La croce di ferro

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.

Cross Of Iron is a masterpiece, one of the greatest anti-war, anti-authoritarian movies. It is one of director Sam Peckinpah's two finest works -- the other being The Wild Bunch. It deserves to be ranked in the same great war movie company as Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Full Metal Jacket, Paths Of Glory, Saving Private Ryan, Seven Samurai, and Zulu. Its setting on the World War Two Eastern Front, its gruesomeness, and its risk-taking viewpoint on ugly combat from the German side, have tended to count against fair assessment of its considerable artistic achievements. Viewers wary of the morality of its German viewpoint and its explicitness might find that it is fundamentally about humanity in general as a victim of war. The film reflects on the humanity which may be found on all sides of conflict--including Russian humanity portrayed variously as relentless, innocent, brave, and feminine.

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.

At the time of writing, this great film of a great American director lacks the high quality collectors' edition Zone 1 DVD release it deserves. The Warner Home Video Zone 2 release available through www.amazon.co.uk has the high quality video and sound which have been missing from the non-studio Zone 1 releases. This film is a must-have for war movie fans.

Update as at September 2011: It appears that only the DVD and Blu-ray releases of this film for the European market - notably those published by Studio Canal - are good quality transfers, as well as being in the original widescreen aspect ratio. Studio Canal's Blu-ray release (encoded for Region B only) is significantly better even than their DVD. It shows so much more detail compared to the DVD releases, for example, that the lettering and designs of German military awards like the Krim and Kuban Shield shoulder insignia can be seen clearly on screen, and wine and beer bottle labels are easily read. The Blu-ray is available from Amazon.co.uk, but can be played only on Region B-capable Blu-ray decks. Extras on this Blu-ray include a gem, a documentary by Mike Siegel called "Passion & Poetry - Sam Peckinpah's War". This gives fascinating insight into the making of "Cross of Iron" and Peckinpah's directorial style through contemporary and later interviews with James Coburn, David Warner, Senta Berger, Maximilian Schell, Roger Fritz, Vadim Glowna, Katy Haber and Peckinpah himself. It includes a shot of Peckinpah reminiscing proudly about receiving a telegram from Orson Welles saying it was 'one of the finest war films ever made'.

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.

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 can't add much to these reviews except to comment that I've found this film to be a great favourite among real soldiers. I once got to deliver the classic line to a Major and a Captain about hating all officers. Luckily(?) they knew I was quoting from the film!

I'm not bothered about the assortment of accents in the cast (that others have mentioned). It seems to me that if you believe in their situation and have immersed yourself in the film, as it was easy for me to do, then you don't even notice them after a while. I would argue that the cast (in terms of dialogue) in Private Ryan is far more of a problem, since these seem to be 1990s guys transported back to 1944 and are far too 'knowing'. Moreover, in Private Ryan I kept stepping back from the film feeling that I was simply being manipulated by the director. COI is far more chilling. I really liked (if that's the word) a scene where an artillery explosion killed both Germans and Soviets. Kind of emphasises the 'war is hell' message without preaching or being manipulative.

I think Steiner is one of the greatest military characters ever to appear on film (for what its worth, Gregory Peck as Savage in Twelve O'Clock High, and Jeff Daniels as Chamberlain in Gettysburg are also up there). I must say I didn't really like the ending, but I can't suggest a better one, but as an alternate "ending" I would certainly recommend that people *do not* see the awful sequel 'Sergeant Steiner' with Richard Burton(!) as Steiner.