Search - Cross of Iron (Widescreen Special Edition) on DVD

Peckinpah's first and only war film is savagely beautiful

A. Sandoc | San Pablo, California United States | 03/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"1976 saw Sam Peckinpah release the only war film he ever made in the form of Cross of Iron. Peckinpah hadn't made any relevant films as the 1970's rolled around as his bouts with alcoholism and reputation as an impossible director to work with cut into the amount and type of projects he was allowed to make. But with Cross of Iron, we get to see once again what made Sam Peckinpah such a maverick director and the first true auteur of cinematic violence. Another thing that was surprising was the fact that despite all the westerns and other violent-laden films in his library of work, Peckinpah never made a war film. One would've thought that Peckinpah's penchant for creating innovative, almost balletic mayhem on the screen would've been a perfect marriage with a war film script. Cross of Iron might be his first and only war film, but Peckinpah brings to it his very own style that would help influence future directors such as John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, and Luc Besson.



A rarity amongst WW2-based films, Cross of Iron is told through the eyes of the Nazis as they try to survive their retreat from the Eastern Front of 1943. Rarely do Germans play the protagonists in WW2 films and Cross of Iron helps show that the German soldiers, beat-up and shellshocked, were not so dissimilar from the typical American and British soldier. All they want is to live another day as they try desperately to retreat from Russia. This theme is seen most evidently in the character of Sergeant Steiner (well-played by James Coburn who seemed born to play the tough, hardened veteran) who stoically, almost resignedly, lives day to day through the crucible of perpetual battle that was the Eastern Front. Steiner is well-loved and respected by the men he leads for they know that he would try to find a way to save them all. The fact that Steiner also has an antiauthoritarian streak in him makes him popular with the grunts. Finally, having won his own Iron Cross (German military's award for bravery above and beyond) from earlier engagements earns him the respect of his men. On the polar opposite is their new commanding officer, the high-blood Prussian Colonel Stransky (played with an aloofness that only Maximillian Schell seems perfect for) whose aristocratic upbringing ill-prepares him for the horrors of combat. But despite his lack of charisma with the men and for not being anything like Steiner, Stransky's still wants an Iron Cross of his own even if he has to resort to outright deception to get one. Caught between these two dynamic characters are the soldiers who bleed and die during these pair's struggles against each other.



It's these battle scenes where Peckinpah makes his stylistic mark. Using the same techniques he relied on for his seminal and best work, The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah shows the horror and brutality of war (especially that of the Eastern Front). Through slow-motion scenes of bullets ripping into flesh and bodies being blown into the air as explosions rip the earth. The effects work in Cross of Iron is abit more advanced than in The Wild Bunch and Peckinpah might've used it abit too much of it for the film. It sometimes felt as if ever quiet moment was broken up by a sequence of battle and violence just so Peckinpah could showcase his talent for creating beautiful violence. Maybe he did it on purpose to show the unending cycle of horror inflicts on even the toughest of men, but after awhile even I became somewhat numb to the violence on the screen.



Despite that little quibble, I still think that Cross of Iron shows Peckinpah at his best late in his tumultous career. Despite a string of forgettable films through most of the 1970's, Sam Peckinpah gets one more chance to work his cinematic magic in 1976. After Cross of Iron, Peckinpah's descent into obscurity continues right up until his death years later. While Cross of Iron might not be on the same level as The Wild Bunch and The Killer Elite, it does have in its execution everything that made Peckinpah great."