Forgotten War Classic

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2007)

Cross of Iron : Cross of Iron : Excellent Sam Peckinpah flick about a German unit during WW2.Filmed in 1977 this movie follows Sgt.Stiener(James Coburn) and his unit as they fight on the treacherous Eastern Front.Steiner is an excellent soldier who is fighting for his country and not the Nazi party- but he is unconventional and always butting heads with the officers.This movie is a story about the absurdity of war and the insanity of tradition during the bloodiest of conflicts.Coburn's unit is put under the command of an officer obsessed with getting the Iron Cross - no matter how he gets it.Featuring an excellent cast(including David Warner & James Mason) and chaotic battle footage and tons of quotable lines - this is a movie that should be scene by everyone that thinks that war is the answer for anything.The hospital sequence in the center of the film is one of the most disturbing and interesting things I have seen this year and this is the best combat flick I have seen since the reconstructed Big Red One. A+