Cross of Iron

It feels very natural that Peckinpah, who throughout his career has explored violent crises of masculinity with increasing bleakness eventually arrived at this story of a German platoon fighting a desperate losing battle for an insane dead cause in the Eastern Front of 1943. Grave, pained & almost abstract in its intensity, it's a limping masterpiece about war as a state of being. Everyone is at war against everyone & themselves. All reason is reason for violence. And God is the ultimate sadist.

How they made everything as drab and brown and olive green as humanly possible while still looking as good as it does is a mystery. It's a bit heavy-handed and simplistic with it's moralizing and making of Steiner into the 'Wehrmacht soldier who does his duty with courage and honor but doesn't believe in all that Nazi shit' character though.

Proof that Peckinpah wasn't the violence-loving, sexistic, homophobic, reactionary chauvinist he's often regarded as.

Coburn gives one of his finest performances as the hardened veteran Sgt. Steiner in this most anti-authoritarian of war films. It is not anti-war, for Peckinpah is ambivalent toward war, convinced of its chaos and cruelty but also certain that chaos and cruelty--though they may kill--make both courage and comradeship possible. (That Peckinpah's art thrived on chaos and cruelty further complicates matters). Fans of "The Wild Bunch" and "Pat Garret" will find much here to admire.

Peckinpah has been over this ground before, notably in Major Dundee and in his script for The Glory Guys; but in his main argument, as well as in his protracted action scenes, he seems here like someone who's trying to recall a tune, and can't quite get it. His good moments are as occasional as Coburn's German accent.

Tough, violent and thoughfull War film which does not have heroes or bad guys. Rare take on the german side of the army during WW2, but could be set to any army anywhere. Story of greed, vanity and the utterly pointlessness of war itself.

The editing is rapid and impulsive, capturing the turmoil and obfuscation of war. But on a note it can be distracting. It really does show the results of modern warfare. My only complaint is the actors. They are intrinsically discrepant as soldiers, as they are not German. A good film overall.

A very under rated and overlooked war film. Excellent battle scenes.

The editing is chaotic and portrays the confusion of battle well and, though the actors are for the most part portraying British soldiers in German uniforms, they convey the hopelessness of their situation well.

Disappointing. In terms of battle scenes, better-funded war movies have long since outdone this, and it doesn't seem all that special anymore. But what should have had staying power - the narrative content - is vague and confused and the dialogues are nothing to write home about.

Most of the cast forgets they're German halfway through

Peckinpah does a WW2 war film from the Germans' POV. Groovy.

Dirty, nihilistic war drama. Although the editing is sloppy, it comes out alright. -- I do like it when a movie knows when to be silent.

Liked the chaotic pace and framing of the movie it truly fits the subject. However I found the ending very unsatisfying and foolish.

"This is the logical extension of what Howard Hawks did with a lot of his movies." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/10/episode-73-long-fall-of-sam-peckinpah.html

Solid, if unspectacular, addition to the war-is-hell genre

You know, there's a lot of things that are iffy about this movie, but Sam Peckinpah successfully made me feel bad for Nazis. Fuck it, this gets a high score from me.

My late lamented father once crashed through the door, steaming drunk, to find me watching this film. "What's this s***"?" he bellowed, "turn it off". I was pretty irate with him at the time but having just re-watched it, I'm with you dad

I generally dislike war movies, but this is just cool. It's sort of like one of dirty and violent Pekinpah's westerns set in WWII. Loved the idea of making it from German point of view. Inglorious Basterds of the 70's.

This is about a German officer obsession with getting the Iron Cross. With his reputation at stake, he will stop at nothing to get it including lying and killing his own men. The best part of this movie is the rough and tumble role of James Coburn as the rouge German Corporal and his men. There are a few good war scenes. The movie was paced well, except for the ending which was rushed and shabbily shot.

Lots of pyrotechnics. Most of what makes this film good thematically is done better in Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Have to give them credit for making the heroes Germans (but not Nazis; most of the characters distance themselves from "the party").

Very good war film with a good performance by James Coburn. Like most of Peckinpah's films the action is all there using his slow motion action technique. I didn't love the ending, but it could have been worse (personally I would have loved to see Schell eat bullets).

Hypnotic masculine desperation. Carnal somehow anti-film. 'Filmed in Yugoslavia with money put up by a West German porn producer. '

Despite its many flaws, this is probably my favorite WWII movie.

Consistently inconsistent.

Good movie but like The WIld Bunch this is a bit dull and overlong but it does contain some of Director Sam peckinpah's trademark types of action which really helps spur things along a bit.

Shows war in a different light and constructs its themes well.

Nice

Nice, grizzled warfeature. I need to watch it again, it may actually be better than I remember it.

A good war film. The chaotic and gritty editing works most of the time, but can also be a distraction. I also hated how every single actor looked, sounded and acted British when they were supposed to be German. Great battle scenes, sets and action, and a few interesting parts really save this film.

Excellent war film.