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Cross of Iron is Sam Peckinpah‘s 1977 war movie, which I’d never heard of before seeing the news of this 4K remaster, but it does feel bizarre in that it’s a World War II movie, with the Germans up against the Russians, but… the Germans are mostly played British and American actors, including James Coburn in the lead as Sgt Rolf Steiner, James Mason (Journey To The Centre Of The Earth) as Colonel Brandt, David Warner (Titanic) as Captain Kiesel, and the only one getting closest to the area of origin being Maximilian Schell as Captain Stransky.
However, while Mason attempts a cod-German accent, Coburn and Warner just stick with their usual respective ones, so in that respect, this film does feel a bit uneven, possibly veering into Allo Allo territory. It was a bit similar with the opening scene with a Russian submarine in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Perhaps they all should’ve done as The Hunt For Red October did, and once they changed to English, early on, just everyone not attempt any accents… at least that would have taken the heat off Sean Connery, whose perfect Spanish accent (ahem) in Highlander and Highlander II: The Quickening Renegade Cut… well…
By way of a plot, Cross of Iron is rather all over the place, so it’s not particularly easy to get into. Steiner has a platoon, where two men are killed, and one missing. Should the rest go and find him? It’s not practicable given the risk involved, but if they did, that would be Saving Private Ryan. Meanwhile, his superior, Stransky, is a bit of an arse, taking credit for things which aren’t his doing, since he wants the titular Cross for his part in a counterattack against the enemy, or was he rather overegging his pudding?
And Brandt is just James Mason being James Mason, but why not.
This feels like a war where they’ve all given up winning, but there does feel a brief respite from the carnage when a young Russian boy ends up with them, as he strays far from where he should be, and reminds them that war, in itself, is rather futile.
There are lots of explosions, which were done for real – including using mines on a stuck tank, rather than just using CGI, plus it features lots of quick-cutting for the emphasis of everything going on, not just the slap-dash way that happens with a lot of modern movies. Similarly, there are a fair number of slomo shots, such as Coburn tossing away an empty magazine. I understand Peckinpah also did this with The Wild Bunch, but… erm… I’ve still to see that.
At 133 minutes, though, Cross Of Iron does rather ramble on a bit, but it still has decent performances, nonetheless. I think it would benefit from a second viewing, however. And that would be easy to do with this new release, since the 4K picture looks gorgeous, with stunning definition on close-up faces, almost as if it was only recently made, and not 46 years ago!
But despite so many recognisable people in this film, as mentioned earlier, it does take a while to get used to Americans doing bad German accents because they’re… the Germans. Who on Earth came up with that idea?! Whatever next? A remake of Downfall with Rosie O’Donnell as Adolf Hitler?
(No, Dom, don’t give them any ideas!)
Finally, because it’s 2023 and everyone gets upset about everything, we first need a warning that “the film reflects historical attitudes which the audience might find offensive”. Come on, now, if you were easily offended, you would not be watching an X-certificate war movie! (Okay, it’s a 15-cert now, but it was originally an X).
More importantly, though, it also states:
- “This restoration was canned in 4K – 16-bit by Silver Salt Restoration UK, from the original 35mm negative.
Colour grading and restoration were completed by Silver Salt Restoration UK, who dedicated over 240 hours to manually clean and carefully remove sparkle, dirt and scratches.
Extensive effort has been made to remedy significant age-related density and flicker problems present throughout the original negative.
This project was brought to you by Studiocanal and supervised by Jahanzeb Hayat.”
The film is presented in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, in 2160p on a single 4K disc (plus the same on Blu-ray in 1080p, and with a separate extras disc), and it’s had a fantastic restoration as described above.
The extras are as follows:
- Promoting Steiner (10:22): This segment shows the film’s advertising in various countries, such as the posters and other images on the set, all set to a piece of music from the film, which is a theme for these extras.
- Steiner On The Set (9:42): Many more on-set and production stills.
- Filming Steiner Parts 1 and 2 (9:17 and 9:07): Same sort of thing, but note that it’s not just Steiner, but everyone involved.
- Steiner in Colour (9:07): Cross of Iron in 100 colour 35mm contact stills, with music by Ernest Gold.
