A Different Kind of War Film

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2008)

Films concerning the Second World War face a problem that is somewhat unique to their subject matter. In almost any other war that is popularly represented in films it can be difficult to draw the line between "good guy" and "bad guy". Certainly a film made in one of the belligerent countries has a tendency to simply portray their own countrymen as heroes and those of opposing nations as villains.
The Second World War does not have such wavy distinctions however. The war clearly pitted the allied nations, of which most were free democratic countries with one partner, the Soviet Union, a notable exception which could be described as the lesser of two evils at best, against the most brutal expansionist powers since the Roman Empire. This makes it quite easy for a filmmaker to vilify the Germans, Japanese, and Italians, but what of a film that features them as the main characters? What of a film that paints some of them in a heroic light nonetheless? Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron handles this issue quite well. In order to reconcile the heroism of the average soldier with the brutality of the government they serve the main cast of characters is a rag-tag group of soldiers that have found themselves in this war and just wish to do their job and come out alive, politics be damned. To heighten this, the main conflict in the story is not against the Soviet enemy, but against a politically motivated and glory obsessed party line Prussian aristocrat. This method of dealing with "The Nazi Problem" is really quite common in films from Germany as well as from other nations and does depend a bit on a popularized German stereotype, but it is effective in separating the actions of the common soldier from that of the regime, though one wonders how different this film would be if the enemy had been the Americans or British, rather than the admittedly inhumane Soviets.
These distinctions aside the film is a fantastic testament to the ability of the independent and human spirit to endure the ravages of most brutal war and is certainly worth a watching for anyone interested in war films or cinema in general.