Cross of Iron (1977)

Cross of Iron (1977)
Sam Peckinpah weighs in on World War II--and from the German point of view. The result is as bleak, if not quite as bloody, as one expects, in part because the 1977 film was cut to ribbons by nervous studio executives. The assorted excerpts that remain don't constitute an exhilarating or even an especially thrilling battle epic. The war is grinding to a close, and veterans like James Coburn's Steiner are grimly aware that it's a lost cause. The battlefield is a death trap of sucking mud and barbed wire, and the German generals (viz., the martinet played by James Mason) seem to pose a bigger threat to the life and limbs of Steiner's men than the inexorable enemy. Not even Peckinpah's famous sensuous exuberance when shooting violence is much in evidence; the picture is a depressive, claustrophobically overcast experience. The bloody high (or low) point isn't a shooting; it's a wince-inducing de-penis-tration during oral sex. For a fun time with the men in (Nazi) uniform, try Das Boot instead. --David Chute
Customer Review: 3 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line: Not Peckinpah's best, Cross of Iron could have used tighter pacing (and an actual ending), but nonetheless offers an interesting and altogether different portrait of war that's distinct and well-made enough to be worth watching.
Customer Review: I liked it in 1977 - not so much today
I saw "Cross of Iron" when it was in theatrical release in 1977 and thought it was a pretty good treatment of the German side of WWII. I watched it again last night on DVD and found myself fast-forwarding past the dull spots. Since I have collected WWII German militaria, lots of little mistakes in uniforms and equipment jumped out at me. The most glaring was the imitation Reich war flag hanging in the background in the outdoor hospital scenes. Coburn's performance holds up, but Schell's character is so broadly drawn as to seem malevolently cartoonish. And then there's Peckinpah's cliche treatment of violence by reverting to slow-motion when the shooting and stabbing start. It served him much better in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." The art of the war film has matured considerably since 1977 and compared with "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers," "Cross of Iron" comes across today as a heavy-handed Hollywood production.