La cruz de hierro

Cross of Iron (1977) was a low budget masterpiece from ace director Sam Peckinpah. After having a falling out from Hollywood, Peckinpah went to Europe to direct this W.W.II. anti-war film. The film centers around Sergent Steiner, a battle weary veteran who leads his company into battle everyday for the past three years. Unlike others his only concern is the survival of his men and the fact that he's a live to live another day. One day an officer of Prussian descent (Maximillian Schnell) decides to make his and everyone beneath him lives miserable. James Mason plays the battle hardened Colonel whilst David Warner co-stars as his cynical aide de camp.

Using the limited time and budget to it's fullest extent, Peckinpah created a very stylish and action packed film. The bullets fly, shells pound the earth and the blood flows. The editing is brilliant and the cinematography perfectly captures the action. The battles are very well staged and the acting is executed very well. James Coburn earned his stripes with this film. He's the man! Senta Berger a Peckinpah veteran from Major Dundee) has a small role as a German nurse who briefly becomes involved with Sergent Steiner. What I liked about this movie was the fact that Coburn, Warner and Mason didn't bother to use fake Teutonic accents.

If you're a viewer of war films or a Peckinpah fan, this has to be on top of your list. This is one hell of an action film. War will never look the same again after watching this film. Sadly the domestic D.V.D. release is not only expensive but of poor quality. Try and find and alternate way of watching this neglected masterpiece. I have to give this film a very high rating.

Highest recommendation possible.

I saw this film in 1993 at 29 Palms in the Marines. It was selected as a training film for the entire company by my platoon leader who wanted to depict the leadership qualities of the noncommissioned officer & the cohesion of small units. It got a tepid reception from Marines, then enamored of sci-fi actioners & the sardonic 'Full Metal Jacket,' who thought the scenes of male bonding were sappy, or 'gay.' Nor did the company commander seem to appreciate Peckinpah's anti-establishment tone. Anti-establishment is really the best description of 'Cross of Iron' rather than anti-war and, though it is his only real war film, holds to the dark theme of government/corporation vs. manly individualist that marked most major Peckinpah films. The story follows ace platoon NCO Steiner (Coburn) as he holds together his elite but war-weary men & deals with his officers: wise Colonel Brandt (Mason), dissolute adjutant Kiesel (Warner), heroic Lt. Meier (Galo) and weaselly Lt. Triebig (Fritz). Hardest to deal with is his company commander, the ambitious, arrogant Captain Stransky (Schell) who transferred from the comfort of France to the horrors of the East to, as Kiesel notes, achieve 'spiritual domination' of the war, symbolized by his obsession with winning the Iron Cross. Significantly, most of the experienced soldiers, including all the other officers, have already won the Iron Cross while Meier & Steiner, Stransky's subordinates, are highly decorated. Though not well known in English, Heinrich's book is a World War II counterpart to 'All Quiet on the Western Front' as it starkly depicts a German soldier's struggle to remain human through the horrors of Total War & the prospect of Total Defeat. Heinrich is a bit awkward & preachy compared to Remarque & this comes through in the film, notably in scenes with the officers. For a film with a modest budget, it's pretty long, accentuating the preachiness. The impressive multinational cast suffers from the necessity of putting English-speaking stars in the main roles. Only Coburn & Warner make even slight attempts at German accents. Coburn depicts, rather than details, Steiner, using his wicked smile & humor sparingly while bringing to life a talented, tortured individual torn between his hatred of war, love for his friends & his fear of leaving the only world he knows. Mason is, as usual, both nuanced & commanding. Schell is fine as the pompous captain but only gets a chance to show his tremendous talent when Stransky is manipulative, notably the scene in which he blackmails Triebig. The fine Senta Berger gets little chance to develop nurse Eva. The soldiers are all scruffy to the point of ugliness, a Peckinpah feature discarded in the body-by-Soloflex action films made from the 1980s onward. Peckinpah had refined his trademark touches to a fine point. There's the brotherly love the men share without being 'gay' as well as their conflicted attitude toward women, at once desiring, worshiping & fearing them. The contrast of hardened, jaded veterans with innocent youth, first explored in "The Wild Bunch," permeates 'Cross of Iron' in Steiner's interaction with the Russian boy (Prohic) & Private Dietz (Nowka), the latter playing a 'kid's game' of avoiding sunlight as the platoon is about to make an attack. Like 'The Wild Bunch,' the film has a bizarre but engrossing opening montage, featuring war & Nazi footage mixed with band music & a German child's rhyme. Above all is the theme of resistance to oppressive authority. Steiner rejects the bullying of Stransky but also the condescending sympathy of Brandt & Kiesel, which he hates just as much, and expresses disdain for all 'medal scavengers.' Two new Peckinpah features: a surrealist motif including flashbacks & fantasies, and an overt political tone driven home by photos of Vietnam & a Brecht quote in the closing montage. The action scenes, especially the slow-motion effects, are as good as any by Peckinpah. Considering the low budget, they should be the stuff of legend, featuring extraordinary photography & precise, correct detail. Peckinpah's operatic violence contrasts with the crushing, unmanning action depicted in versions of 'All Quiet in the Western Front.' To balance making a film about the most demonized military machine in history, Peckinpah is at pains to depict ALL the major German characters, even Stransky, as anti-Nazi. Stransky declares himself a Prussian aristocrat, Steiner is openly disdainful of a SS soldier & Brandt lays plans for the existence of Germany after the Nazis. The platoon soldiers wear a mishmash of uniform, civilian clothes & pilfered Soviet items, further de-Nazifying them. This is probably Peckinpah's gloomiest film except 'Alfredo Garcia'--which is pretty gloomy--but it lacks the exquisitely artful darkness of 'Apocalypse Now.' Then again, Heinrich's book isn't 'Heart of Darkness.' If you can watch 'All Quiet,' 'Cross' & 'Apocalypse' all in one day without abandoning all hope, then you're as cheerful as Pippi Longstocking. 'Cross of Iron' is a unique work, either as a war film, an action movie or even a Peckinpah work.

