War is Peckinpah's survival hell.
Out on the Eastern Front 1943, battered by the war itself, a war they are losing, a platoon of German soldiers must also cope with a new aristocratic commander who deeply covets the Cross Of Iron, Germany's highest medal of honour.
Universally hated and panned by the critics upon release, Cross Of Iron now stands up as one of director Sam Peckinpah's finest works. On first glance it would seem to have been a strange film (genre) for ...
Brutal Germans vs. Russians WW2 flick with James Coburn and Maximilian Schell
As defeat looms on the Eastern Front, an awarded, but battle-worn German NCO (Coburn) vies with a newly-appointed captain, a Prussian aristocrat, who’s obsessed with obtaining the Iron Cross (Schell), even if he has to get it by fraud. James Mason and David Warner have peripheral roles.
Loosely based on the true story of Johann Schwerdfeger, “Cross of Iron” (1977) was helmed b...
The aristocratic "Capt. Stransky" (Maximilian Schell) is put in charge of an accomplished squadron of men that works well under its no-nonsense "Sgt. Steiner" (James Coburn), and into battle against the approaching Soviets they go. A bloody encounter ensues and upon their return, victorious to a point, to their trenches he encourages "Col. Brandt" (James Mason) to nominate him for an Iron Cross. He cites two officers as the witnesses to his bravery, but "Ste...