Cross of Iron (1977) on Netflix
In 1943 on the Eastern Front, Corporal Rolf Steiner leads a Wehrmacht platoon. Captain Stransky arrives from occupied France to take command of the battalion, set on winning the Iron Cross.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.4/1031,922 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Corporal Rolf Steiner is a battle-hardened Wehrmacht soldier on the Eastern Front, where his reconnaissance platoon raids an enemy mortar position and brings back a captured Russian boy. Captain Stransky arrives from occupied France to take command of Steiner's battalion, and tells Colonel Brandt and Captain Kiesel that winning the Iron Cross is why he asked for the transfer. Stransky orders the young prisoner shot; Steiner refuses, and the men keep the boy out of sight in their bunker. Stransky promotes Steiner to senior sergeant, a promotion that leaves Steiner unmoved. Lieutenant Meyer's birthday is celebrated, and a Russian offensive is expected.
Cast
- Michael Nowkaas Dietz
Show all 20 cast
- Igor Galoas Leutnant Meyer (uncredited)
- Katherine Haberas Nurse Sadie Finkelstein (uncredited)
- Wolf C. Hartwigas Hartwig (uncredited)
- Wolfgang Hessas Schütze Maag (voice) (uncredited)
- Sweeney MacArthuras Boy Soldier (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cross of Iron (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- With the money gone, Hartwig and co-producer Alex Winitsky tried to halt production on 6 July 1976, the 89th day of shooting, before the final scene had been filmed and after effects crews had spent days wiring pyrotechnics. Coburn was so annoyed he had both producers thrown off the set and made Peckinpah film a quick improvised ending.
- Peckinpah's alcoholism hit the schedule: he was consuming 180-proof Slivovitz every day, and every two to three weeks he went on a binge that cost the production shooting days while he was allowed to regain his cognitive abilities.
- Quentin Tarantino used the film as inspiration for Inglourious Basterds, and Orson Welles cabled Peckinpah after seeing it to praise it as "the best war film he had seen about the ordinary enlisted man since All Quiet on the Western Front".
- The source novel, Willi Heinrich's The Willing Flesh (1956), was loosely based on the true story of Johann Schwerdfeger (1914-2015), a highly decorated Wehrmacht NCO who fought through both the Battle of the Caucasus and the Kuban pocket.
- West German producer Wolf C. Hartwig had secured a budget of $4 million, but only a fraction of it was in hand when pre-production started, so local services and film crews demanded payment before they would begin work, creating delays on location.
- Peckinpah spent five weeks going through the rushes to assemble a final cut, working four to five hours a day overseeing the editing, and started snorting cocaine along with his drinking.
