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James Mason and James Coburn star in this gripping account of a doomed German platoon facing annihilation at Russian hands during 1943, who discover that their instinct for war is greater than their instinct for survival. While the enemy attack, two officers fuel the conflict with their hell-bent lust for personal vindictiveness and glory. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, ‘Cross Of Iron’ is his only ever war film and, in true Peckinpah style, proves to be disturbing yet thoroughly compelling.
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Cross of Iron (1977)
133 min
It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.