Cross of Iron: Violence & Realism by Peckinpah

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2003)

Sam Peckinpah´s "Cross of Iron" is not a dated war-movie according to me. I rather say that it is one of the most modern war-movies I have seen. Seldom I have seen a violent movie that seems so real. "Saving Private Ryan" really tried, but the acting and direction was at times so awful that I couldn't stand it. "Cross of Iron" is masterfully edited and directed. People might unlike the fact that the Germans speaks English and are mostly cast by actors from the west, but I don´t want to look down on "Cross of Iron" just because of that, because it has so many qualities. And Peckinpah has chosen a great cast, most of all James Coburn (a favorite actor for me) and James Mason performs good even if they never ever has been close to be Germans.
There is almost no weak spot I can find in "Cross of Iron". It doesn't try to look beauty, rather dirty, like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Enemy at the Gates" did, but "Cross of Iron" did it without computers and I really think that it looked even more real than "Saving Private Ryan" and it never did the mistake to be over explicit. The ending might look a bit too abstract but I think I couldn't think of another alternative.
"Cross of Iron" has been re-released in Sweden (on booth DVD and VHS) and is easier to find here than many other old movies. If you find it, give it a fair chance since it is as good as (or even better) any other classic war-movie. I think that "Cross of Iron" still has a chance to be considered a classic, and I don´t know if that is the case today.

I recommend "Cross of Iron" to anyone, but first of all for those movie-watchers who see a lot of war-movies.
Rating: 8+ of 10.