Any good war movie can only be an anti-war movie. This axiom is also confirmed by ‘Cross of Iron‘, the 1977 film by Sam Peckinpah, the only war film by the American director who was a master of western films and their derivatives, one of the two films he made in Europe from throughout his career. Based on a novel by a German writer, ‘Cross of Iron‘ brings to the screen an episode that takes place in 1943 on the Eastern Front, lived and narrated from the perspective of a unit of German soldiers. Hollywood influences are not absent, but the film manages to create a gallery of truthful portraits of ordinary soldiers, younger or older men, each with his own destiny and luck in the hell of the war. It is a film that has been appreciated by great directors from Orson Welles to Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch it.
Corporal (and then Sergeant) Rolf Steiner commands a platoon of soldiers at a time when the fate of the war is increasingly decided against Germany after the defeat at Stalingrad. The assaults of the Soviet army are getting more and more furious and the moment of withdrawal of the German army from occupied Crimea is approaching. The regimental commander, Colonel Brandt, is intelligent and lucid enough to understand the situation, but Steiner’s direct command is Captain Stransky, who has volunteered for the Eastern Front after serving in France. None of the soldiers are staunch Nazis, each for his own reasons. Stransky’s ambitions are personal, his Prussian noble family waiting for him to return with the Iron Cross. Steiner already earned the decoration, but he doesn’t give a damn about it. He’s a good soldier but he’s a human being first, and his goal is to make as many of his soldiers survive the inferno as possible. Stransky and Steiner will clash when the captain takes credit for a bravery of another officer, killed in action, and Steiner refuses to confirm his report. In order to take revenge and eliminate his opponent, Stransky is capable to send to danger the entire platoon.
Anti-war literature and film have a tradition in Germany, the most famous example being Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and the films inspired by this novel. Without reaching their depth and clarity, ‘Cross of Iron‘ also presents a nuanced and humanized picture of German soldiers in the trenches of World War II. The film is a co-production of studios in England and Germany. For audiences outside Germany such an approach was quite new in 1977, and this is probably one of the reasons why it was originally much better received in Germany than in other countries. The cinematic qualities are undeniable. The opening and ending credits are impressive and put the events and characters depicted in the film into the context of the horrors and war crimes committed by the Nazis. The war scenes are very well directed and the depictions of violence (Peckinpah‘s trademark) are impressive. I didn’t mind the repetitions, I think they effectively emphasize the hell in the middle of which the conflict between the characters takes place. However, the Hollywood influence is also felt, precisely in this film made while Sam Peckinpah was running away from Hollywood. It’s one of James Coburn‘s best roles, but he also acts in some scenes more like the cowboys he plays in other movies. James Mason also looks more like an English gentleman or American officer than a Wermacht soldier. On the other hand, Maximilian Schell creates here one of the best ‘bad German’ roles he has played in international films. ‘Cross of Iron‘ is a movie with and about men, and the two episodes with female presences don’t fit very well. The idyll with the hospital nurse (an obviously under-cast Senta Berger) is too sketchy, and the episode with the platoon of Soviet women seemed too voyeuristic. The strongest part of the film remains the gallery of soldiers, each with its own personality, with actors excellently chosen for small but well-craft roles. Almost 50 years after its creation, ‘Cross of Iron‘ is an interesting film production even if it has rusted in some places.