Cross of Iron
One of the best anti-war films ever done was ignored upon its initial 1978
American release, in part due to the notoriety of it's director, the legendary
Sam Peckinpah. Cross of Iron focuses on the trials
of German soldiers at the Russian Front during World War II. Corporal (later
Sgt.) Steiner (James Coburn) is more interested in keeping his men alive while
his ambitious superior (Maximilian Schell) dreams only of personal glory and
winning the coveted Iron Cross. Meanwhile the German High Command (personified
by James Mason and David Warner, among others) prefer to run things
bureaucratically all the while ignoring their soldiers' ultimately doomed
plight. Despite an obvious low budget, this is a well crafted and edited flick,
with the typical Peckinpah spotlight on brutal, uncompromising and unglamorized
violence. Check it out.
-Ed
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