Cross of Iron

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens with a German children's song, "Hänschen klein", mixed with black-and-white footage of prewar and war scenes. It then segues to color and a German platoon raid on a Russian forward outpost led by Sergeant Rolf Steiner (James Coburn), during which his men capture a Russian boy-soldier (Slavko Štimac).
An aristocratic Prussian officer, Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), is posted as a new battalion commander in the Kuban bridgehead on the Eastern Front in 1943. Stransky proudly tells the regimental commander, Colonel Brandt (James Mason), and his adjutant, Captain Kiesel (David Warner), that he applied for transfer from occupied France to front line duty in Russia so that he can win the Iron Cross.
When Stransky meets Steiner for the first time, he orders Steiner to shoot the boy prisoner in strict observance of a standing order. When Steiner refuses, Stransky prepares to shoot the boy himself, but at the last moment, Corporal Schnurrbart (Fred Stillkrauth) saves the boy by volunteering to do it. Later, Stransky informs Steiner that he has been promoted to Senior Sergeant, and is puzzled by Steiner's nonchalant response. Stransky also discovers that his adjutant, Lieutenant Triebig (Roger Fritz), is a closet homosexual after Stransky surreptitiously sees Triebig stroking the cheek of an enlisted orderly, Josef Keppler.
While waiting for an anticipated attack, Steiner releases the young Russian, only to see the boy killed by advancing Soviet troops. As Stransky cowers in his bunker, Lieutenant Meyer (Igor Galo), the respected leader of Steiner's company, is killed while leading a successful counterattack. Steiner is wounded in the same battle trying to rescue a German soldier and is sent to a military hospital to recover. There, he is haunted by the faces of the dead men and the boy (in a dream sequence prior to waking from a coma), and has a romantic liaison with his nurse (Senta Berger).
After he has recovered, Steiner is offered a home leave but decides instead to return to his men. When he arrives, Steiner is informed that Stransky has claimed that he, not Meyer, led the successful counterattack, and has been nominated for the Iron Cross. Stransky named as witnesses Triebig (blackmailing him with his homosexuality), and Steiner. Stransky tries to persuade Steiner to corroborate his claim by promising to look after him after the war. Brandt questions Steiner in the hope that he will expose Stransky's lies, but Steiner only states that he hates all officers, even those as "enlightened" as Brandt and Kiesel, and requests a few days to ponder his answer.
When his battalion is ordered to retreat, Stransky does not notify Steiner's platoon, abandoning them. Making their way back through now enemy territory, the men capture an all-female Russian detachment. While Steiner is busy, Zoll (Arthur Brauss), a despised Nazi Party member, takes one of the women into the barn to rape her. She bites off his genitals and he kills her. Meanwhile, young Dietz, left to guard the rest of the women alone, is distracted and killed as well. Disgusted, Steiner locks Zoll up with the vengeful Russian women, taking their uniforms to use as a disguise.
As the men near the German lines, they radio ahead to avoid friendly fire. Stransky suggests to Triebig that Steiner and his men be 'mistaken' for Russians. Triebig orders his men to shoot the incoming Germans; only Steiner, Krüger and Anselm survive. Triebig denies responsibility, but Steiner kills him and goes looking for Stransky.
At this moment, the Soviets launch a major assault. Brandt orders Kiesel to be evacuated, telling him that men like him will be needed to rebuild Germany after the war. Brandt then rallies the fleeing troops for a counterattack. The same children's song plays again, until the final credits.
Steiner confronts Stransky and, instead of killing him, offers him a weapon in order to see "where the crosses of iron grow". Stransky accepts Steiner's "challenge", and they head off together for the battle. The film closes with Stransky trying to figure out how to reload his MP40, while being shot at by an adolescent Russian soldier who resembles the boy-soldier released by Steiner. When Stransky asks Steiner for help, Steiner begins to laugh. The laughter continues through the credits and pictures of civilian victims from World War II and later conflicts.

Tags: boring, cruelty, murder, realism, anti war, cult, violence, flashback, historical, sadist

Review:
The carnage occurs in the choreographed slow motion which Peckinpah made his signature.James Coburn turns in one of his finest roles as Rolf Steiner, a highly decorated NCO who leads a German reconnaissance squad.
CROSS OF IRON has a much better script.Maybe the battle scenes of SPR are slightly more gory but at best they`re only as good as the ones in this film.
James Mason plays the battle hardened Colonel whilst David Warner co-stars as his cynical aide de camp.Using the limited time and budget to it's fullest extent, Peckinpah created a very stylish and action packed film.
