Am not quite sure how I could have not even heard of Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron, but I watched it recently, and it’s a very powerful film indeed. Set in 1943, in the face of huge Russian opposition, the film tracks the increasing bitterness between hard-bitten Sergeant Steiner (James Coburn) and Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) a Prussian aristocrat.
Steiner won an Iron Cross saving Colonel Brandt’s life, thereby winning the loyalty of Brandt (James Mason). Still, his distaste both for war and his soldier’s uniform causes difficulty with even the most supportive officer, and especially with Stransky, newly-arrived from a posting in the South of France, and desperately seeking an Iron Cross for himself.
Steiner repeatedly chooses loyalty to his unit, and leads them in the face of great odds, overwhelming bombardment, and openly-hostile superiors.
It’s an amazing, gripping, disturbing film.
