I love the absurdity of this scene, while the army is fighting for survival Stransky and Brandt are playing politics about a piece of metal. It captures the feeling of the landser in WWII perfectly.
Your comment shows me that you have never been in the military because 98% of personnel strive for advancement in rank. An Iron Cross helps in that regard. Besides the honor it bestows. Getting awarded a medal for exemplary actions during wartime duty is highly coveted and appreciated by all soldiers of any country...much less German. Steiner is an extreme exception to the rule...almost all soldiers from the German Army of that era COVETED an Iron Cross medal to be pinned on their uniform. And they were not given out like candy either! It was sparingly awarded.
On the contrary: the fact that they are arguing over an Iron Cross and the validity of it shows how IMPORTANT this "piece of metal" ( as you call it) was! All soldiers from the Wehrmacht ( excepting Steiner..a rare anamoly) were ecstatic to be considered for...and awarded an Iron Cross. The Iron Cross stands for bravery/exploits in battle while under enemy fire.
@@JGldmn333 Steiner see the absurdity of trying to win a medal for bravery validated by a political system he hates. He states he is no Nazi, fighting a defensive war on southern eastern front one of his unit survived Stalingrad, he know the war is lost & the medals will mean nothing if they they survive a relic of a failed & hated ideology steinski can not reload his Mp40 and has no clue how to fight at close quarters with Steiner beware an older man in a younger man’s profession, he is an elite recon solider who has survived on the Russian front. Of course the cross of iron means nothing to him after what he has witnessed many Germans on the Russian front had no interest in medals unless S.S. they wanted particularly after Stalingrad & Kursk to go home not get useless pieces of metal. The end scene is him showing we’re the iron crosses grow & the absurdity of them trying to defend a rail head when the Germans will never counteract. Most office made an oath to Hitler over Germany as German who hates the Nazi’s he views officers the ones led them to wear they are.
Yeah, it is. The author was a an officer who fought on the Russian front. The movie comes from about a single chapter in the book. Definitely one of the best war movies ever done.
Peckinpah's own experience in the US Marine Corps influenced this movie. You see some of the same motifs between the enlisted and officers, but here it is largely used to reflect the fact that German officers usually had political indoctrination and were therefore perpetuating the war. This ran contrary to the self preservation of the enlisted ranks. The movie also cleverly references Clausewitz with a philosophical take on war.
STOP: the United States Marine Corps had NOTHING in common with the German Wehrmacht of the Eastern Front...1943. Sam Peckinpaw's prior service with the Marines, if anything, adversely colored his view of the German Wehrmacht and made him look DOWN on them. To disrespect them. Marines are trained to look down on anybody and anything not a US Marine...including US Army personnel. Much more so the German infantryman. As for your statement about political indoctrination of the German officer corps...ALL ranks of the WW.2 German Wehrmacht...officer AND enlisted....were indoctrinated with love of Fuhrer and Fatherland. Period. The SS and Hitler Youth of course...more so. But EVERYBODY was indoctrinated. The best thing about this film is that it at least captures a rarely shown theater of World War 2- the German Caucusus retreat on the eastern front. For that it is very valuable. And it shows the grit and value of German Sergeants in relation to their officers. But some of the political spin in my opinion is a little bit off. The German Wehrmacht was a HIGHLY disciplined fighting force with very little rebellion in it's ranks...especially among sergeants. Some rebellion DID occur on the eastern front...yes. But it was very rare and was often punished with loss of rank and extra duty. Steiner's Iron Cross would have prevented him from going to the firing squad.
Alas, it wasn't just the "German officers usually had political indoctrination." While it was certainly easier for a non-aristocratic man to become an officer in Hitler's armed forces and that, in turn, contributed to "political indoctrination in the officer corps," the rank-and-file were, generally speaking, equally imbued with motivation based on "Fuehrer, Volk und Vaterland." Many people -- still to this day -- do not understand just how "in lock-step" Nazi Weltanschauung was with even the most basic German recruit (and this includes those who were completed educated in the school system prior to 1933, not just the Hitler Jugend generation). In short, Peckinpah's movie, while cinematically brilliant in some respects, is reflective of the general 1970s view of the German Army.
Who does like them? But they have their uses. James Mason only had a small role in the film, but he was very good as the "pure Prussian" officer. He doesn't understand why Steiner has a problem with the whole deal.
I really love this movie...... it seems to be "there", among these defeated soldiers, in a terrible war already lost. Coburn, Warner and Mason are three incredible actors.
I would think the title of this movie should be: "Hitler's Fried Egg" because it is a higher award than the EK1, but lower than the RK. The RK being almost unattainable statistically.
