A powerful 1_977 war film, widely considered one of the genre’s finest, has recently become available on Amazon Prime. Viewers are hailing the movie as a more authentic portrayal of conflict than the acclaimed 1998 film Saving Private Ryan.
‘Cross of Iron’ Praised for Realism
The film, Cross of Iron, stars veteran actor James Coburn and has garnered significant praise from audiences who find it to be a more honest depiction of war. Many have taken to online review platforms to their admiration, with some specifically noting its superiority to Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, a film often held as a benchmark for war movies.
One reviewer commented, “I still rate this as the best and most honest war film I’ve seen. It ignores the Hollywood schmaltz that spoiled Saving Private Ryan and manages to portray the soldiers as human beings and particularly for German soldiers, this is an exception.”
The same viewer elaborated on the film’s impact: “The battle scenes are expansive and very bloody as we follow the German platoon trying to get back to its own lines. The soldiers are heroes in an unheroic war and the film captures the chaos, cynicism and heroism of the German retreat. Well worth checking out.”
A Masterpiece of Anti-War Cinema
Another viewer described Cross of Iron as a “masterpiece” of the anti-war genre, suggesting it deserves a place among the most revered war films ever made.
“Cross Of Iron is a masterpiece, one of the greatest anti-war, anti-authoritarian movies,” the review stated. “It is one of director Sam Peckinpah’s two finest works — the other being The Wild Bunch.”
The assessment continued, “It deserves to be ranked in the same great war movie company as Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Full Metal Jacket, Paths Of Glory, Saving Private Ryan, Seven Samurai, and Zulu. Its setting on the World War Two Eastern Front, its gruesomeness, and its risk-taking viewpoint on ugly combat from the German side, have tended to count against fair assessment of its considerable artistic achievements.”
Critical Acclaim and Cinematic Influence
Currently, Cross of Iron holds a solid 71% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s impact extends beyond audience appreciation, having influenced acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The director of Pulp Fiction has cited Cross of Iron as a significant inspiration for his 2009 war film, Inglourious Basterds.
A follow-up film, Breakthrough, was released in 1979 and featured Robert Mitchum in its cast.
