Cross of Iron
Sam Peckinpah
Introduction to former assistant to Peckinpah, Frances Salter
This film has no current screenings
Peckinpah unleashes some of the most harrowing combat footage ever put on film in this senses-shattering World War II drama. James Coburn delivers a tightly wound, tour-de-force performance as a disillusioned German soldier who clashes with his superiors as he and his platoon are dragged through hell on the Russian front. The bravura battle sequences are visually and aurally overpowering, a bloody ballet of machine-gun fire, falling bodies, and exploding shrapnel choreographed for maximum visceral impact. Orson Welles proclaimed Cross of Iron one of the greatest antiwar films ever made.