I first saw this movie when I was very young and it has since then remained as one of the best movies I have seen and perhaps the best war movie ever. My grandfather fought and died in the useless war against the Russians in 45 and one of my uncles as well as my mothers father were both veterans of those battles. The Germans who fought alongside the Finns in World War II were not heartless nazi monsters or a band of murderous aryans - they were men who had been taken from their homes to fight a pointless war which destroyed everything and gave nothing. Peckinpah portrays this in a truthful way when the German patrol tries to make its way back to their army group. The scene where Anselm rips a Russian female soldiers shirt in an attempt to rape her before being stopped be Steiner is something never before or after seen in a movie - a seemingly friendly and well behaving man turns into a beast when he sees a woman from the enemy army. War is hell and it brings out the best and worst in us - something that Hollywood should remember before making the next Saving Private Ryan.

I still rate this as the best and most honest war film I've seen. It ignores the Hollywood schmaltz that spoiled Saving Private Ryan and manages to portray the soldiers as human beings and particularly for German soldiers this is an exception. The battle scenes are expansive and very bloody as we follow the German platoon trying to get back to its own lines. The soldiers are heroes in an unheroic war and the film captures the chaos, cynicism and heroism of the German retreat. Well worth checking out.

"Cross of Iron" was Sam Peckinpah's only war movie. It deals with a company of German soldiers retreating through Russia at the close of Hitler's ill-fated Russian campaign. Unusual for a war film, the story is told from the German point of view. Being a Peckinpah film there are explosions and blood-spurting bodies a-plenty. The rough terrain and cramped quarters that the soldiers have to deal with lend well to the declining German fortunes in Russia. As in his other films, notably "The Wild Bunch", Peckinpah utilizes his now famous slow-motion technique to illustrate the violence and show the effects of the destruction. James Coburn stars as the battle wise Sgt. Steiner who has survived the war thus far by his wits. Maximillian Schell plays his aristocratic Captain whose main goal is the pursuit of the Iron Cross, Germany's highest decoration and who will go to any lengths to get it. James Mason is the Company commander and David Warner is his adjutant. Coburn is excellent in the lead who continues to do his duty in spite of the inevitability of impending defeat. Schell is suitably ambitious and cunning as the chief villain and Mason and Warner convey the hopelessness of the situation while maintaining stiff upper lips. "Cross of Iron", in it's uncut version (132 minutes) ranks as one of the greatest of all WWII films in my opinion. One of Peckinpah's best.