Cross of Iron
Men on the front lines of hell.
In 1943, German Captain Stransky (Schell) arrives to the Russian front, hoping to pick up an Iron Cross; he faces Sergeant Steiner (Coburn) who is there for anything but glory. Mr. Peckinpah’s only war movie is grim, bloody – and somewhat unfocused. The study of two very different men (and Germans for once, not Americans or British) benefits from good performances by Coburn and Schell, but is not explored in a thorough way and gives way to a number of Peckinpah-esque battle scenes in slow motion. Still, very interesting and gives an idea of frontline misery.
1977-Britain-West Germany. 130 min. Color. Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Cast: James Coburn (Rolf Steiner), Maximilian Schell (Stransky), James Mason (Brandt), David Warner, Senta Berger, Klaus Löwitsch.
► Katy Haber, assistant to Sam Peckinpah: “We cheated a lot. We were promised 30 German tanks, we were given 3. So the tanks had to do an extremely fast turnaround. We had to use the Yugoslav army as extras most of whom had never even seen a movie camera. If you look closely many of the soldiers are smiling as they run past the camera. One of the classic examples of cutting the budget was that [producer] Wolf Hartwig had made such a tight fisted deal with the Yugoslav production team, that when Sam called for the actors to be marked for camera the crew had no hammers and nails because they were not listed in the grip package. Somehow we made it.” (Interview on Geocities.com)
Trivia: Also available in a 120 min. version. Followed by Breakthrough (1978).
film movies sam peckinpah james coburn IMDb
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