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Cross of Iron
- Director: Sam Peckinpah
- Writer: Julius J. Epstein; James Hamilton
- Producer: Wolf C. Hartwig; Arlene Sellers
CGiii Comment
Definitely a contender for the best (anti) war film ever made and, inexplicably, snubbed and ignored by all the major awards.
Full credit must go to the writers, with lines like: 'take your hands off my lice' - you just know that this isn't a watered down war film.
The 'world without women' scene is chilling - made possible by Peckinpah - who, throughout, has directed with mastery, humanity and a deep-rooted emotion that will have tears well up when you least expect them.
Correction, this is the best war film ever made.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In 1943, in the Russian front, the decorated leader Rolf Steiner is promoted to Sergeant after another successful mission. Meanwhile the upper-class and arrogant Prussian Captain Hauptmann Stransky is assigned as the new commander of his squad. After a bloody battle of Steiner's squad against the Russian troops led by the brave Lieutenant Meyer, who dies in the combat, the coward Stransky claims that he led his squad against the Russian and requests to be awarded with the Iron Cross to satisfy his personal ambition together with that of his aristocratic family. Stransky gives the names of Steiner and of the homosexual Lieutenant Triebig as witnesses of his accomplishment, but Steiner, who has problems with the chain of command in the army and with the arrogance of Stransky, refuses to participate in the fraud.
Cast & Characters
James Coburn as Unteroffizier / Feldwebel Rolf Steiner;
Maximilian Schell as Hauptmann Stransky;
James Mason as Oberst Brandt;
David Warner as Hauptmann Kiesel;
Klaus Lowitsch as Unteroffizier Kruger;
Vadim Glowna as Gefreiter Kern;
Roger Fritz as Leutnant Triebig;
Dieter Schidor as Anselm;
Burkhard Driest as Schutze Maag;
Fred Stillkrauth as Gefreiter Schnurrbart;
Michael Nowka as Dietz;
Veronique Vendell as Marga;
Arthur Brauss as Pg. Zoll;
Senta Berger as Eva;
Sweeney MacArthur as Boy soldier