Saturday, September 30, 2017

Cross of Iron (1977)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Writers: Julius J. Epstein, Walter Kelley, James Hamilton, Will Heinrich

Composer: Ernest Gold

Starring: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner, Klaus Lowitsch, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Dieter Schidor, Senta Berger

More info: IMDb

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

Plot: A German commander places a squad in extreme danger after its Sergeant refuses to lie for him.



My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

"Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men.  For though the world stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." -- Bertolt Brecht

Man, I love that quote.  Thus ends Sam Peckinpah's WWII opus.  I really dig this flick.  The cast is amazing.  It's nice seeing Mason in his role as an aging German soldier.  He's doing something different.  Then there's David Warner who's always fun to watch and I can't get enough of that guy.  James Coburn is a top tier manly actor and it was great casting to pit him against Maximilian Schell.  If you're familiar with Peckinpah movies you know that you're going to get manly men doing manly things.  He doesn't pull his punches and I'm so happy that he got the chance to make a WWII flick and not a run of the mill one at that.  You'd think, being Peckinpah, he'd crank out a pro war film but it's just the opposite.  War is hell and he knows it and wants to tell you all about it.  It's a great flick that satisfies all of your slow motion needs.




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