Sam Peckinpah was a genius director when he made this incredible war movie ! As a very young teen watching it then, it was a masterclass.

By far - even by today's standards - one of the best realistically depicted war movies ever made of the titanic battles on the Eastern Front during WWII ... 'Tough-arse' Sgt. Steiner, played convincingly well and true to the tone of the film's gritty aura by the late (and equally 'tough-arse') star, James Coburn, couldn't have been better-portrayed by any other leading actor - who, in the end, justified and succinctly reflected the character's trials and tribulations to the bitter end from the novel of the same name. A highly recommended viewing for all WWII afficionados of the Russian-German War. Thanks for posting!

This was filmed entirely with analog equipment and released in 1977. That makes it older than most of the people reading this comment. Lo-Tech? More like No-Tech....

Most expensive VHS I ever bought, 35$. I saw this when it came out in theatres in 77, 25 years later made it part of my video collection. It had to be ordered it was so rare, but what a great war movie it is.

Damn good effects for such a old movie. Impressive.

The amount of work that goes into shooting a historical scene like this is unbelievable.

Editor : What kind of editing style do you want to use? Director : Yes

The battles on the Eastern front were so unbelievable fierce. It's hard to comprehend something like it

I was wondering why there were so many jump-cuts. Then I realized, the director implemented these jump-cuts during battle so as to give the viewer a sense of "what the hell is happening?". In other words, the director wants the viewer to have the same feeling a soldier has, in battle, when so much is happening at once. Also, notice how the jump-cuts go away once the soldiers are no longer in a fight and things are relatively "calm". Then, once another battle begins, the jump-cuts return.

Seems like the producers had a lot of fun driving that T-34 through the set lol

I love how chatoic it is. You can barely tell what is going on but that's a good thing because they could not tell either. Just madness, death chaos and suffering

サムペキンパー監督の状況表現力は圧倒的リアリティだ。 これを凌駕する絵は今後無いかもしれない。その場に自身がいるやうな臨場感が半端ない

I'lltake you where the Iron Crosses grow" one of the best lines in this movie.

this is actually very very good for a movie in 1977, WOW!

It’s like there is a battle and a movie going on separately and they keep getting in each other’s way.

I watched this movie decades ago. Still good after all these years.

This is one of the best war movies ever made, if not ,the best!! Great acting, authentic vehicles and equipment and lots of action!! Thanks Sam Peckinpah!!!!

Battle scenes like this are very rare in films today - no quick cuts, no shaky cam. Let the action play out instead of forcing it.

Peckinpaw's constant cuts were the shakeycam of his day.

Together along with "A Bridge too Far" were the best and most realistic "WWII" movies of the '70s, should be restored and remastered in 4K.

Fun fact: the Russians (and some Germans!) are played by members of the Yugoslav People's Army. Care was taken to make the weapons authentic, though this wasn't possible. Hence T-34/85 instead of T-34/76, Yugoslav M-53 machine gun instead of German MG-42 (they're very similar though), Yugoslav uniforms instead of Soviet ones, American airplanes instead of Soviet ones, and finally Yugoslav TAM trucks instead of Soviet GAZ/ZIS.

"Regimental headquarters, can you hear me .... !?" HQ: *Seen 12;13*

I like how the tank didn't explode into a nuclear blast from a grenade (but only if thrown from a shirtless guy with abs). So at least it's more realistic than most.

I saw this movie many times. Very beautiful picture.

An extraordinarily good WW2 film that is basically unknown

Sam Peckinpah was a great director.

The film ends on rather an odd note, but was originally supposed to include an additional extra scene including an airfield. But the producer pulled the funds. Also based on the book 'The Willing Flesh' by Willi Henrich who fought on the eastern front. The film compacts the book heavily, but does a decent job. The book is most certainly worth a read; at times it's excellent.

Still better than many other war films these days

The brilliant Sam Peckinpah.How i miss his moviemaking.

Im glad I wasn't there.

Absolutely amazing movie

Красиво сняли, приятно смотреть. Как качественную порнушку, вот только как всегда в ней нет настоящей любви))) в сюжете дыры танки прут без пехоты, у немцев довольно скудное вооружение, где фаустпатроны и панцершреки во времена 43-45 годов( когда на вооружении СССР стояли т34-85), их немцы как консервные банки выпускали. Где пулеметы мг-34(или 43) наводящие ужас своей скорострельностью. В общем немцы тоже не дураками были и давали так не хило прикурить и не бегали если что то могли ещё делать, а наши были не такими уж дураками, стратегию наступления знали как Библию...

Sheesh this is some crazy editing.

Fantastic action scene by a master film-maker, Sam Peckinpah...if anybody is wondering why there aren't any Wehrmacht panzerfausts in action, the single-use anti-tank weapon first became available in small numbers in August 1943. This film depicts the Wehrmacht's retreat actions at the Kuban bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula in 1943 (Jan to Oct). Improved versions of the panzerfaust only began to be produced in quantity from September 1943 onwards....

