Cross of Iron

Cross of Iron (1977)

Runtime: I saw the 132 minute version

Directed by: Sam Peckinpah

Starring: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner, Klaus Lowitsch

From: Several different West German and British companies

I’m finally fulfilling a request made late last year. In the comments to my review of Peckinpah’s Convoy (reviewed almost three months ago) this film was brought up, then I stated how it was never seen by me before. This mutual gave a strong recommendation to do so. For some reason, the versions available for streaming in the United States are a few minutes shorter than the full 132 minute cut I was able to track down… nevermind how. 

It's a World War II from the perspective of the Germans-in this case, the Russian front. Those not familiar w/ history, the Nazi campaign in that country went about as well as Napoleon’s attempt more than a century ago… i.e. not well. The crux is on the conflict between James Coburn’s Steiner and his new superior, Maximilian Schell’s Stransky. The latter is an aristocrat who puts on a façade of a brave, great soldier but it later proves to be all bluster; Steiner-on the other hand-is a cynical realist who doesn’t always follow protocol.

The opening credits alone are distinctive: images of war and the Nazi Party are shown over the sounds of a German lullaby. The end credits are an interesting spin on this. The Russian land is shown to be muddy and dreary; the color palette of the exteriors were usually either green or tan. The battles themselves were utter chaos, bedlam where (as expected for the director) occasional bloody moments were shown. There’s also long dialogue scenes between a few different characters; they weren’t boring due to content and the performance of the actors. There’s even dream sequences which this commenter said were the only ones ever done by Peckinpah.

Cross of Iron (Stransky desires the Iron Cross military metal) was a swell recommendation as it was always a fascinating “war is hell” picture whether it was focused on the dialogue or the action. As that commenter proclaimed a few months ago, the World War II tank scene was especially well-realized. As it’s Peckinpah during this period, the shoot was fraught w/ difficulty. According to Wiki, the director found that he liked local Yugoslavian fruit brandy which was as powerful as Everclear! Yes, the shoot went long… the West German producer (Wolf C. Hartwig) made plenty of genre and exploitation films but had money issues during this attempt at a big release.

For its issues, Cross of Iron was still enjoyed by me. It’s always nice seeing Coburn, Schell, James Mason and/or David Warner in a motion picture. I do know the movie has a sequel, 1979’s Breakthrough; different director but a few characters and supporting actors from this return. Apparently it’s not that good but as it has Richard Burton, Rod Steiger and Robert Mitchum…