Tonight's motion picture was "Cross Of Iron" (1977), an ultra-realistic and action packed WW2 film directed by.........Sam Peckinpah.
You ask: "What are you, Ad, a glutton for punishment"? and I reply halfheartedly that I had already checked out "Cross Of Iron" from the Libe along with "Junior Bonner" and "Major Dundee", and I wanted to finish up my Peckinpah mini-fest even though "Dundee" was one of the worst films I've seen in years, and "Bonner" - while fairly engaging - didn't have much of a story. Also, I've long hated "The Wild Bunch" (don't get me started!), and I just generally wasn't a fan of Sam. He always seemed like a degenerate to me, though as I've said he was no doubt a technically proficient filmmaker.
Anyhow, so I checked out all these Peckinpah movies from the Libe last week, just because I needed something to see. Having watched the other two, I figured I'd give "Cross Of Iron" a go this evening. The timing was right; I'm in between books and have yet to begin a new drawing (the new one I'm practicing for is super difficult), so I had the entirety of my evening break to devote to the lengthy film (132 minutes). I was prepared to turn it off at the very first slowdown or patented Peckinpah curveball, where he diverts the action to an endless drinking scene, or cuts to a sudden romance that has nothing to do with the movie.
But to my great surprise, not only did I not turn the movie off, but.....I was riveted to my seat throughout.
I guess I owe Ol' Sam an apology. I mean, I still think "Major Dundee" sucks in a record-breaking way, and I detest the critical popularity of "The Wild Bunch". Please see it for yourself and tell me it's a great film, it isn't and it's terrible.
But maybe Sam's forte wasn't the Western. Maybe if he had made a "bunch" (wink wink) of WW2 flicks instead of outlaw oaters, I might be touting Sam Peckinpah as one of my favorite filmmakers.
Because, and I almost hate to say this but I have to in the name of honesty : "Cross Of Iron" is one of the greatest war movies I have ever seen. I would put it in my top five WW2 films for certain.
There is no fooling around with this movie, no attempt to be cute or to present his actors as macho icons (a previous Peckinpah downfall). This is just straight-up "War Is Hell" filmmaking from start to finish. You are in the war every bit as much as the actors. The action footage is very advanced for 1977, and is edited to a high degree of precision, a Peckinpah staple even in his lesser films.
Okay, so the war is happening and it's in your face. James Coburn is a corporal in the German infantry. Right away, we see that he is one of those "mythical" movie soldiers who aren't destined to die, no matter how many artillery shells explode around him, nor bullets whizzing by in crossfire.
If you've heard the song "Rooster" by Alice In Chains, Coburn is like Jerry Cantrell's Dad.
"He ain't gonna die". And so all the soldiers in his platoon trust him, even though the German Army in is retreat in the middle of Russia, where they are getting hammered by bombs and enemy fire on an hourly basis. Coburn is only a Corporal, the lowliest of soldiers excepting a Private, and yet he commands the respect of even the higher-ups down in the command bunker several miles away.
The Major in command of the battalion is Chames Mason. I just thought I should mention that, and please don't forget the correct pronunciation of his name. If you need help, just raise your hand.
Mason and the other command officers (including David Warner in a brilliant performance) have given up on the war. They are just going through the motions in giving out orders because the Russians are kicking the daylights out of them. James Coburn, however, is out in the field with his men. He can't afford to give up. Every moment is life or death for his platoon.
Into this picture steps Maximillian Schell. Man, what a great actor he was. He plays a Captain who has been on R&R on the French Riviera but is now reassigned to the Russian Front. He claims that he asked for the reassignment in order to face combat. He tells Corporal Coburn specifically that he intends to be awarded The Iron Cross, Germany's version of the Purple Heart.
Schell desires The Cross simply because he is a bourgeois Prussian Aristocrat, a wealthy man who has become an officer merely because of his position in life. He has no combat experience, yet he shows up in the bunker and singles out Coburn for punishment, simply because he has heard all the foot soldiers praising him. Coburn as a Corporal is leading his squad because there aren't any sergeants left. The Germans are using teenagers. The Russians are using little kids and women.
Peckinpah shows you the real thing, including brief glimpses of scenes so horrifying, of what soldiers really saw, on the ground, of what happens to a person who used to be a human being, that you will need to simply let the footage register and pass by. To linger on images like these is not healthy for the mind.
The plot will come down to an end game struggle between Captain Schell, the privileged Prussian who will stop at nothing to obtain The Iron Cross, and Corporal James Coburn, who is only trying to get his men safely back from behind enemy lines. He is going though sheer hell while Maximilian Schell hides out in his bunker......though he is getting increasingly shelled himself. Russian tanks are crawling over the German encampment.
Man, what a movie! There are a few subplots taking place as well, including a stay for Coburn in an Army hospital due to concussion. There, he hallucinates past battle scenes in footage that would now be considered evidence for PTSD.
And yet he removes himself from the hospital, against Nurse Senta Berger's orders (which you or I would follow), so that he can rejoin his men. His entire life has been shaped by his combat experience. All he knows is that he must lead his platoon out of their horrific situation in Russia. Forget the hospital, forget the orders coming in from the bunker. This is do-or-die.
And Captain Schell resents him for his loyalty. ////
I shant tell you any more, but I will give "Cross Of Iron" Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, and will recommend it to anyone who is a fan of classic World War Two films. It's one of the very best I've seen, even a near masterpiece, a rendering of the terrible chaos of battle so immediate that you are in the platoon yourself, stepping over the ruined bodies of your fellow soldiers as you dodge incoming rounds and machine gun fire.
I've said it before but it bears repeating : How anyone got through WW2, I'll never know.
It was a time when the Devil took over the Earth. ////
Kudos to Peckinpah for "Cross Of Iron". See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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