Cross of Iron

Cross Of Iron opens with an intense, chilling montage of nursery rhyme, propaganda, combat newsreel and atrocity. By the end of the main title the montage subtly introduces the central characters, a German reconnaissance unit patrolling on the 1943 Russian front.

This 1977 film set rarely matched standards of cinematic mayhem. Cross Of Iron explosions don't look merely like pretty fireballs -- they blast fragments, rocks and debris, leaving no doubt as to why blood gouts from stumps of limbs and shrapnel-shredded entrails... Amid the screams of wounded and dying, as dust subsides from a mortar barrage, an artillery piece shorn of its crew by a near hit swings across a pocked battlefield, its traversing wheel spinning under its own momentum. The carnage occurs in the choreographed slow motion which Peckinpah made his signature.

James Coburn turns in one of his finest roles as Rolf Steiner, a highly decorated NCO who leads a German reconnaissance squad. Steiner fights less for his country than for his comrades. He has low opinions of class and rank distinctions. He is contemptuous both of Nazism and the aristocratic Prussian arrogance of his new superior officer, Captain Stransky, played with great style by Maximilian Schell. But there are hints of a dark side. Although Steiner is articulate and philosophical he has no answer when his love interest during an enforced break from battle, nurse Eva (Senta Berger), bitterly accuses him of being afraid of what he would be without the war.

Among the many fine supporting performances, James Mason plays the war-weary Colonel Brandt. He sees the immorality and futility of German war aims, but his sense of honour and duty about the prevailing struggle makes ceasing to fight unthinkable. David Warner plays Brandt's out-of-place and out-of-time adjutant, Captain Kiesel, who represents to his colonel the hope that a more enlightened postwar Germany might arise from the ashes of inevitable defeat.

War movie buffs irritated by the technical inaccuracies common in many examples of the genre will find some satisfaction in attention to authenticity of weaponry. A range of genuine WWII German and Russian small arms appears. The T 34/85 tanks are real, although the very picky might argue that this is at least six months premature, and that for the summer of '43 they should be T 34/76. Tactics at times deviate from the textbooks, but this is a drama, not a combat manual.

Cross Of Iron is a five-star movie. The Hen's Tooth Video release is a two-star DVD, with sub-standard picture and sound. But it is worth owning while this great film of a great American director lacks the high quality collectors' edition Zone 1 DVD release it deserves.


A Realistic Russian Front Epic, Far Better than Stalingrad   December 18, 1998
65 out of 68 found this review helpful

Take it from someone who was an Army "grunt" for 12 years -- this movie was filmed as realistic as one could get without being on the battlefield, and during my time in service, Cross of Iron was one of the favorites of infantrymen and WWII buffs everywhere. Many wellknown (at least in Europe) German actors were featured in this film. It is one of the few movies I've seen that accurately depicts the spite and tension that exists between officers (seeking career advancement at the expense of their men) and enlisted men (just trying to survive). Having lived in Germany and conversed on many occasions with Wehrmacht veterans who were on the Russian front, I found Cross of Iron to be very close in detail to the conditions and experiences they described. A previous writer describes the movie's mood as depressing (not as much as Das Boot or Stanlingrad, IMHO!); yet it reflects exactly the realization of fighting for a lost cause that many German soldiers experienced. And hell, war IS depressing! Aside from the farmhouse scenes involving a female Soviet unit, this movie is as real as any German depiction of fighting on the Russian front that I have ever read, and there are many books in this genre. If you want to know what it was really like to fight in the elements in East Europe in WWII, in the mud, sweat, and shrapnel, and to understand what comaraderie is about (without all the surrealism and eccentricities of "Stalingrad") then this under-appreciated classic is the one to see! The artillery and trench warfare scenes are incredible, some of the best I've ever seen... Sam Peckinpah was able to effectively show all the sharp contradictions of war: courage and cowardice, sensitivity and crudeness, mercy and cruelty, and in the end, irony and justice.


WW2 Russian Front from German point of view   February 4, 2006
Seen Them All (SoCal Desert)
51 out of 57 found this review helpful

This is an outstanding movie about the WW2 Russian Front as told from the German point of view during the retreat in the Crimea. More powerful and a better movie than "Stalingrad" and "Enemy At The Gates". Coburn plays a much decorated senior sergeant who is fed up with the war and just trying to survive. Schell plays an inexperienced officer newly arrived at the front and looking for a medal...The Cross of Iron. Is he truly a hero or a coward..??? Mason plays the regimental commander and their commanding officer. Brutal and violent. It tells of the hopelessness of the German position and the dispair of the men who are forced to fight this hopeless war and trying to survive. Well worth watching. NOT for the squeamish...!!!


Finally! A decent release.   May 15, 2006
H. LUI (Glendale, CA USA)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful

A good release of a great and underrated Peckinpah film. The picture quality is a huge improvement over the previous pan & scan from Hen's Tooth and seems to be a little better than the recent Korean all region release. The audio commentary by Stephen Prince is informative but a bit dry like the one he did for Criterion's Straw Dogs. One can't help but think that this should have been a Criterion release but overall it's a descent release. A second disc with material about the making of the film would have been better.


Cross of Iron   August 16, 2000
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Phenomenal film about the Russian front during WWII, presented from the German soldier perspective. A bit psychedelic at times, and this adds tremendously to the film. It really shows the insanity of war. Coburn plays a brilliant but disillusioned and degraded German oficer trying to save his troops from slaughter. He has earned the highly coveted Cross of Iron in past battles. Maximillian Schell plays a gung-ho German baron out to get the Cross of Iron, in any way he can (his dad earned it in WWI). Ideologies clash, true characters come out. Not your typical action film, although several war scenes (especially the slow-motions) are particularly powerfull. The begining of the film is absolutely brilliant, with film footage slowly blending in with live documentary footage. Note the contrast and irony that the children in the film present. James Mason is also very good. One of the few films that leaves a long-lasting impression on the viewer. Highly recomended.