I own this movie, it wasn't supposed to be released in America, and the copys were confiscated, I purchased mine from action time videos, and someone showed up to confiscate it, I already purchased it, about a week later I went in to action time, and the owner said that a private security firm was going around the country collecting up the copys they could find, I have had mine for 36 years, and it's rare in America, and a treasure!

Режиссёр фильма и консультант в одном лице - Федя Бондарчук!

One of the best fight scenes in movie history.

According to my grandfathers testimony who was watching the film together with me these scenes are realistic

Really loved the practical effects in this scene.

Great movie! Love it! It’s one of Sam Peckinpah’s best films and one of James Coburn’s best roles.

Would love to spend the afternoon Paintballin! on this set! Wouldn't you?

A legendary amount of jump-cuts.

I HAVE SEEN THE ENTIRE MOVIE TWICE ...A TRULY GREAT PRODUCTION , AS IS THIS VIDEO

Oddly enough even tho its a bit on the rough side the equipment portrayed is quite a bit more authentic than what we see in modern movies. The t-34s, the german mortar and machine gun crews even the 75mm Pak is accurate. The weight of the teller mines when they threw them on the track was great whether they weighed there actual weight or the actors just played as if they were heavy. Well done any way one looks at it

this is one of the best WW 2 movies out there

Oftentimes in life I ask, "What would Steiner do?"

best "old" war movies ever

Ещё одна версия "спасти рядового", только не Райана, а Мюллера...

The T-34's biggest advantage wasn't it's sloped armor, it's high mobility, or it's gun(whether 76mm or 85mm)...it was the fact that there were always more...and more...and more of them.

one of the best action sequences ever done in a ww2 film-Peckinpah was a master director

Have never known War to be in scync. 95% boredom, 5% sheer, gut wrenching chaos and Hell.

Ну, да, а потом они остановились и начали стрелять. После чего, обогнали пехоту и заглохли в 2 метрах от фрицев. А потом заехали в заводской корпус... Клюква вечна.

I love the magic tunnel in this factory.

"Развалинами рейхстага удовлетворён!!!" Маэстро

As a former morterman, the first thing I noticed was the high angle of the gun. We called this a 'red mission'. This would be very accurate considering the proximity of the infantry. My hat is off to the military advisor.

A brilliant, underrated film!

i WORK 11 HOUR DAYS.....AND AM NOW TRYING TO WATCH A KZfaq VIDEO, AND MY WIFE IS TELLING ME HER PROBLEMS...

One of the main things that sets the older and the newer movies apart is the hip shooting. Looking at the older ones it seems like every single engagement with automatic weapons involved firing from the hip which is naturally a waste of ammo, unless you're caught by a surprise.

"Железный крест". Прекрасный фильм.

Dont forget the novel of Willi Heinrich which the movie is based on: Das geduldige Fleisch aka The willing Flesh. I read the book first in 1989 and I am still impressed.

They need to make more films depicting the eastern front.

wow the clarity is so good compared to when I had this on VHS

Hands down best movie from the German perspective. Shows how hellish the eastern front was. Shows an accurate showing of t-34's on the offensive not just endless hoards. A good portrait of the red army in the late War offensives. No stupid endless red charges with no armor protection. Firing online in the prone while talking guns, proper bounding from cover to cover. It's hands down of the best

must be the best war film ever, even if apocalypse now is very closed. the battles scenes are amazing, very intense even if we almost don't see blood.... peckinpah was such a genius...

Sam Peckinpah was the best. Cross of Iron - which got only mixed reviews in 1977 - is becoming somewhat of a cult movie today. What battle scenes. What human interest scenes mixed in with them.

I rode to work for a couple years with a guy that was drafted and drove a tank on the Eastern Front. When he was drunk ' a almost everyday occurrence' sometimes he would talk about the war. He was telling me you never see one t-34 they come in groups. When you see a t-34 you turn around and Drive to the anti-tank guns. Ground troops would go to ground and let the t34 is Passover them. Besides the anti-tank guns they would call in stukas armed with 2 anti-tank cannons one under each wing between the stukas and the anti tank guns most of the time the t-34s or what was left of them would retreat. They then would attack the t 34 s shooting into the back of them. If this doesn't sound right to you it didn't always work and the Germans did lose the war. Paul remembers the beginning of the end was when you would call for stukas and because of Russian air superiority none would come.

Esta fue la primera película de guerra que me impactó, luego de estar acostumbrado a ver solo la versión hollywoodense del ejercito estadounidense tanto en Europa como en Asia y África, y siempre como los héroes máximos. Esta versión, en mi caso personal siendo un niño, la ví en los 80s y me mostró por primera vez en la vida a personajes alemanes y soviéticos dándome otra perspectiva de aquella guerra. Fue a su vez la primera vez que vi las tomas de acciones de combate como si fueren en primera persona y eso realmente me sacó de cuadro y me hizo amar esta película. Gracias papá por mostrarme tremenda película por vhs, siempre hablabas de ella con fascinación, nunca censuraste alguna escena estando a tu lado mirando con pasión.

One of James Coburns best movies as if I remember Korpral Steiner

I have to say the explosions look pretty realistic... No ridiculous fireballs. They did a good job with the effects... The editing on the other hand. This was edited by an insane person.