This scene...in my mind...was a little bit inaccurate. Very rarely did German Sergeants answer with such audacity to an Officer. Much less with outright disrespect. But this late in the war...and on the Eastern front...occasionally Officers looked the other way when brave and over-worked sergeants had moments of carelessness and/or stupidity regarding the rules of Officer/Sergeant ettiquette. To sum up- this happened...but very very rarely in the HIGHLY disciplined German Wehrmacht of WW2. More often than not if and when it did happen the offending sergeant would have been busted down in rank immediately. But a war hero might have been spared that indignity...to give a nod to Sam Peckinpaw's logic here.
The captured Soviet kid was more likely to have a completely shaved head - common in the WW2 Red Army as a precaution against head lice. The Germans for their part often left hair on the top but shaved the sides and back. The really long hair of Steiner and Kiesel could be interpreted as them being so close to the front line that they don't give a damn about regulation haircuts but more likely they just did not bother with the authentic detail.
Thought that too. Seemed like most seasoned Germans on the front still had well-managed hair. German soldiers were very strict with field hygiene and if they weren’t cleaning their rifles off duty then they were cleaning themselves and their uniforms.
If the actor playing the dissident tried doing what he just did on the irl eastern front he would either be sent to a camp or put in a ‘tank tread road bump’ position intentionally.
There are good and bad officers in all armies, so Steiner is going a bit too far in saying he hates ALL officers.For example in 'The Forgotten Soldier' Guy Sajer tells how a German officer was a passenger in a motorbike sidecar passing a column of walking wounded German troops, so he gave his place in the sidecar to one of them and proceeded on foot.
Most officers do not rise through the ranks, it is a class distinction. Ordinary soldiers do the dying. The more gold you have on your uniform the more likely you will live.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Even Hitler seemed to hate officers, he had no grasp of tactics and strategy and always arguing with his generals and he lost the war..:) Putin is another politician without any grasp, he should have used armoured spearheads to pincer out the pro-Russian Donbas where they lurv him, but instead he weakened his forces by spreading them out along too much of the border.
The filmmaking is superb, especially the climactic sequence; however, I’ve always been conflicted about this film as I lack sympathy for Nazis who inflicted so much carnage on the world. I know it focuses on the common soldier but they helped make the nightmare realized. A war that’s left its scar on the world. Somehow, WWI films that are sympathetic to the Germans like The Blue Max.
I have no sympathy for them either, but sometimes it's good to see things from the other side's point of view. There are a few films from the German POV that are superb, this one, Das Boot, Downfall and Generation War.
@@snakeplissken526 I find myself unsympathetic to anything that happens to German soldiers who were all complicit with Nazi horrors and atrocities. WWI films are better as the German soldiers were not involved in atrocities against civilians. Hence, I can relate to All Quiet on the Western Front. I appreciate Peckinpah’s genius but am ambivalent about this movie.
@@MegaFountnot all german are with nazi , there some case german soldier hide or recuse the jew and innocent , you probably denied those few good german like some wa4crime denied huh ?
Great movie... but the book is better. Indeed, the version titled THE WILLING FLESH is even better, because it's about 70 pages longer than the abbreviated version, THE CROSS OF IRON. You learn much more about all the major characters. Of course, the author, Willi Heinrich, fought in the war and describes scenes and personalities as he witnessed them.
So? What does that have to do with the quality of acting in this film? And Lee Marvin isn't the only example of bravery in real life among actors. James Stewart volunteered for the USAAF, flying multiple bombing missions over Germany as lead pilot of his bomb group. Clark Gable joined the USAAF as a gunner. David Niven was a member of a reconnaisance platoon, carrying out missions behind enemy lines. There are many other examples. So your point is what, exactly?
In what way was Coburn a hero in real life? He joined the US Army in 1950, driving army trucks in Texas. Later he provided the voice over for army training films while in Germany. He never saw any action, so in what way was he a hero?
Without the officers, there couldn't have been a war. The German general staff had several chances to stop Hitler's warmongering before they came to this disastrous conclusion. They could have simply refused to occupy Czechoslovakia. They could have refused to invade Poland. Before all that, they even could have refused to back Hitler when he invented the title of Fuhrer. Even if they didn't do anything else decent, they could have stopped the Holocaust and disbanded the SS. That's why Steiner hated all officers. Now, we're all waiting to see if "the officers" back Trump if he declares himself the rightful winner of a "rigged" election that he actually lost and announces that the 1st Amendment is null and void. But it can't happen here, right? Right??
People in his age group would be more likely to go into the Order Police than the Heer (Army). They might be involved in fighting but were more likely to police rear areas and were sometimes involved in massacres.
