bold choice.

This is one of the truly great war movies. It is up there with Lewis Milestones "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Stanley Kubricks "Paths of Glory" and to a lesser extent Terence Malicks underrated "The thin red line". All of these films showing the utter futility of war. And do we learn? I think you know the answer to that one and so did Peckinpah.
This film is essential viewing for the serious war film buff.