![]() Tanks drive over half-submerged bodies in the mud, a child caught in the crossfire is riddled with bullets, wounded men display their butchered limbs at a military hospital and soldiers are blown into the sky. Who better to depict the inglorious nature of warfare than Peckinpah? His cinema has always been both enraptured and appalled by violence, and Cross of Iron finds him in his element. The grizzled Sergeant has seen enough to know that there's no glory to be had on the battlefield. Stransky (Maximilian Schell) who has requested a transfer to the front in the hope of winning an Iron Cross for valour, but his dreams of glory don't sit well with Steiner. One of those superiors is the aristocratic Capt. Steiner (James Coburn, at his most forceful and charismatic), a tough, independent-minded soldier beloved by his men and tolerated by his occasionally exasperated superiors. ![]() The director's only forays into the field of warfare were his compromised 1965 Civil War drama Major Dundee and Cross of Iron, his account of a German squadron fighting a losing battle on the Eastern Front. ![]() In retrospect, it seems strange that Sam Peckinpah didn't make more war films during his career it seems like a stage perfectly suited to his particular talents and obsessions. ![]()
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