Forgettable war movie

Rating: 4/10 (22 February 2015)

"Cross of Iron" is a war film that features Academy Award winners James Coburn and Maximilian Schell as central characters. The film is directed by Sam Peckinpah ("The Wild Bunch") and a writing team that includes Julius J. Epstein ("Casablanca"). The first 45 minutes of this over-2-hour long movie, we find out about the life and interactions of a group of soldiers during World War II. They talk about war, but also about everything else guys talk about, such as French girls.
Next up is lots of war action and Schell's character who seemed charismatic as always and so dominant early on just like a central character, disappears out of the picture for almost the whole movie until the very end. It's all about Coburn (Steiner) at this point. The film had occasionally some good scenes, like with the Russian women or also when they talk about Schell's character possibly (not) getting the Iron Cross. As a whole, however, I was rather disappointed. Yes, shooting belong to a war, but at some point, it felt as if the whole movie consisted of nothing else anymore and it was a bit too much war action for my taste.
I believe this film could have been kept at 100 minutes with many of the insignificant scenes being left out. And, especially the ending left me disappointed here. It felt completely unrealistic that Coburn's character and Schell's character would all of a sudden bond again after all that happened before. Why would Steiner kill the other guy in his rage, but not Stransky, who is actually even more responsible? This film received much more acclaim than the sequel with Richard Burton as Steiner, but I cannot say that it was considerably better. Both left me wanting for more. Not recommended.