This review contains spoilers.
Cross of Iron is likely the best left coded war film of all time. You might think that makes it still a bad film overall but you’d be wrong. Like everything they don’t make them how they used to and Peckinpah’s look at the Eastern Front still surpasses most modern films in sheer atmosphere alone. There is always a danger in being a reactionary at heart and it is that we are prone to think older is better automatically. This isn’t the case of course but there is a certain vibe that comes from these older films that the modern era can’t capture. It is closer to the past it portrays and perhaps that alone makes it feel more authentic. Older films seem less likely to package in todays ideology even if they were still packing in their own ideology and at the heart of this film are ideological questions.
In Cross of Iron the principle conflict is between the Prussian Aristocratic Captain Stransky and the working class everyman of Sgt Steiner (played by James Coburn). It is class conflict through the lens of the German Wehrmacht as the retreat continues. Stransky has volunteered for the East from his cushy French posting and intends to earn himself an Iron Cross. Steiner, like his platoon, has been there for too long and already has an Iron Cross. He’s a respected cynical NCO, a character trope borne out in many war films and played to perfection by Coburn. The Russians serve as the dumb brutes, the human wave that is crushing down upon the Germans and for all the other ideological moralizing they play a largely inconsequential role. The senior officers of the film are Colonel Brandt and his adjutant Captain Kiesel, both of whom owe their lives to the actions of Steiner and thus tolerate his mild insubordination.
Steiner and his men are battle hardened recon veterans. Peckinpah does not shy from their brutality but he still personifies them. In the arena of World War Two films aside from Das Boot this is one of the rare films that opted to humanize the Germans to an extent not seen before. They get away with this in part by those ideological games, though they are not so hard to believe. None of these men are allowed to be a true believer in the NSDAP, though at this point in the war that itself is relatively believable. They are on the back foot and Colonel Brandt makes the point to Stransky early on that they are fighting for ‘Western Culture’ and for the survival of Germany and the German people (although later he changes tune to a more depressed “we deserve extermination”). They are also like all men in war fighting for the man next to them. It is the scenes of the German platoon that really remain with you in this film. The celebrating of the Lt’s birthday, the fighting scenes where the Germans are shown bravely resisting the Red onslaught and the characters that the actors produce in such short interactions is remarkable. The platoon members are Steiners supporting cast they are all his men, working men and brave as all hell in the face of terrible odds.
This is where with our eyes some of the tension in the film looks different. Stransky is a Prussian Aristocrat and is at pains to point out he is not a party man. When he is asking Steiner to endorse him for the Iron Cross this whole dialog plays out. Steiner observes that the NSDAP and the Fuhrer have asked such class ideas to be put to one side. In this Steiner, whilst portrayed as not a Nazi member or supporter is recounting some of the actual tenets of National Socialism. Stransky represents what Hitler and many others did dislike, even despise. The landed class who clung to class relations. Steiner is the new man to them he is a humble German who has earned his Iron Cross and the respect of the likes of Colonel Brandt who is also implied to be an upper class man. Steiner shirks his rank in the platoon in that idealistic way “Don’t call me Sir” he tells the naive new recruit Dietz but all men know he is the leader, their leader and have utter devotion to him. It is obvious as well what the film is saying about Stransky. He’s an upper class war lusting man but he is there looking to fight is he not? He is obeying a sense of duty and he tells Steiner he could not bear to face his family without an Iron Cross. Whilst Peckinpah is determinedly portraying him in a negative light and his actions later in the film escalate to where Stansky attempts to have Steiner killed in action both indirectly and then later directly there remains a glimmer of bravery left in the character that is slightly redeeming.
There are of course other ideologically charged moments that are on the edge of comical to us who have crossed the great divide but Peckinpah then often mutes his own edge. During their escape through enemy lines the remaining members of the platoon stumble on an all women Soviet unit (historically not inaccurate). Of course it is the faceless new member of the platoon, the party man from the SS, who attempts to rape one and has his cock bitten off with an ill advised blowjob. Very on the nose stuff, but at the same time the naive Dietz is also stabbed by a murderous Soviet woman who seduces him. Dietz as the naive face of German idealism at the end of the war dies in Steiners hands still asking him not to hurt the women. Is that pathetic or a continuation of the ideals to a higher place even in a terrible time? Bit open to interpretation that one and whilst the bumping off of the SS man is a bit comical it just remains a minor moment. We as the audience are not invested in him at all, it is the other men around Steiner, Kern, Anselm who we care about and are rooting for.
The battle scenes are of course from another time and era. The shots that compose them feel dated but somehow accurate and it is still bloody and real. The ever advancing Russians and the up close bayonet fighting. The machine guns firing constantly amid the mortar shells. Peckinpah being known for his ‘ultraviolence’ it still retains a raw bloody edge. The costuming and set design is pretty decent as well with faded Splitter Tarn visible a lot of the time, though this is an autists only moment.
As the film reaches its climax we are not sure what to expect. The cowardly homosexual adjutant of Stransky, who is threatened by Stransky earlier for his deviance is killed rightfully by Steiner as they come in to the lines. The adjutant acting on Stransky’s implied orders despite the ordinary men trying to stop the ‘friendly fire’ incident. At that final confrontation between the two Steiner has a choice, kill this arrogant Prussian or take him into a last stand. It gives birth to the rather memorable line that so encompasses the futility of the Eastern Front.
Stransky claims “I’ll show you how a Prussian Officer can fight!” to which Steiner replies:
Then I’ll show you where the Iron Crosses grow
This poetic moment is further enhanced by Colonel Brandt joining his men in the last stand. Stopping the retreat and attempting to counter attack. Peckinpah however has to end with a final humilation of Stransky. As the men fight and as the film ends it closes out with Stransky wailing to Steiner that he does’t know how to reload. A maniacally laughing Steiner is the closing image frame before the credits roll.
It is hard to imagine this anti-war film as being ‘based’ but it still kind of is. The flaws and ideological messaging is all there but it’s still a good film that tells the truth. As I said before they don’t make films like this anymore. No way would a remake of this portray the majority of German men as sympathetic characters. In our stupid age perhaps only Steiner would be the ‘good German’ and all the rest of his platoon would be portrayed as sadistic cruel idiots. That isn’t to say there aren’t some cringeworthy moments right up till the end. Colonel Brandt gets his adjutant Captain Kiesel evacuated with this speech:
For many of us Germans, the exterminator is long overdue. But I have decided that you are worth saving. [...] You're a brave man. Braver than you think you are. One of these days there will be a need for brave civilians, had you thought of that? In the new Germany, if such a thing is allowed to exist, there will be a need for builders, for thinkers, for poets. I begin to see now what your job is to be. I will make this my final order to you. You will search out and contact all of these... "better people", you call them? And together you'll take on the responsibility that goes with survival.
Choice words there to cement the underlying wishes of what the audience takes away. All the more horrifying when we look on what the modern Germany has become. It is a state deliberately attempting to suppress it’s own native people and importing foreigners to replace them. A state that seeks to ban any discussion on what a German should actually be. This pathetic piece of dialog at the end is a dinosaur, a relic of the past. The horror of today unknown to the men voicing these ideas. In spite of this speech and the other ideological baggage the film remains a good one. It captures war and personifies the men who fought it. It was a conflict where the Iron Crosses grew.