What I liked about this movie was the fact that Coburn, Warner and Mason didn't bother to use fake Teutonic accents.If you're a viewer of war films or a Peckinpah fan, this has to be on top of your list.
I don't know if the story is based on true facts, but the movie certainly gives a good idea of what the war at the Eastern Front was like, especially after the Germans had suffered a major loss in Stalingrad.
This was perhaps the most devastating line to be fighting on during World War Two, and as expected there is a lot of death and gore, not to mention filth, sweat and treachery.James Coburn plays a German soldier with an almost God-like air of invincibility about him.
The story follows ace platoon NCO Steiner (Coburn) as he holds together his elite but war-weary men & deals with his officers: wise Colonel Brandt (Mason), dissolute adjutant Kiesel (Warner), heroic Lt. Meier (Galo) and weaselly Lt. Triebig (Fritz).
Hardest to deal with is his company commander, the ambitious, arrogant Captain Stransky (Schell) who transferred from the comfort of France to the horrors of the East to, as Kiesel notes, achieve 'spiritual domination' of the war, symbolized by his obsession with winning the Iron Cross.
Peckinpah's operatic violence contrasts with the crushing, unmanning action depicted in versions of 'All Quiet in the Western Front.' To balance making a film about the most demonized military machine in history, Peckinpah is at pains to depict ALL the major German characters, even Stransky, as anti-Nazi.
'Cross of Iron' is a unique work, either as a war film, an action movie or even a Peckinpah work..
When Colonel Brandt (James Mason) gives the order to leave the position in the front, Stransky does not retransmit the order to Steiner's squad, and they are left alone surrounded by the enemy and having to fight to survive.The impact of "Iron Cross" in the 70's was amazing and even thirty years later and having watched this movie for the third time, it is still one of the best war movies of the 70's.
How they worried about their buddies, how they disliked they superior officers, how, they fought for their comrades, as opposed to fighting for Hitler, as historians would have you believe.Stg. Steiner, played by the late James Coburn, is a very disillusioned German soldier, who doesn't care about moving in the ranks.
Stransky is seen by Steiner as an iron-cross-seeking jackal, who cares only about obtain said medal, even if it cost the lives of the men.The war scenes are awesome...chaotic ...just like real war.
I saw some of the comments on this movie, and I shook my head in disbelief...this is perhaps the best WW2 movie ever made, and I'm in good company in recommending this film; Orson Welles said "Cross Of Iron" was the best film about fighting men ever made."Saving Private Ryan" may get tons of plaudits, but apart from a diligent art department getting hold of the proper uniforms and equipment, and the docu-drama camera-work, Spielberg's work is just another one of his cheesefests with a visceral opening scene.
Top Hollywood actors such as Coburn and Mason blend in very well with a great German supporting cast (Klaus Lowitsch as the unit slob, Corporal Kruger, is particularly good) but it's the ever excellent David Warner who steals every scene.Those who say "this isn't a good film" really need their tastes re-examining..
Photographed by John Coquillon in Yugoslavia in low budget with money put up by a West German porn producer and the ending wasn't the original ending in the script , at the time the film had run out of money so Sam Peckinpah got James Coburn to improvise .Director Peckinpah proved had not lost the touch that made Cross of Iron one of his best movies and is the only World War II film directed by Sam Peckinpah .
Hardcore Peckinpah moviegoers will appreciate this one more than the casual spectator.'Cross of Iron' is followed by an inferior sequel titled 'Breakthrough' a boring war movie with all-star-cast as Richard Burton , Rod Steiger , Robert Mitchum , Curd Jurgens though really wasted in which the command under orders Steiner must participate in suicidal missions , Steiner-Burton tries to contact enemy for a treaty of peace and later on , they prepare an assault over a strong position located on the hill where are the Allied tanks ..
It also has the added (peculiar) distinction of being one of the only WWII war films with German protagonists.Coburn totally commands the screen as the brilliant Steiner, a platoon Sergeant who hates officers and war but feels a strong obligation to his men, who love him and trust his leadership.
The film simply pulls no cheap tricks and is not afraid to show war as a nasty place where men on both sides often die from the same artillery barrage, children die, both sides brutalize others, etc...To top it off, James Coburn gives a great lead performance and David Warner, who never quite made it to stardom, has a great supporting role.
Unlike typical characters, though, Stransky's disillusionment grows throughout the piece, until a nail-biting climax involving a Russian assault on a rubble-strewn German rail yard, the outcome of which is never clearly determined.Steiner and his men are the heroes of this film.
