Good concept, poorly executed.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Resembles an Impressionist or Modernist painting, as, for instance, Guernica. Each sub-theme plays its part, but is not followed through in the overall narrative. The whole is greater than the sum of these parts. Those reviewers who find the film to be a total mess are the usual obtuse and insensitive dunces that made up the studio suits who dumbly did their best to wreck Peckinpah's creations. Moreover, several of those retards seem to think this film is about Nazis: in fact, there is not a solitary Nazi in the entire movie. (Well, there may be one). These men are hapless apolitical soldiers, even the pompous self-promoting and dishonourable Prussian. Also, the Iron Cross is not remotely the equivalent of the American Purple Heart. The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in battle as well as other military contributions in a battlefield environment. The Purple Heart is awarded for a broken nose, provided a bona fide enemy delivered the punch; or a flesh-wound in the bum, when running away. The film's story plays out as a series of interlocking and merged, but individual and self-contained, episodes. For instance, the early episode of the ironic tragedy of the little Russian boy, taken prisoner and then shot by his own side, is one of these episodes. His harmonica can be taken as a lucky charm, which saved his life when captured, and which he gives to Steiner, thereby surrendering his good luck to the German Sergeant, who survives to the bitter end.The battle scenes are intensely striking. The combatants are difficult to tell apart, and that figures, since there's little essential difference between them. They might as well be on either side. The tanks are faceless, anonymous, death-dealing robots, indiscriminately destroying anything in their path, human or inanimate.Another very effective and affecting episode is Steiner's hallucinatory and romantic spell in the hospital. This recalled the fate of those wounded British soldiers in World War I, who returned to the front when recovered but undaunted, to carry on and die regardless. The nurse is resigned to the soldier's decision. No genuine frontline soldier is concerned in the slightest with the rights and wrongs of the conflict, but, as the film notes, merely with staying alive and supporting his comrades. Captain Stransky, with his questionable un-Germanic name, loses sight of that ethic because of his unnatural desire for the bravery cross; but he maybe sees enough light towards the end to shelve this attitude.This is, obviously, a remarkably fine film. The only reason I'm docking one star is because it seems wrong to have all the good Germans played by American and British actors, and the dodgy German played by a German. Also, the dirty, long-haired, unshaven David Warner doesn't appear to be German at all.

It's 1943 at the Russian front and the Germans are losing. Rolf Steiner (James Coburn) is a superior soldier and leader of men. Aristocratic Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) is the arrogant true-believer new commander. During a bloody battle, the brave Lieutenant Meyer dies leading a heroic counter attack while Steiner is injured and Stransky bumbles in his bunker. The ambitious Stransky claims the counter attack as his own and requests the Iron Cross giving Steiner and the homosexual Lieutenant Triebig as witnesses. After a stay in a hospital, Steiner returns to the front unexpectedly and refuses to lie for Stransky. The order comes to evacuate but Stransky deliberately leaves Steiner and his platoon behind.Director Sam Peckinpah brings alive the war action. The story behind the action is compelling but it is the action that is exceptional. Peckinpah lets loose with an orgy of muddy explosive violence. The war action is relentless. Coburn is terrific as the leader of men. There are memorable sections like the female Russian squad. This follows the great tradition of anti-war movie.

(64%) A raw slice of second world war carnage from director Sam Peckinpah that very nearly dances its way toward being a wartime exploitation flick, but due to the fact that it is so well made, strongly acted, and grippingly intense that it never drops fully down to such trashy levels. The viewpoint is taken from the eyes of the Nazi fighters, made up from an international cast of actors, battling and losing, against the Soviets during one of the final parts of the war. James Coburn leads well despite never truly feeling like the character he plays, but the action is harsh and bloody with fantastically well shot battles as this tries, and largely succeeds, to bring the horror of war to life. Despite the so-so ending, this is worth a look for both war, and Peckinpah fans alike.

I had been aware of this film but it wasn't until recently I purchased it on DVD. Others have noted its similarities in some respects to Stalingrad, but I feel CoI is a superior film. The acting is sharper and we are presented with a range of characters all with different views and attitudes to why they are on the Eastern front, and what they hope to achieve be it glory, sanity or to just survive and get the hell out of there. All of the lead and support actors are very good in their roles, and it is possible this is Coburns best. The villain of the piece here of course is the vain glorious Prussian aristocrat who seeks the Iron Cross for purely personal yet family reasons. He needs to return home as the hero and patriarch and is quite happy to betray the ordinary soldier to obtain his lofty aims. Yet he hates the Nazi's and the 'little corporal and failed painter'. He clearly sees that regardless of how the war ends it will be his class that will eventually rule Germany. The Iron Cross will just be a trophy of his superiority. A good bookend to Stalingrad but IMHO a somewhat more satisfying film.