Cross of Iron

This article is about the 1977 film. For other uses, see Cross of Iron (disambiguation).

Cross of Iron
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sam Peckinpah
Produced by	Wolf C. Hartwig Arlene Sellers Alex Winitsky
Screenplay by	Julius J. Epstein James Hamilton Walter Kelley
Based on	The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich
Starring	James Coburn Maximilian Schell James Mason David Warner Senta Berger
Music by	Ernest Gold Peter Thomas
Cinematography	John Coquillon
Editing by	Michael Ellis Murray Jordan Tony Lawson
Studio	EMI Films ITC Entertainment
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	West Germany: January 28, 1977 United States: May 11, 1977
Running time	133 minutes
Country	United Kingdom West Germany
Language	English Russian French
Budget	$6,000,000

Cross of Iron is a 1977 war film directed by Sam Peckinpah, featuring James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason and David Warner. The film is set on the Eastern Front in World War II during the Soviet's Caucasus operations that forced the Wehrmacht to retreat from the Taman Peninsula on the Black Sea 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 was based on the 1956 novel The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich, a fictional work that may be loosely based on the true story of Johann Schwerdfeger, a highly-decorated World War II Wehrmacht Oberfeldwebel.^[1]

Exteriors were shot on location in Yugoslavia. They are notable for using a significant number of authentic tanks and equipment.

Plot

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.

Veteran, highly-respected Corporal Steiner (James Coburn) leads his Wehrmacht infantry platoon on a reconnaissance patrol, during which his men capture a young Russian boy-soldier (Slavko Štimac). When Stransky meets Steiner for the first time, he orders Steiner to shoot the prisoner in strict observance of a standing order. When Steiner refuses, Stransky prepares to shoot the boy himself, but at the last moment, Private Reisenauer (Fred Stillkrauth) saves the boy by volunteering to do it. Later, Stransky informs Steiner that he has been promoted to sergeant, and is puzzled by Steiner's nonchalant response. Stransky also discovers that his adjutant, Lieutenant Triebig (Roger Fritz), is a closet homosexual when 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. While Stransky cowers in his bunker, the respected Lieutenant Meyer (Igor Galo), the leader of Steiner's platoon, 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 a 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 led the successful counterattack, not Meyer, 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 pass the order to Steiner's platoon, abandoning them. Making their way back through now enemy territory, the men stumble across and 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 for his own private pleasure, only to have her bite off his genitals. He kills her. Meanwhile, the young soldier 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 only their uniforms to use as a disguise.

The platoon eventually reaches the German positions, sending a message ahead by radio so they can cross no man's land safely. Stransky suggests to Triebig that Steiner and his men could be 'mistaken' for Russians. Triebig orders his men to shoot down the incoming Germans; only Steiner and two others survive. After Triebig confesses, 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 hopeless counterattack.

Steiner confronts Stransky and contemplates shooting him, but instead contemptuously arms him and turns his back. Stung, Stransky accepts Steiner's challenge to earn his medal, and they head off to the fighting. The film closes with Stransky trying to figure out how to reload his MP40, while being shot at by an adolescent Russian soldier. When he begs Steiner for help, Steiner begins to laugh. The laughing continues through the credits and pictures of civilian victims from World War II and later conflicts.

Cast

• James Coburn as Sergeant Rolf Steiner
• Maximilian Schell as Captain Stransky
• James Mason as Colonel Brandt
• David Warner as Captain Kiesel
• Klaus Löwitsch as Corporal Krüger
• Vadim Glowna as Private Kern
• Roger Fritz as Lieutenant Triebig
• Dieter Schidor as Private Anselm
• Burkhard Driest as Private Maag
• Fred Stillkrauth as Private Reisenauer ("Schnurrbart")
• Michael Nowka as Private Dietz
• Véronique Vendell as Marga
• Arthur Brauss as Private Zoll
• Senta Berger as Eva
• Igor Galo as Lieutenant Meyer
• Slavko Štimac as Russian Boy

Reception

Cross of Iron, Sam Peckinpah's only war film, "is a forgotten masterpiece that has never really managed to overcome its troubled and expensive production."^[2] While Peckinpah had directed "many films about battles between groups of armed men...this was the first in which both sides wear uniforms."^[3]

