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MEN ON THE FRONT LINES OF HELL.
From visionary director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Major Dundee) comes a devastating war epic starring Academy Award winner James Coburn (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) and Academy Award nominee James Mason (North By Northwest, Lolita).
Based on the acclaimed novel ‘The Wilting Flesh’ by Willi Heinrich, Cross Of Iron influenced Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), and on release was praised by the great Orson Welles.
Rolf Steiner is a German corporal and recipient of the Iron Cross who has grown disenchanted with Hitler’s war machine. When Captain Stransky assumes charge, the pair are thrown into immediate conflict.
Cross of Iron is the only war film directed by master filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. With the same tenacity and style he brought to such classics as The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and The Getaway, Peckinpah delivers a riveting and violent tale of men on the front lines of battle.
Set in 1943, this explosive epic centers on Corporal Steiner (James Coburn), an accomplished but war-weary combat veteran leading a group of German soldiers on the Russian front. Steiner`s authority comes under attack when Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) takes over command of his troops. A Prussian aristocrat, Stransky has one goal in mind: to win the coveted Iron Cross, Germany`s highest medal, at any cost. The two military aces soon face off in an intense and deadly battle of wills.
Highlighted by Peckinpah`s trademark balletic violence, ultra-realistic battle scenes, and a top cast that also includes David Warner and James Mason, Cross of Iron "blasts open the gates of hell" (Newsweek) and "affirms director Peckinpah`s prowess as an action filmmaker of graphic mayhem" (Variety). No less a film authority than Orson Welles called it the greatest antiwar movie since All Quiet on the Western Front.
James Mason