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.
A fine movie, made even more interesting by the fact that it's one of the few movies ("Das Boot" would be another example) that depicts the Second World War strictly from the German perspective, "Cross of Iron" is notable for the performances from a strong collection of actors, headlines by James Coburn as Sgt. Steiner.
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..
Out on the Eastern Front 1943, battered by the war itself, a war they are losing, a platoon of German soldiers must also cope with a new aristocratic commander who deeply covets the Cross Of Iron, Germany's highest medal of honour.Universally hated and panned by the critics upon its release, Cross Of Iron now stands up as one of director Sam Peckinpah's finest works.
Then it's at the mid point when you realise that Peckinpah (possibly chuckling away into his stein of beer) has neatly led us into sympathy for the enemy of the good old war film, the German soldier.
But, compared to the usually sanitized war films, this one is superior in this sense.The story is about a particularly indestructible German soldier named Steiner (James Coburn).
If you are going to rent a bunch of war movies Cross of Iron belong up there with Saving Private Ryan, Platoon and All Quiet On the Western Front.
All of them memorable movies that won deserved critical acclaim.Cross of Iron is a film that has been continually overlooked in this context which is a great shame because for me its probably his second best film after WB.Definitely an anti-war film taken from the ordinary German soldier's perspective.
Not quite in the same league as All Quiet on the Western Front, but very emotionally involving for all that.James Coburn plays cynical Sgt Steiner a man who has seen enough killing and is sick of it, even though he won the Iron Cross,he regards it as nothing more than a piece of useless metal.Contrast this to Maximilian Schell's Captain Stransky, Steiner's commander.
Nazism isn't even questioned here - there are no stereotypical jack booted Jerries or mad ranting generals; just ordinary men fighting for their own personal ends.As usual we have the typical Peckinpah trademarks of slow mo action sequences of men being tossed in the air like litter as well as the cold blooded inhumanities one man (or woman in this case) can inflict upon another.But in addition, and which is never really made clear in this film, is that this particular conflict isn't just about class and Iron Crosses but also of a Children's Crusade.
Leading them is Steiner (James Coburn), a crusty but sympathetic non-com who quickly finds himself on the bad side of his new commander, the incompetent, glory-seeking Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell)."Men like Steiner are our last hope, and in that sense he is truly a most dangerous man," observes another, more reasonable officer (David Warner).He certainly kills well.
And since the anti-war movie was now en vogue (despite not being timely in any specific sense) a humane story about a platoon of disillusioned Germans amid the chaos of defeat could work as well as any other.Cross of Iron was adapted from a German novel, with a screenplay by Julius Epstein of all people.
Returning from a patrol on the Russian front in WWII, our hero Steiner and his platoon find a new commander, an arrogant Prussian officer who wants the 'Cross of Iron' although he lacks the heroic act needed to earn Germany's highest military honor.
The decorated platoon leader Rolf Steiner(Coburn) gets on the nerves of newly arrived Prussian upper class-raised coward Captain Stransky, who is hungry for an Iron Cross, the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a member of the German army back then.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah (his only war film), it gives many incites into Nazi Germany's domestic and foreign policies, and some into the Soviet Union's too.Cross Of Iron is based upon Willi Heinrich's book 'Das geduldige Fleisch' (or Willing Flesh), 1956.
They still were not used as combat soldiers, unlike the Soviet's, as the Nazi leadership claimed that only sub-human Slavs and Bolsheviks would use women in this way.Cross Of Iron was released in 1977, which makes it a contemporary of three other famed World War II films: A Bridge Too Far (1977), Midway (1976), and MacArthur (1977).
Unlike these three films, the director, Sam Peckinpah, clearly makes an effort to effort to demythologise World War II, and its perspective, the events are shown through German soldiers, makes it interesting and singular.
Cross of Iron is the brutal tale by Sam Peckinpah, of a small platoon of German troopers lost behind Russian lines.
When I first saw this movie I was 5 years old.Since that day every time I see a war movie,I always consider it with 'Cross Of Iron'.Nowadays everybody is saying that 'Saving Private Ryan' is the best war movie ever made,but there's a big difference.Unlike SPR,COI is an anti-war movie and its bloody scenes are not for entertaining people like in the movie SPR.The foolishness of war and the cheap price of the human life is very well portraited in this movie.Additionaly the battlefield and the accesories are very authenic(Except the T-34/85 in 1943!).A must see....