In the opinion of Filmcritic.com, "Peckinpah indulges in endless combat scenes (this was his only war movie), which try the patience of viewers who came for the real story."^[4] Critical opinion has since improved and Cross of Iron was voted the greatest film ever made by Cinemag and is generally seen as one of the last remnants of Peckinpah's once great talent. Fans of the film include Quentin Tarantino, who used it as inspiration for Inglourious Basterds

According to Variety magazine, "the production [from the book by Willi Heinrich] is well but conventionally cast, technically impressive, but ultimately violence-fixated.^[5]

Orson Welles, when he saw the film, cabled Peckinpah, praising the latter's film as 'the best war film he had seen about the ordinary enlisted man since All Quiet on the Western Front'.^[6] Ian Johnston, reviewing the film's release on Blu-ray in June 2011, praised the film, saying Today, Cross of Iron bares all the hallmarks of a real classic, which ranks with Peckinpah's finest work. As a poignant reminder of the sheer brutal obscenity of war, it has rarely been equalled.^[7]

The film did poorly at the box-office in the US and received mixed reviews, its bleak, anti-war tone unable to get noticed amidst the hype of the release of the mega-popular Star Wars in the same year. However, it performed very well in Germany, earning the best box-office takings of any film released there since The Sound of Music and audiences & critics across Europe responded well to the film.^[8]

Production

Cross of Iron was a joint Anglo-German production between EMI Films and ITC Entertainment. London and Rapid Films GmbH, Munich.^[9]

The film is noted for featuring realistic gear and equipment such as Soviet T-34/85 tanks (which featured in the Yugoslav army arsenal and were kept especially for cinematographical purposes) and German weapons such as MG 42s and MP40s. But according to Coburn, although the Yugoslav government promised that all the military equipment would be ready for the start of filming, considerable delays occurred when half the equipment was missing just as the production was about to begin.

The film was shot on location in the former Yugoslavia. Scenes were filmed around Obrov in Slovenia and Zagreb and Savudrija in Croatia. Interiors were completed at Pinewood Studios in London.

Sequel

The film Breakthrough, which was mostly financed by West German producers, was released in 1979. It was made by American director Andrew McLaglen who, like Peckinpah, was known for Westerns. Several changes were made to the sequel, for instance the action was moved from Russia to the Western Front and Richard Burton replaced Coburn as Sgt Steiner. Breakthrough was panned by critics, who criticised it for a confusing plot, poor dialogue and undistinguished acting.^[10] The film involved Steiner saving the life of an American officer (Robert Mitchum) and a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler.^[11]

Re-release

To coincide with it's release on Blu-ray, a new print of Cross of Iron was screened at selected cinemas in Britain in June 2011.^[12]

References

1. ^ deutschesoldaten.com article
2. ^ Mayo, Mike. War Movies: Classic Conflict on Film (Visible Ink Press, 1999) ISBN 1578590892, p. 222
3. ^ Hyams, Jay. War Movies (W.H. Smith Publishers, Inc., 1984) ISBN 083179304X p.192
4. ^ Christopher Null (February 25, 2003). "Cross of Iron". Filmcritic.com. http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1977/cross-of-iron/. 
5. ^ "Cross of Iron". Variety. January 1, 1977. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117790154.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0. Retrieved December 26, 2006. 
6. ^ http://louderthanwar.com/blogs/6286
7. ^ http://louderthanwar.com/blogs/6286
8. ^ http://louderthanwar.com/blogs/6286
9. ^ "imdb.com article". imdb.com article. http://imdb.com/title/tt0074695/maindetails. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
10. ^ "Review:''BREAKTHROUGH'' (1979) aka ''SERGEANT STEINER''". Angelfire.com. http://www.angelfire.com/film/eurowar/breakthrough.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
11. ^ Hyam, Ibid, p.193
12. ^ http://louderthanwar.com/blogs/6286

External links

• Cross of Iron at the Internet Movie Database
• Cross of Iron at AllRovi
• Lyrics to "Hänschen klein" (in German)