- Audio commentary by filmmakers and film historian Mike Siegel.
The Disc 2 extras are as follows:
- Passion ands Poetry: Sam Peckinpah’s War (48:21): Quite a length feature with offscreen chat from the director – with cast members waxing lyrical about him, mixed with interviews, stills and on-set footage.
Annoyingly, this disc doesn’t have subtitles options, so you’ll only get those – and in English – if a contributor is talking in German. While this is broken up with 4 chapters, I’d rather this was fully-subtitled, though. However, it’s interesting that Santa Berger, who played a nurse with whom Coburn had a relationship, said she doesn’t like that sort of film, nor that it was a particularly brilliant film. It sounds like she did just want to work with Peckinpah, though.
Like later featurettes, these are copyrighted in 2011, so it appears they were all recorded in time for the film’s 35th anniversary.
- Kruger Kisses Kern (8:53): Vadim Glowna talks about his time on the set, mixing between German and English mid-sentence.
- Vadim & Sam: Father and Son (6:09): Vadim recounts a night on the drink between the actor and the director.
- Cutting Room Floor (4:29): Discussions about how almost three times the amount of footage was shot, compared to the length of the film, but on any given day, Sam Peckinpah kept changing his mind about what to include, hence, for example, Warner’s in-battle scenes were left out of the final cut.
- Steiner in Japan: Ads filmed in 1977 (2:06): Promotional content, shot in Japan. Coburn’s in a white suit for one and a black suit for the other, but in both, looking far away from his character in the movie, as if he’s more like James Bond!
- Mike’s Home Movies: Steiner and Kiesel Meet Again (7:58): Following a 2000 retrospective by Mike Siegel, James Coburn and David Warner are shown introducing the film. This would’ve been approximately just two years before Mr Coburn passed away. Sadly, David Warner died last July, just five days before what would’ve been his 81st birthday.
- On Location: Featurettes with some pictures and chat from each of the name participants:
- On Location: Sam Peckinpah (5:24)
- On Location: James Coburn (5:48)
- On Location: Maximillian Schell (4:51)
- On Location: Jason Mason (6:23)
- On Location: David Warner (3:26)
- On Location: Sam Peckinpah (5:24)
- Plus some trailers etc, the German trailer first showing how their own poster included images of aircraft on a bombing run – which was never filmed, because Peckinpah used that footage from another movie!:
- US/UK Trailer (3:54)
- German Trailer (3:58)
- US TV Spot (0:34)
- US/UK Trailer (3:54)
The main menu is static and silent with a shot of the character on the 4K Steelbook, there are subtitles in English, French and German, but just 12 chapters. I wish we got more, especially for a fairly long film like this.
Cross of Iron is released on Monday July 31st on 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
7 10 7 10 |
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OVERALL |
8.5 |
Cert: 
Running time: 133 minutes
Year: 1977
Chapters: 12
Distributor: Studiocanal
Released: July 31st 2023
Picture: 2160p High Definition
Language: English, French and German
Audio: 2.0 (Mono)
Widescreen: 1.66:1 (35mm)
Subtitles: English SDH, French and German
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Producers: Wolf C Hartwig, Arlene Sellers, Alex Winitsky
Screenplay: Julius J Epstein, Walter Kelley, James Hamilton
Novel: Willi Heinrich
Music: Ernest Gold
Cast:
Sgt Rolf Steiner: James Coburn
Captain Stransky: Maximilian Schell
Colonel Brandt: James Mason
Captain Kiesel: David Warner
Corporal Kruger: Klaus Lawitsch
Pvt Kern: Vadim Glowna
Lt Triebig: Roger Fritz
Anselm: Dieter Schidor
Schartze Maag: Burkhard Driest
Corporal Schnurrbart (‘Private Mustache’): Fred Stillkraut
Dietz: Michael Nowka
Marga: Veronique Vendell
Zoll: Arthur Brauss
Eva: Senta Berger
Nurse Sadie Finkelstein: Katherine Haber (uncredited)
Lt Meyer: Igor Galo (uncredited)
Hartwig: Wolf C Hartwig (uncredited)
Boy Soldier: Sweeney MacArthur (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.