Sam Peckinpah did a real classic war film with Cross Of Iron.
CROSS OF IRON jumps from shot to shot very quickly, with almost every second one showing a soldier dying theatrically in slow motion in front of an explosion.You also don't get a good sense of the geography of the various battle scenes - once characters are in a trench, in the next shot they are shown inside a building and after that they are suddenly in the woods (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN does this way better f.
All in all, the battle scenes move way too quickly, even if they are well done from a technical standpoint.This action-heavy tone conflicts very much with the few attempts of seriousness througout the movie - especially at the end, when the film all of a sudden decides to show us random pictures of war crimes and the Holocaust, which feels very disconnected to the film.Although the acting is generally good, the relationship between Steiner and Stransky isn't thorougly explored and the whole psychological aspect of the film falls flat and feels kind of superficial.The film isn't bad by any means, just not as good as I expected going in.
The transition is seamless though, not only because some of his Westerns contained military characters and war as their backdrop, or the opportunity it gives him for gripping bloody action, but perhaps most crucially because it enables him to explore his favourite themes in a new setting.As usual with Peckinpah, foremost among the themes of this film are men, their loyalty to one another, a team of hard-bitten old stagers fighting a losing battle buffeted by forces beyond their control, and sticking to your code in a brutal world.
James Coburn is brilliant as Steiner, ably supported by a range of character actors as his comrades in the trenches, with a great international cast providing their support, including James Mason, David Warner and Maximilian Schell as Steiner's antagonist, the ambitious but devious Stransky.To Peckinpah's eternal credit though, while telling his story of rough men in a rougher world, he gives a superbly detailed account of the squalor, fear, brutality and futility of the war on the Russian front.
One of it's main objective is to recaptured the Crimea and Taman Peninsulas and it's there where the movie "Cross of Iron" takes place.Sgt. Steiner, James Coburn, had been out on reconnaissance with his platoon and during a fire fight with the Soviet troops he captures a young Russian boy that later, instead of having him shot, not only spears his life but escorts the kid back to the Russian lines.
Having served in the military myself I can attest to the believability of the characters, the conditions the infantry soldier must endure, and the sheer terror of war.The cast were well chosen to portray the characteristics of the enlisted, the NCO'S and commissioned officers.James Coburn is masterful in his adaption the character's responsibilities in leading men in the trenches.James Mason seamlessly slides into the role of the autocratic Prussian desperate to measure up to his family military history by being awarded the Iron Cross, first class, by any means possible.The humanity of war is clearly shown in its actions and repercussions of those actions taken just to survive.I highly recommend this film.The Mutant Poodle.
'Cross of Iron' is much more intense than any Hollywood WWII movie, especially those glorious almost pro-war films of the time.
Solid yet rough around the edges war epic (the only war movie that Sam Peckinpah made) that closely examins a soldier's ability to deal with life, death, and other issues while fighting on the front lines in any war.In the movie, a bitter and war weary German staff sergeant, Rolf Steiner (the late James Coburn) is forced to deal with another dilemma besides trying to keep the moral of his recon unit up instead of down on the Eastern Front.
The dilemma being is his new superior officer, Captain Stransky (Maxmillian Schell), who is a Prussian and is determined to get what Steiner already has - The Iron Cross (the highest military award that a German soldier can earn for those who don't know) at any cost.The film is marvelous although it has some areas where it's weak yet the harsh battle scenes depicted here would give another WWII movie a run for its' money.
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".
The storyline concerns a German World War II captain who's main goal is to earn himself the Iron Cross (Maximilian Schell), and how he butts heads with a corporal who's just trying to do his business and survive (James Coburn).
Sam Pekinpaugh has given us a big war-time movie situated on the Russian front, starring James Coburn as the savvy and taciturn Sgt. Steiner and Maximilian Schell as the newly arrived, dapper, Junker aristo, eager for the Iron Cross, the decoration given only for heroism in battle.
Steiner(Coburn, battling that German accent, but I still liked him in the part and felt he fit the role well), a veritable war hero respected by many, has one and stands in the way of Stransky getting just that.
With the red army pushing the Germans back, contempt turns to disgust after Stransky takes credit for the heroic actions of Steiner and his men and leaves them at the mercy of the Soviets.Steeped in deliciously morbid cynicism, Sam Peckinpah's only war movie captures military life on the hellish eastern front with unparalled skill.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah, "Cross of Iron" stars James Coburn as Corporal Steiner, a German officer who leads a ragged band of soldiers against Russian forces during WW2.