Too much of everything

Just perfect...

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Film Review: "Cross of Iron" (1977)From the director Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984), responsible for the outstanding western "The Wild Bunch" from the year 1969, comes this World War II movie told from the perspective of German officer Rolf Steiner, portrayed by remorseless striving perfectly-cast actor James Coburn (1928-2002), leading his platoon through the ambushing Eastern borderlands. Actor Maximilian Schell (1930-2014) as his commanding supervisor, as well as match-making cast Hauptmann Stransky, sitting in the bunker near the radio in order to direct the hopelessly front-running at the Russian frontier of year season 1942/1943. The screenplay based on a war-digesting book by Willie Heinrich (1920-2005) has been in creative hands with director Sam Peckinpah, who indulges on his trademark directions in-production with slow-motion action shots of blood and dirt-sprinkling proportions and in post-production daring editorial shot combinations that "Cross of Iron" stands out in the crowd of War movies, again a picture to be discovered with younger audiences to comprehend horrors of war and the consequences every man has to encounter in the aftermath; precisely captured by the director with the eventually consolidated main characters in battle stating final words of forfeited fighting with Stransky saying "I will show you how Prussian officers fight" in which Steiner coolly replies "And I will show you where the Iron Crosses grow."© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Peckinpah's WW2 masterpiece.1943. Stalingrad has fallen and The German Army is being pushed back on the Eastern Front. Nowhere is the situation more dire for the Germans than at the Kuban Bridgehead / Taman Peninsula. Here we see the war through the eyes of a platoon of German reconnaissance troops. Their senior NCO is a grizzled, resourceful veteran, Corporal Steiner (played by James Coburn). He is unconventional, insubordinate and irreverent, but the regiment's commander, Colonel Brandt (James Mason), tolerates this as he gets results. However, his company has a new commanding officer, the inexperienced Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell). Stransky is a by-the-book, authoritarian aristocrat and him and Steiner are bound to clash. Moreover, Stransky is obsessed with winning the Iron Cross.Directed by Sam Peckingpah (Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), this is Peckinpah's Magnum Opus. Very gritty and realistic portrayal of war. Shows perfectly the chaos, terror and desperation of battle - the perfect maelstrom of war. Through the characters we see the different soldiers you meet in a war - the tough, resourceful ones, the political operators, the fanatics, the scared recruits, the paranoid ones, the realists. This gives a great insight into how different people, even on the same side and in the same unit, can view the same war. These characters also provide a commentary on war - it's pointlessness, hopelessness and wastefulness. Peckinpah rams this home with some very tense and graphic battle scenes. His camera work and editing are particularly impressive, conveying well the life-or-death struggle that is being carried out, as well as the randomness of injury and death.Like most Peckinpah movies its a bit rough around the edges. There are some continuity gaps, military inaccuracies and a few plot points aren't entirely sound. However, none of these are major and, if anything, the looseness of the production contributes positively to the movie. The lack of polish adds to the grittiness. Good work by the entire cast. James Coburn is solid as Steiner, as is James Mason as Colonel Brandt. Good support by David Warner as the war-weary, cynical Captain Kiesel. Pick of the bunch is Maximilian Schell who is perfect as the cold, scheming, manipulative Captain Stransky.A classic and one of the greatest war movies ever made.

WHEN HAS SAM Peckinpah EVER DIRECTED A BAD MOVIE...OR, EVEN ONE THAT WAS 'JUST O.K?' "NEVER!" This is probably the best World War II movie ever made! As far as effects and story go, this movie even gives "Saving Private Ryan;" "A Bridge Too Far;" and, "The Longest Day" a run...and, they are all "PERFECT" movies, too! This is just a terrific war movie with a lot of action; but, it's also a great and deep story of military corruption, lying, manipulation, and, of how the rich and privileged so easily take advantage of the poor and unprivileged and bully them because they're vulnerable.Although this movie is of and about the German Army in Russia during World War II...in many ways it's about "all armies;" and, about many corporations and businesses that have nothing to do with war at all.It's really about human nature and about who can get what from whom; and, whom can get what from who...by throwing their weight around.THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE! :)

I had been aware of this film but it wasn't until recently I purchased it on DVD. Others have noted its similarities in some respects to Stalingrad, but I feel CoI is a superior film. The acting is sharper and we are presented with a range of characters all with different views and attitudes to why they are on the Eastern front, and what they hope to achieve be it glory, sanity or to just survive and get the hell out of there. All of the lead and support actors are very good in their roles, and it is possible this is Coburns best. The villain of the piece here of course is the vain glorious Prussian aristocrat who seeks the Iron Cross for purely personal yet family reasons. He needs to return home as the hero and patriarch and is quite happy to betray the ordinary soldier to obtain his lofty aims. Yet he hates the Nazi's and the 'little corporal and failed painter'. He clearly sees that regardless of how the war ends it will be his class that will eventually rule Germany. The Iron Cross will just be a trophy of his superiority. A good bookend to Stalingrad but IMHO a somewhat more satisfying film.