Cross of Iron (1977)

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

Julius J. Epstein (writer)
James Hamilton (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

28 January 1977 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

The Power of Peckinpah Has Never Been So Real...Or So Brilliant!

Plot:

In 1943, in the Russian front, the decorated leader Rolf Steiner is promoted to Sergeant after another successful mission...

Plot Keywords:

Russian | Commander | Sergeant | Soldier | Prussian

Awards:

1 win

Cast

James Coburn	...	Unteroffizier / Feldwebel Rolf Steiner
Maximilian Schell	...	Hauptmann Stransky
James Mason	...	Oberst Brandt
David Warner	...	Hauptmann Kiesel
Klaus Löwitsch	...	Unteroffizier Krüger
Vadim Glowna	...	Gefreiter Kern
Roger Fritz	...	Leutnant Triebig
Dieter Schidor	...	Anselm
Burkhard Driest	...	Schütze Maag
Fred Stillkrauth	...	Gefreiter Schnurrbart ('Private Mustache') (as Fred Stillkraut)
Michael Nowka	...	Dietz
Véronique Vendell	...	Marga
Arthur Brauss	...	Pg. Zoll
Senta Berger	...	Eva
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Rietty	...	German Officer (voice)
Igor Galo	...	Leutnant Meyer (uncredited)
Ivica Pajer	...	(uncredited)
Nedim Prohic	...	(uncredited)
Slavko Stimac	...	Michail (uncredited)
Vladan Zivkovic	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Sam Peckinpah

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Julius J. Epstein		writer (as Julius Epstein)
James Hamilton		writer
Willi Heinrich		novel "The Willing Flesh"
Walter Kelley		writer

Produced by
Wolf C. Hartwig	....	producer
Arlene Sellers	....	producer
Alex Winitsky	....	producer

Original Music by
Ernest Gold

Cinematography by
John Coquillon

Film Editing by
Michael Ellis
Murray Jordan
Tony Lawson

Production Design by
Brian Ackland-Snow
Ted Haworth

Art Direction by
Veljko Despotovic

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milos Antic	....	assistant director
Bert Batt	....	assistant director
Chris Carreras	....	second assistant director
Branislav Brana Srdic	....	assistant director
Mark Winitsky	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Harold Michelson	....	illustrator (uncredited)

Sound Department
David Hildyard	....	sound mixer
Rodney Holland	....	sound editor
Ray Merrin	....	dubbing mixer
Bill Rowe	....	dubbing mixer
Marton Jankov-Tomica	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Stunts
Peter Brayham	....	stunt coordinator
Milan Mitic	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Tony Breeze	....	assistant camera
Dennis Fraser	....	key grip
Branko Knez	....	assistant camera
Lars Looschen	....	still photographer
Herbert Smith	....	camera operator (as Herbie Smith)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Josef Satzinger	....	wardrobe supervisor (as Joseph Satzinger)

Editorial Department
George Akers	....	assistant editor
Pat Brennan	....	assistant editor
Ronny Reyer	....	assistant editor
Mark Winitsky	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Robin Clarke	....	music editor
Ernest Gold	....	conductor
Gerard Schurmann	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Peter Brayham	....	action arranger
Marilyn Clarke	....	production secretary
Stipe Gurdulic	....	technical services supervisor
Katherine Haber	....	production assistant to director
Major A.D. Schrodek	....	military consultant
Claus von Trotha	....	military consultant
Trudy von Trotha	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Ron Hosberle	....	acknowledgment: archive still photographs provided by
Tim Page	....	acknowledgment: archive still photographs provided by

Production Companies

• EMI Films
• Incorporated Television Company (ITC)
• Radiant Film GmbH
• Rapid Film
• Terra-Filmkunst

Distributors

• AVCO Embassy Pictures (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (1990) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Hen's Tooth Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Hen's Tooth Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Constantin Film (1977) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Sandrew Film & Teater (1977) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Audio Visual Enterprises (2006) (Greece) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• EMI Films
• Ekaterinburg Art Home Video (EAHV) (Russia) (VHS)
• Future Film (2001) (Finland) (DVD)
• Hen's Tooth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• IPA Asia Pacific (2009) (Thailand) (DVD)
• Lumiere Home Video
• Lumière (Brazil) (VHS)
• Thorn EMI Video Australia
• Warner Home Video

Other Companies

• Jadran Film  technical and production facilities

Also Known As:

Steiner - Das Eiserne Kreuz (West Germany)
Croix de fer (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Cruz de Ferro (Brazil) [pt]
Gvozdeni krst (Serbia) [sr]
Järnkorset (Sweden) [sv]
Jernkorset - og sergent Steiner (Denmark) [da]
La croce di ferro (Italy) [it]
La cruz de Hierro (Spain) [es]
O sidirous stavros (Greece) [el]
Rautaristi (Finland) [fi]
Seref madalyasi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Zelazny krzyz (Poland) [pl]
Zeljezni kriz (Croatia) [hr]

Runtime:

132 min | USA:119 min

Country:

UK | West Germany

Language:

English | Russian | French | German

Color:

Color (archive footage) | Black and White (archive footage) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 | New Zealand:R18 | UK:X (original rating) | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Australia:M (alternate rating) | Australia:R (original rating) | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Italy:T | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) | USA:R | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Obrov, Slovenia

Company:

EMI Films

Trivia:

This is the only ever war film that was directed by Sam Peckinpah.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During Sgt Steiner's hospitalization for wounds, he yells from the hospital balcony to a driver below, "Corporal, hold that truck!" However, the rank insignia on the driver's shoulder straps clearly indicates that he is a Senior Sergeant.

Quotes:

Captain Stransky: I will show you how a true Prussian officer fights.
Unteroffizier Krüger: Then I will show you, where the Iron Crosses grow.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Windtalkers (2002)

Soundtrack:

Hänschen klein

Peckinpah's intense, chilling masterpiece

Cross Of Iron is a masterpiece, one of the greatest anti-war, anti-authoritarian movies. It is one of director Sam Peckinpah's two finest works -- the other being The Wild Bunch. It deserves to be ranked in the same great war movie company as Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Full Metal Jacket, Paths Of Glory, Saving Private Ryan, Seven Samurai, and Zulu. Its setting on the World War Two Eastern Front, its gruesomeness, and its risk-taking viewpoint on ugly combat from the German side, have tended to count against fair assessment of its considerable artistic achievements. Viewers wary of the morality of its German viewpoint and its explicitness might find that it is fundamentally about humanity in general as a victim of war. The film reflects on the humanity which may be found on all sides of conflict--including Russian humanity portrayed variously as relentless, innocent, brave, and feminine.

Cross Of Iron opens with an intense, chilling montage of nursery rhyme, propaganda, combat newsreel and atrocity. By the end of the main title the montage subtly introduces the central characters, a German reconnaissance unit patrolling on the 1943 Russian front.

This 1977 film set rarely matched standards of cinematic mayhem. Cross Of Iron explosions don't look merely like pretty fireballs -- they blast fragments, rocks and debris, leaving no doubt as to why blood gouts from stumps of limbs and shrapnel-shredded entrails. Amid the screams of wounded and dying, as dust subsides from a mortar barrage, an artillery piece shorn of its crew by a near hit swings across a pocked battlefield, its traversing wheel spinning under its own momentum. The carnage occurs in the choreographed slow motion which Peckinpah made his signature.

James Coburn turns in one of his finest roles as Rolf Steiner, a highly decorated NCO who leads a German reconnaissance squad. Steiner fights less for his country than for his comrades. He has low opinions of class and rank distinctions. He is contemptuous both of Nazism and the aristocratic Prussian arrogance of his new superior officer, Captain Stransky, played with great style by Maximilian Schell. But there are hints of a dark side. Although Steiner is articulate and philosophical he has no answer when his love interest during an enforced break from battle, nurse Eva (Senta Berger), bitterly accuses him of being afraid of what he would be without the war.

Among the many fine supporting performances, James Mason plays the war-weary Colonel Brandt. He sees the immorality and futility of German war aims, but his sense of honour and duty about the prevailing struggle makes ceasing to fight unthinkable. David Warner plays Brandt's out-of-place and out-of-time adjutant, Captain Kiesel, who represents to his colonel the hope that a more enlightened postwar Germany might arise from the ashes of inevitable defeat.

War movie buffs irritated by the technical inaccuracies common in many examples of the genre will find some satisfaction in attention to authenticity of weaponry. A range of genuine WWII German and Russian small arms appears. The T 34/85 tanks are real, although the very picky might argue that this is at least six months premature, and that for the summer of '43 they should be T 34/76. Tactics at times deviate from the textbooks, but this is a drama, not a combat manual.

At the time of writing, this great film of a great American director lacks the high quality collectors' edition Zone 1 DVD release it deserves. The Warner Home Video Zone 2 release available through www.amazon.co.uk has the high quality video and sound which have been missing from the non-studio Zone 1 releases. This film is a must-have for war movie fans.