One of my favorite WW2 films

70년대 전쟁영화로서는 최고봉이었다.

The chapters in the novel, The Cross of Iron, dealing with the Soviet offensive at Krimskaya provide a more accurate description of the battle than portrayed in the movie. But the screenplay took parts of the book and mixed them up so the scenes don't follow the flow of the novel. The most terrifying parts of the book deal with the fighting outside and inside a massive factory at Novorosiysk on the Black Sea coast. This is where Steiner and his men were betrayed in the novel, quite unlike the scene in the movie. The screenplay also had issues with German ranks and the positions they held in the German Army by late-1943, the period of time that the movie attempted to depict. Thus, LT Meyer in the movie is portrayed as platoon leader when in fact he was a company commander in the novel. Captain Stransky is a company commander in the movie when he was a battalion commander in the book. Hollywood had a mirror-imaging bias. Thus, if American lieutenants were platoon leaders and captains company commanders, then this must have been the case with the Germans too. But reality isn't a perfect mirror image. In the German Army lieutenants normally led companies and captains often led battalions. I like the movie, but the novel is a work of art. If possible, read The Willing Flesh, which is the unabridged version of the Cross of Iron. An English- language version was printed in Great Britain, but copies are hard to find. I lucked out on Ebay. It's about 70 pages longer than the otherwise excellent abridged version and gives more depth to key personalities, particularly Steiner, but also Lieutenant Colonel Brandt, the regimental commander (the movie depicts him as a battalion commander--wrong again.).

The most outstanding war / anti- war film ever.

"Why are we fighting in this god forsaken hell hole?" ... "Because there is a factory." ... "But it is blown to hell sir, its meaningless." ... "Its on the map so HQ says to hold the factory, its useful." ... "How? Its blown up!" ... "Its on the map."

Cross of Iron, a movie that shows german soldiers as humans, not as stupid robots who allways look into the wrong direction :D Also, a genius behind the camera, Sam was one of the greatest. That movie changed my opinion about such war movies. It was dirty, realistic, brutal. And realistic. In my family quite some fought in ww2 (born 1971, lots of my uncles and their relevates... ) and they all told me that this movie at least showed SOME realism about the brutality of the fighting.

緊迫した場面でスローを使うペキンパ演出って本当にすごい「発明」だと思います。この場面だけでも１００回くらいは見たかな。

My father who was a German solider , who servied on the Eastern front, said something I will never forget: There we're many of us, but there was far more many of them

У немцев советские ППШ-41,но ни одного фаустпатрона или панцершрека не видно. Ни один танк не полезет внутрь здания,где его легко подбить.Тем более,без пехоты.

Canal Fudêncio, só filme Brabo . Pura Aventura,Adrenalina e Emoção.

Always loved this scene. So well done.

Снимал наверное барон Мюнхаузен ))

Here I sit in a bar, in peaceful times watching this.

I had watch this movie in theaters when I was small, it's great 👍

I have this epic film on dvd, first I saw it I could not get the theme tune at the beginning of the film out of head for days, I can hear it now watching this

Great movie. I wonder if anyone got killed with all that amazing action. The T-34/85 drivers deserve an award.

@3:25 it just ran through those dragons teeth like it was nothing lol those were made to stop tanks

One of the best WW2 movies ever. So under rated and not well known.

Though I’ve never been in a battle this seems to be a realistic portrayal of an attack and retreat. Some things like the sound effects are probably post production. When I think about war like this it seems to be a colossal waste on all levels and the sign of complete failure. What a disaster.

Tanks sound so scary as they moved. They ran over everything

I was thinking about how they should update the sound effects in older movies like this because the scenery is really nice. It would immensely enhance the quality. Especially the sounds of firing and explosion. They are really out of date.

My Grandfahter fought for the Wehrmacht in this Battles, he made his way back to Austria and was prisoned by the US Army. He never tell us some of his story, i think it was to horrible.

Quite nice movie for „clear Wehrmacht“ times in the 80s

Your typical Company of Heroes 2 match.

в это только молодые немцы поверят а вот у дедушек и бабушек немецкой молодежи до сих пор я думаю жопы болят.)))

It’s the foley (sound effect of gun fire etc) and Coburn’s voiceovers that date this movie the most. Until SPR it was the most authentic WWII movie made.

saw this movie at least 3 times when it first came and I don't remember this scene at all. amazing! makes me want to watch it again for sure

Liked it very much that both sides sustained horrible and not too unrealistic casualties and that even the "protagonist" soldiers make mistakes (like throwing the grenade too short). It's not the usual invincible jedi-terminators vs. stormtrooper-lemmings BS (which is only appropriate when Arnold Schwarzenegger plays in a movie, then 400:0 kill ratios are fine xD) Haven't seen any more of Cross of Iron - does it stay this balanced throughout?

One of the very rare films not having some ridiculous fighting scenes with a super heroe shooting down German soldiers like flies.

That guy greasing the tank tracks at 4:03, those little details

Hollywood, some special effects, but beautiful, damn it.