TV tip: One of the best war films of all time – shockingly brutal and emotionally moving at the same time!

Rarely has the futility of wars, as well as their effects on the individuals who act in them, been brought to screen so impressively as in 1977’s “Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz”. The German-British co-production was staged by one of the really big names from film history: Sam Peckinpah, the American director behind masterpieces like “The Wild Bunch” and “Pat Garrett chases Billy The Kid” or “Getaway” or “Who Sows Violence”. For us at FILMSTARTS, “Steiner – The Iron Cross” is one of the 50 greatest war movies of all time.

“Steiner – The Iron Cross” will be shown ad-free on BR television on May 5, 2023 at 10:50 p.m. If the date is not convenient for you, you can order Blu-rays or DVDs from online retailers such as Amazon. Optionally, the FSK 16 title is also available there as a paid video-on-demand for streaming:

The film is based on the novel “The Patient Meat” by Willi Heinrich. Much of the dialogue, especially during the magnificently acted confrontations between the characters of Hollywood legend James Coburn (“The Magnificent Seven”, “The Breaking Chains”) and Austrian world star Maximilian Schell (“Nuremberg Judgment”), were true to the originally taken. Although the book, first published in 1955, is one of the most important works of German-language war literature next to Erich Maria Remarque’s “Nothing New in the West”, the book is currently only available as an antiquarian book:

“Steiner – The Iron Cross” on BR: That’s the story

Disillusioned with the war on the Eastern Front, in 1943 veteran Wehrmacht sergeant Steiner (James Coburn) is no longer about defeating the Red Army. All that matters to him is that as many of his comrades as possible somehow survive this endless ordeal. Men like Krüger (Klaus Löwitsch) or Kern (Vadim Glowna) love their leader because of this attitude.

Steiner’s commanding officer, Colonel Brandt (James Mason) and his right-hand man, Captain Kiesel (David Warner), feel the same way he does. They, too, know that the final victory the Nazis were striving for is now nearly impossible, and so Steiner repeatedly let Steiner get away with it if he didn’t take the regulations so seriously to spare the lives of the soldiers under his command.

But then Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) joins the regiment. He volunteered for the assignment and became Steiner’s immediate superior. The Prussian aristocrat is convinced that Germany can still prevail. He is also obsessed with winning the Iron Cross, a high medal for exceptional bravery and merit, for himself. Of course, Stransky and Steiner immediately clashed violently…

Tough and difficult to digest

Severed limbs, mountains of corpses piling meters high, rapes, castrations and martial combat operations: there are many extremely harsh and disturbing moments in this film. Especially the episode with the young Russian prisoner (Slavko Štimac) of the company stands out. Anyone who, like the protagonist, is not in tears here has a heart of stone or has taken their eyes off the screen in time. The latter can even occasionally be advisable for viewers with a somewhat finer constitution. Nevertheless, “Steiner – The Iron Cross” is also highly recommended for this clientele. Our excellent four and a half star, official MOVIE STARTS review explains why this is the case.

The shooting in what was then Yugoslavia was of course anything but roses. Time and time again, the production ran out of money, leaving the local crew members unable to be paid and understandably refusing to work. Peckinpah therefore had to improvise a lot, which – in addition to the allegedly enormous consumption of slivovitz by the heavily alcoholic director – certainly contributed to the fact that the second half of the film in particular often comes across as quite chaotic. However, this circumstance in no way weakens the overall impression, but only makes the whole thing even more authentic.

Two years after the premiere, a sequel was made into a film, in which Richard Burton took over the title role from Coburn. This is nowhere near as successful as the original, but it has other big stars to offer, such as Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, Curd Jürgens and a very young Christoph Waltz in one of his first roles. “Steiner – The Iron Cross II” is included as the second disc in the Blu-ray/DVD we linked above.

*