Cross of Iron

A quote from Bertolt Brecht ends this bitter and angry war film by Sam Peckinpah: "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." Peckinpah's intense and belligerently non-commercial work, (based on the ...more

Sam Peckinpah's only war film has intensity and action to spare, but sadly lacks the consistency and scope of classics like The Wild Bunch. The best feature of Cross of Iron is its stellar cast. James Coburn keeps Steiner from becoming a macho cliché by investing him with a tormented soulfulness, Maximillian Schell hits the right blend of snobbery and sociopathic deviousness as the autocratic Stransky and David Warner and James Mason give the film a touch of humanity with their work as a pair of ...more