Steiner - The Iron Cross
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Steiner - The Iron Cross |
| Original title | Cross of Iron |
 | |
| Country of production |
United Kingdom FRG Yugoslavia |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 132 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sam Peckinpah |
| script |
Julius J. Epstein James Hamilton Walter Kelley |
| production | Wolf C. Hartwig ( Rapid Film ) |
| music | Ernest Gold |
| camera | John Coquillon |
| cut |
Michael Ellis Murray Jordan Tony Lawson |
| occupation | |
In other supporting roles:
| |
Steiner - The Iron Cross is a war film by director Sam Peckinpah with James Coburn , James Mason , Maximilian Schell and David Warner in the leading roles. It is the film adaptation of the novel The patient meat by Willi Heinrich .
action
Taman Peninsula 1943: German troops are in retreat from the Red Army . Sergeant Rolf Steiner is on patrol with his raiding party . They discover a Russian post that they take out, killing all soldiers. Only one teenage child soldier survived and was taken away by the Germans. At the same time, Captain Stransky arrives at the regimental commander, Colonel Brandt. Stransky, a Prussian aristocrat , was voluntarily transferred from Biarritz in France to Russia because, in his opinion, "capable men on the Eastern Front" are needed. His arrogant behavior immediately met with displeasure from Brandt and his adjutant , Captain Kiesel. You will immediately see that Stransky and Steiner are two fundamentally different people and that tension will be inevitable.
On leaving the bunker , Stransky met the young lieutenant Meyer, with whom he inquired about Steiner's whereabouts. At that moment, Steiner and his men return from their patrol with the juvenile prisoner. Stransky points out to Steiner that he has to shoot the Russian prisoner, since no prisoners are allowed to be taken by raiding parties. Steiner, however, refuses and in turn asks Stransky to do it himself. He draws his pistol, cocks the tap and holds out this Steiner. Then he repeats the command. In no time at all, Corporal Reisenauer (called "Mustache") clears up the dangerous situation by pretending to want to shoot the boy.
Steiner and Stransky, who is confronted with a dangerous adversary, are now enemies. Steiner was promoted to Sergeant at the intercession of Stransky and Colonel Brandt , but he didn't care much - much to the annoyance of Captain Stransky, who hoped to win him over to his side.
If the Red Army attacks, Stransky is ordered to counterattack. However, he does not have the courage to do so and hides in his bunker. Instead, Lieutenant Meyer leads the attack. He can drive the enemy out of the position, but is killed in the process. Steiner and "Mustache" are wounded. Stransky pretends to have led the counterattack and is proposed to be awarded the Iron Cross . As a witness he names his adjutant Triebig, whom he blackmailed with his homosexuality , as well as the wounded Steiner, to whom he gave a subsequent home leave after the hospital stay . However, after his recovery, Steiner comes straight back to the front from the hospital and is put under pressure by Stransky to confirm the false statement. Steiner refuses. Colonel Brandt checks Stransky's statement with the help of Steiner and recognizes the attempt at deception. However, Steiner does not want to testify against Stransky for the time being and asks for time to think it over.
Stransky's hatred and fear that Steiner might convict him of cowardice are now so great that he deliberately does not inform Steiner's platoon of an ordered retreat so that it falls into the hands of the Russians. Steiner's troop then find themselves in a life-threatening situation. Stransky is certain that Steiner lost his life in the attack. But Steiner and his train manage to escape the inferno.
After a long march through enemy territory with dangerous encounters with Soviet units (including a group of female soldiers) Steiner's train finally reached the German positions. The sergeant sends an encrypted radio message in which he announces his return. Stransky promises Triebig that he will be transferred to France if he "mistakenly" shoots Steiner on arrival. Most of Steiner's men were killed in the massacre carried out by Triebig, but he himself remained unharmed. Triebig admits to having acted on Stransky's orders and is shot by Steiner. Steiner leaves the only two survivors of his platoon, Sergeant Krüger and Corporal Anselm, and goes in search of Stransky. He finds him and wants to kill him, but then he decides to force Stransky to fight on the front lines and show him "where the Iron Crosses grow". The film ends with Steiner, Brandt and Stransky confronting an enormous Russian superiority and seeming to be heading towards certain doom.
background
The film tries to clarify from a German point of view how the most diverse characters no longer fought “for leaders, people and fatherland” and only wanted to survive the war in their own way. It also shows careerists like Hauptmann von Stransky who wanted to win undeserved awards - in this case the Iron Cross ("EK") - on the backs of their men. Heinrich's novel, however, works out this motif much more clearly than the film. The novel shows essential character traits of all people involved. However, director Peckinpah puts the emphasis on action scenes.
criticism
“Elaborate, but psychologically inadequate war film, the sometimes fascinating visual and tension force of which makes the war appear more of a character demanding adventure despite critical intentions. One of the greatest box office successes of German cinema of the seventies. "
“One rubs one's eyes again and again and does not want to believe it: the terrible and senseless retreat of German troops on the Eastern Front as a brightly colored Western that is hardly about anything other than right and wrong heroism […]. "Steiner - The Iron Cross" is the greatest political embarrassment that the German film industry has suffered in recent years. "
Awards
- The film received the golden screen in 1977 .
- In 1978 he received the rating "Valuable" from the Wiesbaden film evaluation office .
Trivia
The music, which underlies the minute-long opening credits, is a composition from the children's song Hänschen klein and a variation of the Horst Wessel song .
continuation
The second part of the drama appeared under the title Steiner - Das Eiserne Kreuz II in 1979. The production with Richard Burton (as Steiner), Rod Steiger , Robert Mitchum , Helmut Griem (as Major Stransky), Joachim Hansen and Curd Jürgens can follow Most of the critics' opinion regarding script and performance does not come close to the level of the first part. In addition, the location was moved to the Western Front after the invasion of Normandy to accommodate American cinema viewers.
literature
- Willi Heinrich: Steiner - The patient meat . Herbig, 2000, ISBN 3-7766-2182-6 . (1st edition 1955)
Web links
- Trailer on YouTube , accessed October 3, 2019.
- Steiner - The Iron Cross in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Steiner - The Iron Cross at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Steiner - The Iron Cross at Filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steiner - The Iron Cross. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Ruf: A super piece of work, super embarrassing. "Steiner - The Iron Cross" . In: German General Sunday Gazette . No. 6/1977 , February 6, 1977, Kulturmagazin, p. 13 .