Rating: 
Summary: Some trivia
Review: I'd just like to add a few comments to some details that came to my attention. First - As this movie was filmed in Slovenia (then a federal unit of SFR Yugoslavia) the tanks, trucks and soldiers of Yugoslav Peoples Army were used as extras (along with a few slovenian actors that played the germans). There is one particular scene that caught my ear: the german soldiers are hiding in the bushes near the road and trucks with "russian" soldiers are passing by. The soldiers are singing a Serbian partisan song ("Oj Kozaro" - "Oh Kozara") that has nothing to do with Russia and Russians but speaks of a certain place (Kozara) in Bosnia. The song has typically serbian oriental sound and can't pass as russian even if you don't know what they sing about.
Well the director apparently didn't bother about that too much so that part of the movie looks/sounds very silly and it puts me out of the story into reality again. Along with the fact that one becomes sick of the shallow generalizations that appear in mostly american but also european movies, either about mexican (or other latin american) cultures or russian and other slavic cultures. They don't fit in serious movies and don't fit serious moviemakers.Oh and another thing. The russian kid that they capture at the begining of the movie is played by Slavko Stimac - a serbian actor that played in numerous yugoslav (mainly serbian) films - also one of the leading roles in Emir Kusturica's Underground that won the golden palm in cannes.
Rating: 
Summary: A mediocre, not entirely unpleasant experience.
Review: Cross of Iron is noted for being Sam Peckinpah's only war film. As expected, the film is packed to the brim with action (as a matter of fact, it's Peckinpah's most action-packed movie to date), delivering one well-executed battle scene after another until it reaches its ambiguous conclusion. Unfortunately, aside from all the mayhem, the movie offers nothing else. There's really not much of a plot here. The late James Coburn stars as Steiner, a coporal turned sergeant who incurs the wrath of Captain Stransky (Maximillian Schell) when he refuses to give Stransky credit for a counterattack he did not organize. This rivalry grows deadly, when Stransky eventually decides to leave Stransky and his men behind Russian territory...
Rating: 
Summary: Simply a great war movie
Review: This is one of the most realisitcally put together war movies ever made about World War II. It is very contraversial because it was done from the point of view of German soldiers, but only a fool would see this thing as pro German or pro nazi. The poltiics of the movie are simply, if anything, anti war and anti authoritarian.
But what many reviewers miss, is the biting realism of this movie. The tanks (real T-34's) the fighting, the explosions, the confusion are all chillingly real, and frightening. You really get a sense of fear and danger from this which you just don't from Hollywood.
But perhaps what is most interesting, is the personal crisis of individuals caught in harms way, which is so often the focus of Pekinhpahs better movies, from "Straw Dog's" to "Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia". This film focuses on the way different people react to emergencies, horror, and facing the ongoing threat of imminent death. If you have ever been in a life or death situation you will recognize the way some people think fast on their feet, some people rise to the occasions, some falter and hesitate, others drift into fantasy or insanity.... This is where it is most interesting psychologically.
I would also add, that this is one of the few movies I have ever seen on WW II in which the Soviet Army is portrayed as the immenssely powerful war machine which it was in the second half of the war.
Other than a general (small l) libertarian mood of distaste for all forms of authority, forget the politics. This movie has nothing to do with being for or aginst certain groups of people, or anything like that. It is simply a chillingly realistic war film, and as such, something many people more used to standard Hollywood fare just don't get. If you like war films but are disapointed by a lack of realism, if you liked Paths of Glory, Das Boot, When Trumpets Fade, (the original) Alls Quiet on the Western Front, Hamburger Hill, Apocolypse Now, The Longest Day, The Last Valley, and the Samurai -War films of Akira Kirosawa (such as Ron), to name a few, you will love this one. If you prefer bubblegum fantasy like "pearl harbor" and "U571" and the war films of John Wayne, or if you put some kind of political litmus test on all movies on who they can portray and who they can't, you may not...
Rating:
Summary: The REAL German Wehrmact
Review: Wow! This movie is amazing.
There is no doubt that "Cross of Iron" changed the themes and imagery of the War film genre forever after release in 1977.
James Coburn as Steiner is one bad [guy]!
So this is the type of German soldier that the Allies were really fighting during WWII?! Geez, after watching all the previous ...WWII flicks such as "To Hell and Back", I'd almost come to believe that our European enemy in that War was too stupid to win any squad or platoon level firefights against us!
