Cross of Iron
1977, R, 119 min.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, Senta Berger, James Mason, David Warner, Klaus Lowitsch, Walter Kelly.

This is the final film in the Peckinpah series (the second Sunday TV program has been canceled). This is also the only print of Cross of Iron known to exist in the U.S. (Rumor has it that folks are flying in from Los Angeles and elsewhere just to catch this rare screening.) This war film is also Peckinpah’s last great movie (his three subsequent films never had the same fire and gusto). Cross of Iron is a WWII movie seen through the eyes of German protagonists. Incredible montage sequences and another parable about Peckinpah’s embattled position within the film industry can be found within

This article appears in December 3 • 1999.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.