Cross of Iron - A Proper War Film

People who know me - and let's face it, only people who actually know me read this blog - will know that I am avidly interested in Second World War history. I discovered 'Cross of Iron' relatively recently while looking through a list of classic war films somewhere on the internet. It's a curious little film, made in the late 1970s and telling the story of a fictional unit of German soldiers on the Eastern Front at the beginning of the end in late 1943.

From the outset the film is stubbornly anti-war. An opening montage splices footage of the pomp of Nazi rallies against the grim reality of Germany's war against Russia; the promises of glory and conquest dashed by the terrifying truth of mechanised warfare. That's what the film is about. Maximilian Schell plays Captain Stransky, a man whose proud military upbringing forces him to abandon his comfortable post in France to come to the Russian front in search of glory and an aware of the Iron Cross. James Coburn plays Sergant Steiner, a reckless noncom stuck in a war he didn't want. Neither men are Nazis, but each fights for Germany for different reasons; Stransky for honour and his family's approval, Steiner because he's a working class man who happens to be really good at his current job. The men come into conflict after a Russian assault leads to Steiner being hospitalised and a number of men dead. Stransky claims he led a counter-attack against the Russians, but Steiner wont corroborate his story.

I didn't know what to expect from this film. There are a number of very tough scenes of battle and a lot of throw-away moments that pick up on the impersonality of industrial warfare. Particularly well-done is a 20 minute sequence in the middle act where Steiner convalesces in a military hospital before returning to the front. His shell shock is barely understood by the doctors and wilfully ignored by the generals who want him back on the line. Some excellent editing puts us in Steiner's head as his mind flits between various versions of his present reality combined with his nightmare memories of the recent past.

The film ends in a way that is very strange, initially it's unsatisfying as it provides no closure on the outcome of the brewing conflict between Steiner and Stransky. But given the point the film is trying to make, it's a perfect way to end. After all, what is the relevance of this personality clash in the grotesque and uncaring theatre that is the the Eastern Front? The machinery of war cares not which of these characters ends up besting the other, all the war cares about is relentlessly consuming another couple of unfortunate souls.

This is an excellent film that deserves its place on any list of 'great' war movies.