Cross of Iron

James Coburn as the 'undemonstratively courageous' Sgt Steiner in Cross of Iron. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

In this Anglo-German film of Willi Heinrich's 1956 novel, life is very noisy on the Eastern Front in 1943 as ex-US Marine Sam Peckinpah turns a savage but compassionate eye upon a demoralised German unit fighting a rearguard action against the Russians by the Black Sea. In particular, he examines the conflict between an ambitious, cowardly Prussian aristocrat, Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), and the undemonstratively courageous Sergeant Steiner (James Coburn). James Mason as the commanding officer and David Warner as his adjutant are both first rate, as are Coburn and Schell. This was Peckinpah's last important work and his only war movie. Robert Aldrich, whose war movies include Attack and The Dirty Dozen, was greatly admired by Peckinpah. Aldrich had wanted to film Heinrich's novel ever since it was published and except for Peckinpah's characteristic use of slow motion, this classic movie (only available on Blu-ray) is fairly close to the way he'd have made it.

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