Most honest war film I've ever seen

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2002)

Most of the war movies that have been coming out lately (SPR, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down) make gore look good. They pull this off by emphasizing the sacrifice of going to war and the honor that goes with it. Sam Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron" shatters this concept. The blood and the gore are not used to demonstrate the courage of the soldiers but the suffering of them. Their death's serve no higher purpose and they only wish to survive the war. This is moviemaking at it's most brutally honest, a story about German soldiers fighting in Russia against both the Soviet army and themselves. The cinematography is beautifully done (with Peckinpah's trademark slow motion violence) but the film quality is unfortunately not so good. An 8 out of 10. Highly recomended.