One of the best (anti)war movies ever

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2001)

If all your knowledge about WWII came from the big screen and Hollywood movies, you would get the impression that the second world war mainly was fought in France and the Pacific Ocean, and that the russian front only was a minor happening. The truth is, that 9 out of 10 soldiers in WWII fell in Russia, and that Germany and the German army was long defeated at the time the allied troops landed in Normandy. The question of course is: why hasn't there been made more movies about the war between Hitler and Stalin ? And the answer is: because Hollywood needs bad guys and good guys, and the war in Russia was fought between nazis and communists, who were all bad (or so it seems). Or in other words: the truth just is'nt good entertainment!! In the Cross of Iron Sam Peckinpah has made an astonishing honest and realistic movie about what it was like to be in the front line of the bloodiest war of this century - if not ever. And he shows, that war at the end of the day never is about the ideologies, strategies, the generals or even the head of states - in this case Stalin and Hitler - but about ordinary people struggling to survive. The fighting scenes in the movie are just as brilliant as in f.ex. Saving Private Ryan, and the story is much better, more realistic and without spielbergs obvious flaws. There are no heroes, no saints in this movie. The main character is the war, and what it does to people. In other words: forget The guns of Navarrone, Where eagles dare, The heroes of the Telemark and all those horrible Hollywood movies about how the English and American saved Europe from Hitler (they maybe saved Europe from Stalin - but certainly not from Hitler!!!). Watch the Cross of Iron instead. In my opnioin it is Peckinpah's best, and maybe the best war movie ever. 9/10