List Price: $29.95You Pay Only: $28.99 You Save: $0.96 ( 3%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0759731410229
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Henstooth Video
Manufacturer: Henstooth Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Henstooth Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 18, 2006
Running Time: 132 minutes
Sales Rank: 14655
Studio: Henstooth Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1976
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Widescreen Special Edition DVD Features include:
Audio Commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies
Original Theatrical Trailer
Photo Gallery of German Lobby Cards
Language Options: English, French
New Widescreen 16:9 Anamorphic Transfer
Amazon.com essential video:
Sam Peckinpah weighs in on World War II--and from the German point of view. The result is as bleak, if not quite as bloody, as one expects, in part because the 1977 film was cut to ribbons by nervous studio executives. The assorted excerpts that remain don't constitute an exhilarating or even an especially thrilling battle epic. The war is grinding to a close, and veterans like James Coburn's Steiner are grimly aware that it's a lost cause. The battlefield is a death trap of sucking mud and barbed wire, and the German generals (viz., the martinet played by James Mason) seem to pose a bigger threat to the life and limbs of Steiner's men than the inexorable enemy. Not even Peckinpah's famous sensuous exuberance when shooting violence is much in evidence; the picture is a depressive, claustrophobically overcast experience. The bloody high (or low) point isn't a shooting; it's a wince-inducing de-penis-tration during oral sex. For a fun time with the men in (Nazi) uniform, try Das Boot instead. --David Chute
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I liked it in 1977 - not so much today
I saw "Cross of Iron" when it was in theatrical release in 1977 and thought it was a pretty good treatment of the German side of WWII.
I watched it again last night on DVD and found myself fast-forwarding past the dull spots. Since I have collected WWII German militaria, lots of little mistakes in uniforms and equipment jumped out at me. The most glaring was the imitation Reich war flag hanging in the background in the outdoor hospital scenes.
Coburn's performance holds up, but Schell's character is so broadly drawn as to seem malevolently cartoonish. And then there's Peckinpah's cliche treatment of violence by reverting to slow-motion when the shooting and stabbing start. It served him much better in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid."
The art of the war film has matured considerably since 1977 and compared with "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers," "Cross of Iron" comes across today as a heavy-handed Hollywood production.
Rating: - A nicely done Eastern Front movie
Overview
Cross of Iron is director Sam Peckinpah's look at the German Army on the Eastern Front in 1943. In this movie, Feldwebel Steiner (played by James Coburn) leads a Reconnaissance platoon (more like a squad) that has received a new company commander, Hauptmann Stransky who has arrived from a posting in France with the focus of winning the Iron Cross. To gain the Iron Cross Hauptmann Stransky is prepared to do whatever is necessary.
The Good
The characters are great. James Coburn is outstanding as the seasoned veteran leading his section and he does a great job in this role. Maximilian Schell is also good playing Hauptmann Stransky; he's everything we want to hate in an officer that focuses on himself and not his men. James Mason plays the regimental commander that is sympathetic to Steiner and does a good job in this role.
The action is fast and very nice. While bloody at times, it fits with how war movies should be and captures what I've read about the actions on the Eastern Front from history books.
The story takes place on the Crimean Peninsula and is woven around the actual battles that took place there in that timeframe. While the regiment is not directly mentioned, the dress and bearing is that of one of the many infantry regiments that would have fought there.
Showing Russian women in service. For the time period this movie was made in that was something that many people in the West weren't aware of. Since that ... Read More
Rating:  - Terrible video transfer; great story done badly
I saw this movie originally back in the 1970s. I received the movie the other day. Cross of Iron was a pretty good movie back in 1977 but now - after spending a good bit of time studying the German Army - this movie has issues and just isn't that good. "A Bridge too Far" is a far better movie and is from the same production time period.
First, Hen's tooth video does a poor job of transferring this video to DVD. Indeed, it's terrible. Names are cut off, parts are deleted, and the whole movie has a grainy quality to it. I would go as far as to tell people that it ruins the movie. Indeed, there is one important part where Captain Stansky is flailing around in a trench during the attack on Steiner's platoon and that is cut out. That's a major part where it shows both the motivation of the characters.
Now to the major problems with the movie.
The plot is pretty good. A new German Army Captain wants the highest award the military has: the Iron Cross. So, he joins a line unit, claims credit heroics by a slain officer, Sergeant Steiner refutes his story and discredits the Captain. As revenge the officer does not tell Steiner of the withdrawl and his unit is trapped behind enemy lines.
The movie does correctly show the Germans picking up and using Soviet weapons. One soldier discards his K-98 and gets a sniper version of the Soviet M-91/30. That is correct and the Germans had so much captured Soviet ammo that supply is never a problem.
Read More
Rating: - War on the Eastern Front
First of all, it does not do the book justice... but then again, what movie ever does?
With that being said, this is a good war movie in its own right. It is intensely graphic and the imagery it is certainly intended to put lie to the idea of war as a noble crusade or a romantic adventure.
Cross of Iron revolves around the obsession a German captain has with being awarded the Iron Cross for valor, more as a trophy or vindication for his life as a soldier. One of his soldiers, Steiner, has already earned an Iron Cross, and other decorations, but he too has come to be defined by the war.
An excellent film, well worth trying out.
Rating:  - "What will we do when we loose this war?"
Cross of Iron (Full Screen)
That question was addressed to Captain Kessel, by Colonel Brandt. Captain Kessel's answer should be remembered by all of us, "prepare for the next war".
As I watched the rest of the movie I looked for scenes with Captain Kessel in them. To me he seemed to be a sad almost comedic relief as he commented about his health not being worth drinking to....Then before he left for the railhead, telling Colonel Brandt, "there are better men than me, most of them are dying out there."
When I first saw this movie, I wondered how a company such as Hen's Tooth could butcher a fine film such as this. I have a copy of The Wild Bunch, that has been restored in the wide screen verison...It's sad to see that no one will do the same to Cross Of Iron.
I always watch the battle scenes, and the ones in this movie are as realistic as any I have seen. I have seen Saving Private Ryan, and Enemy At The Gates. The scenes in Cross of Iron are 10 times better, and not computer generated.
I had trouble with James Coburn playing corporal/sergeant Steiner. Its one of the things I look for in war movies....American actors trying to pass them selves of as German officers, soldiers, etc. There is a whole generation out there that think of Colonel Klink and Sergerant Shultz as the German army prototype. As the movie progressed I came to accept James Coburn as the right person to play Steiner. Captain Stransky was well cast, as I hated ... Read More
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