Cross of Iron (1977)

Directed by

Sam Peckinpah

Genre

drama film, war film

Country

Australia, Germany, United Kingdom

Runtime

2h 12m

Rated

R

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 487 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1943 on the Eastern Front, a German sergeant and his men fight to survive against the Soviet army. He also clashes with an aristocratic officer more concerned with personal glory than the lives of his soldiers.

bleakgrittyintensecynicalvisceralchaoticbrutalclaustrophobic

What happens

Cross of Iron (German: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz, lit. 'Steiner – The Iron Cross') is a 1977 war film directed by Sam Peckinpah, featuring James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, and David Warner. Set on the Eastern Front in World War II during the Soviets' Caucasus operations against the German Kuban bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula in late 1943, the film focuses on the class conflict between a newly arrived, aristocratic Prussian officer who covets winning the Iron Cross and a cynical, battle-hardened infantry NCO. The screenplay is based on the semi-autobiographical 1955 novel The Willing Flesh by German author Willi Heinrich. An international co-production between British and West German companies, the film's exteriors were shot on-location in Yugoslavia. The film was released in West Germany by Constantin Film on January 28, 1977, and in the United Kingdom by EMI Films on March 8. It received a mixed critical reception on initial release, though retrospective reviews have been much more positive, with some critics citing it as one of Peckinpah's best works. A sequel, Breakthrough, was released in 1979. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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