Review: Cross of Iron

Set during WWII from the German perspective, James Coburn plays a cynical, battle-hardened sergeant who butts heads with his new commanding officer, glory-seeking but battle-green aristocratic Prussian officer Maximilian Schell. Whilst Coburn and his men are putting their lives on the line (and the men have much respect for Coburn, I might add), Schell is cowering in his bunker and blackmailing a closeted homosexual lieutenant to vouch for his (clearly bogus) nomination for an Iron Cross. James Mason plays a German colonel, David Warner is a German captain.

 

Although not terribly well-regarded at the time, this 1977 Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch”, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, “Straw Dogs”, “Convoy”) anti-war WWII film has garnered a good reputation over the years. Both of its time and ahead of its time, I think audiences will be more accepting of an anti-war film that also happens to be very violent. I’ve always said that if you present war properly on screen you’ll naturally end up having made an anti-war film, and that’s pretty much how it goes here. I mean, this is a film where Peckinpah has a kid killed on screen for crying out loud. The slow-mo finally is undoubtedly indicative of an anti-war mindset too, albeit a psychologically complex anti-war mindset perhaps. The war/action scenes are some of the best you’ll ever see, and it’s a genuinely disturbing, psychological view of the horrors of war. How psychological? Coburn’s character seems to hate war yet seems unable to stop himself from fighting in it, even after injury (temporarily) takes him out of commission. He’s also undoubtedly a brave soldier (Peckinpah seems to be a little like the Coburn character, pro-soldier, anti-war, anti-superior officer).

 

This is complete and utter madness here and I can’t imagine how the hell soldiers were meant to see a damn thing in all that fog/smoke and mud. It’s an immediately impressive-looking film, in a foggy, muddy, bloody kind of way. Peckinpah and cinematographer John Coquillon (“Witchfinder General”, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, “Straw Dogs”, “The Changeling”) do an excellent job here visually. Peckinpah paints war as extremely violent, undoubtedly macho, largely confusing, absolutely grim, and mostly populated by insane people. Yet he does so with a fairly healthy dose of his gory, slow-mo Peckinpah style. It’s a fairly commonplace depiction of war now perhaps, but this was far more fresh in the 70s, and it still has the unique perspective of being focussed solely on German characters (Albeit played by an international cast where Austrian-Swiss Maximilian Schell comes closest to actually being German).

 

German or not, James Coburn is perfect as the kind of macho soldier born to piss off the higher-ups. It’s one of his best-ever performances. Seemingly having a hatred for authority figures, Coburn and the self-serving Maximilian Schell (also terrific) take an immediate disliking to one another. Coburn’s a brave soldier but somewhat modest about it. He hates officers – even the more scrupulous ones like the one James Mason plays. You see, he hates the uniform and what it represents. Brave soldier or not, he does not enjoy war. Yet, as I say he continues to fight in it nonetheless. It’s a fascinating character especially when compared/contrasted with Schell’s pompous Captain. Schell plays the kind of aristocratic officer who is the polar opposite of the hero soldier-type that Coburn plays. Schell wants the Iron Cross for himself, but has little battle experience and frankly little constitution for the kind of heroism needed to earn the Iron Cross. For two people fighting a war on the same side, they’re a match made in hell. The only thing they seem to even halfway share is a distaste for Nazism.

 

If the film has any flaw, it’s that I think the job could’ve been even more effectively done at under two hours. I guess Peckinpah was gonna Peckinpah, and we should be glad that we got the film at all. It’s a very fine film from a director said by many to be starting to lose his talent to the demon drink and out-of-control hell-raising around this time.

 

Although it’s perhaps not a great film, this bloody WWII film is an underrated one in some quarters. It’s a really interesting, well-acted, and frankly terrifying view of war, a WWII film depicted from the German POV for a change. Based on a Willi Heinrich novel, the screenplay is by veteran screenwriter Julius J. Epstein (“Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Casablanca”), Walter Kelley (his only writing credit, he acted in several Peckinpah films), and James Hamilton (his sole IMDb credit).

 

Rating: B