CROSS OF IRON (1977) - Finally - - a high quality version on DVD!

[The Burgomaster]

The folks at Hen's Tooth Video finally released a high-quality DVD of CROSS OF IRON.  I bought the version they released a few years ago and was very disappointed.  It was a full frame version and the quality was about the same as a VHS tape.

However, yesterday the newly released widescreen edition arrived in my mailbox.  What a difference.  The picture quality is much sharper than the old version and we finally get to see it in widescreen as Sam Peckinpah intended.

This is one of my favorite Peckinpah movies.  It's a tough, gritty World War II movie about German soldiers fighting on the Russian Front.

The cast is strong: James Coburn, Maximillian Schell, James Mason, David Warner, and Senta Berger.  

Peckinpah's smokey, muddy, bloody battlefield scenes are impressive.

If you have the old version, sell it or give it away and get yourself a copy of this new version.

[Scott]

Don't know why, but I keep mistaken CROSS OF IRON with WHERE EAGLES DARE. Wonder if I even saw CROSS OF IRON ? When I was a kid I must have seen every WWII movie ever made. Just can't recall what happens in your title Burgomaster.

[The Burgomaster]

Scott:

CROSS OF IRON is about a wealthy, aristocratic German army captain (Maximillian Schell) who believes that he will be disgraced if he returns home to his family without being awarded the Iron Cross for heroic behavior in combat.  The problem is, he is a coward.  James Coburn (as Sgt. Steiner) has already been awarded the Iron Cross, but he doesn't think it's a big deal.  In fact, he hates the German army and everything it is fighting for.  So, Schell is jealous of (and threatened by) Steiner, yet he needs him because Steiner knows how to "earn" the Iron Cross.  Surrounding this human conflict are some pretty good battle scenes filmed in Peckinpah's trademark slow-motion, "ballet of mayhem" style.  The movie has a running time of 2 hours and 12 minutes, but it seems to pass very quickly.

[Scott]

Thanks for the info. Still can't recall it. Guess I haven't viewed it yet.

[Neville]

Then do it, it's a must see. Gotta love the ending:

SPOILERS


I SAID SPOILERS


I SAID SPOILERS, DAMNIT!!

"Steiner, I don't know how to reload!"

(Neville laughs)

[BoyScoutKevin]

Peckinpah could do something besides westerns, and this is the proof.

There was a scene in the original theatrical release that initially got the film a X-rating, and the film was re-rated a R, only after the scene was cut from the film, and what I would like to know is whether the scene has been put back in the film for the dvd release. And the scene goes something like this . . .

The German army retreats in face of the Russian army, but to make the Russians believe that the Germans are still there, some Germans are left behind as a decoy. These being Sgt. Steiner's (Coburn's) platoon. Now these men have to make their way back through the entire Russian army to the new German lines. As they make their way back, they come across an unit of Russian women soldiers, who they capture. Steiner leaves one of his men as guard over the captured Russians. The man takes one of the women into another room and rapes her. Steiner comes back and catches the man in the act. He then locks the man up in a wardrobe and leaves him. When he and the rest of the Germans have left, clad in the uniforms of the Russian women, the women break the man out of the wardrobe and take their revenge on him by castrating him, before killing him.

Is this scene included in the dvd release of the film?

I also would also recommend, if one likes the film, of reading the novel upon which the film is based. "The Willing Flesh" by Willi Heinrich. I have also seen the novel as "The Iron Cross."

[Neville]

(Yes, we have spoilers)

The detonant of the situation is not exactly the one you mention, but since it is one of the keys of the film's plot, I won't go into it.

However the scene concerning the Russian soldiers is exactly the one you describe, and the events you mention are also there, at least on the Zone 2 DVDs.

[The Burgomaster]

BoyScoutKevin:

This scene is in the DVD, but, not exactly as you have described it.

SPOILERS ABOUT THIS "CONTROVERSIAL" SCENE APPEAR BELOW!  WARNING! WARNING!

What happens is the soldier takes the woman into a secluded room and forces her to perform oral sex on him.  She ends up biting off his manhood and he starts screaming and then bashes her on the head with the butt of his rifle.  Steiner hears him screaming and rushes into the room.  The soldier is kneeling on the floor with his hands covering his blood soaked groin.  Steiner says "stupid" and walks out of the room.  He comes back moments later with the rest of the Russian women, looks one of them in the eye, and says "now we're even."  Then he leaves and closes the door behind him.  The women surround the castrated soldier and begin tearing at him and beating him.

[Scott]

Hmmm, I don't think I saw this film.

[The Burgomaster]

Scott:

You should put this movie very close to the top of your "war movies I need to see" list.  Just make sure you watch the newly released widescreen version and not the disappointing older full screen version.  Both versions were released by Hen's Tooth Video.  The cover of the superior widescreen version shows a German soldier face down on the ground with one hand reaching out toward an Iron Cross (see picture below).  The cover of the crappy full screen version shows a close up of James Coburn's face with a picture of a tank and three soldiers below it.

[Scott]

I may have seen CROSS OF IRON if they (a few) are retreating during the Russian winter. Certainly didn't see the uncut version. It's now on my list near THE WAR WAGON which is another film that I would like to see again. I have a list of films I remember titles to, but very little of the actual happenings during the film. CROSS OF IRON might be one of  those films.