If CoI wasn't so heavily edited (with precious footage vanished forever on the cutting room floor), then I would give this movie a 5 star rating.
I like this movie so much that I bought a used copy of the novel (long since out-of-print)on ebay.
The movie does not closely follow the novel, but it is ground-breaking enough to be considered a classic in its own right.
Rating: 
Summary: good film 2 unclog ur toilet w/ (don'tevenknowwhatthatmeans)
Review: This is an insanely busted film that shows why "Wild Bunch" was such a fluke. Feverbrained Peckinpah worshippers will think this is "great filmmaking", while we -- you, the imagined other, and I, the realist -- know this to be totally wack.I'm giving this one star, not because I can't give it zero stars, but because it DOES deserve at least something for the painfully slow-motion homosexual "shoot-'em-up,-Sam!" vengeance scene; James Mason as a Nazi -- A NAZI!; the HILARIOUS odd/lofi-battle-explosion-cut-bizarrely-to-the-equally-bizarre-hospital scene & Coburn's subsequent brain injury vignette WHERE HE CAN'T SEE PEOPLE (?) and he ganks the booze w/ impunity; the little Russian urchin gettin' SHOT up (again, in slo-mo); and Coburn's bizarre end-laugh & the surreal-slash-ultrabusted credits.This is total slop, &, as war movies, go, not a winner. Please don't fool yourself into thinking this is good in any way. If you consider yourself a productive member of the human race, please find some way to destroy your local library's &/or movie rental store's cop(y/ies) of this.If you buy this, you are committing hubris & will be ignobly killed off by the good film gods.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely terrible
Review: This without doubt is one of the worst films i have ever seen.
Unfortunately the book on which it is based is excellent, the cast in theory should be excellent, and james coburn would seem to be the right man for the job.
unfortunately the film is sloppily made and the action scenes would have embaressed the makers of the A team.
i actually couldnt even bring myself to watch to the end, maybe better if you havent read the book, as it is a direct but poor translation, and maybe the 70s just wasnt the time to try making it.
not worthy of an addition to your DVD collection.
Rating:
Summary: Peckinpaugh classic holds up well
Review: When first released in the 70s this movie set a standard for graphic violence. Now, it seems rather tame. The movie has a solid story though a bit stereotypical. Still Coburn and Snell do a good job in their roles. Mason and the other supporting actors are also good. The combat scenes use actual Soviet and German equipment and that adds a gritty sense of reality to the movie. Some of the battle scenes are filmed with Peckinpaugh's trademark slow motion. Though often overused, it works in this film. All in all a good soldiers view of war.
Rating:
Summary: "I'll show you how a Prussian Officer fights!"
Review: If you want to know how that particular Prussian Officer fights then you should see this film. I found the Cross of Iron to be an exceptional film in spite of the poor visual quality of the DVD compared to digitally remastered movies. I do agree with those who say that this is probably one of the best war movies of all time. What I found most enjoyable about the film was that it avoided most of the Hollywood conventions that are expected in a war film. No sappy odes to patriotism, no sentimental scenes or inappropriate romance. Cross of Iron dealt with war in an honest, brutal and nasty way. This movie bests the overrated Saving Private Ryan (even with the 20 minutes at Omaha Beach.) Someone pointed out that this movie perpetuates the myth of the "good" Werchmacht and "bad" SS. They're right and wrong. They right by saying the Werchmacht were involved in a lot of massacres. But they're wrong because not every German soldier (even SS) was a Non-Aryan hating, raper of women and eater of children. I think this movie was just trying to show a group of soldiers who are just trying to survive the war. It isn't much different than All Quiet on the Western Front but without the pacifistic tendencies. In some ways this movie should be considered the German version of Once an Eagle.
Rating:
Summary: Cross of Iron
Review: An excellant war movie. As an ex-soldier, I earnestly recommend it. It is closer to the truth than one might believe.
Rating:
Summary: The Film is Great but the DVD is absolutely HORRIBLE
Review: The film is a gritty "no holds barred" look at the Russian Front in WWII. I would recommend the VHS version to all WWII movie fans. HOWEVER, the DVD is not widescreen and looks to be dubbed from a worn out copy of the VHS version. I bought this thinking that the DVD would be better quality, but my ancient VHS copy with the original cover art is still better even though there are a few worn spots on it...
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