Cross of Iron
On the Eastern front in 1943, the German soldiers no longer had any ideals. They were not fighting for the Party—but for their lives!
Cross of Iron (1977)
Timing:
2:12 (132 min)
7.075/10
398
398
7.16/10
4043
4043
7.4/10
31000
31000
Country
Genre
Drama, Action, History, War
Budget
$6 000 000
Revenue
$201
Director
Actors
James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner, Klaus Löwitsch, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Dieter Schidor, Burkhard Driest, Fred Stillkrauth
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Wolf C. Hartwig, Arlene Sellers, Alex Winitsky
Operator
John Coquillon
Composer
Artist
Audition
Editing
Tony Lawson, Michael Ellis, Murray Jordan
All team (39)
All team (39)
Short description
It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in Yugoslavia with money raised by a West German porn film producer.
- The film's ending differed from the original script. By the time the final scenes were being shot, the film's budget had run out, and director Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) instructed James Coburn (1928-2002), who played the main character, to simply improvise.
- During filming, director Sam Peckinpah drank four bottles of whiskey or vodka every day and slept no more than three or four hours each night.
- There was no tripping scene on the railway tracks in the script; it all happened by accident. Director Sam Peckinpah had already run out of film, so he couldn't reshoot the scene.
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