"The German Soldier fights to stay alive"

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2019)

Sam Peckinpah did a real classic war film with Cross Of Iron. The little known and
covered eastern front of World War 2 is covered here. And the attitude is best
expressed by lead character James Coburn who says quite candidly the only
motivation the German soldier has to fight at this point is to stay alive.
Into Coburn's life on the Russian front comes Maximilian Schell a transfer from
Southern France where so far he's had a nice and easy war. But Schell is not a
Nazi per se, but he is part of that Prussian aristocracy which runs the army and
made it's bed with Hitler before the war. As a matter of pride he wants to earn
an iron cross like everyone else in his militarist family.
The problem is he wants Coburn to testify to his activity in repelling a Russian
assault. Coburn won't lie for him so Schell puts him in a position Uriah the
Hittite would have found familiar.
Cross Of Iron gives us one of James Coburn's top performances on the big
screen. The battle scenes as created by Peckinpah are outstanding. Schell
matches Coburn with his performance and there's a good one by James Mason
as a more realistic German general than those he reports to back in Berlin.
Those of us who watch the MeTV channel or remember Hogan's Heroes from
the 50s remember that famous gag about being sent to the Russian front for
any infractions of Nazi rules and etiquette. Cross Of Iron shows us how this
indeed was no joke to those who went there.