History Film / CrossOfIron

* HateSink: Stransky is not only a vain and arrogant Prussian officer who feels entitled to an Iron Cross, but one who is willing to lie and sacrifice the lives of the men under his command so he can win glory under false pretenses.

->'''Captain Keisel''': Prepare for the next one.

* DeadpanSnarker: Brandt and Kiesel both have moments of this when they first meet Stransky. When Stransky asks Kiesel how he is, Kiesel sarcastically replies that he has dysentery, thanks for asking. And when Stransky tells Brandt that he asked to be transferred from France to the Eastern Front because he wants the Iron Cross, Brandt, who has been awarded multiple Iron Crosses, reaches into his pocket and sarcastically says he can give Stransky one of his.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: David Warner plays Captain Keisel with an unapologetic English accent.
* NothingPersonal: Steiner out and out tells Brandt and Keisel he hates them, not because of any personality faults, but because he hates officers as a class.

* TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter: Steiner and some of his men capture a number of Russian [=PPSh-41=] submachine guns and their accompanying drum magazines. They use these almost exclusively for the rest of the film rather than their standard-issue [=MP-40s=].

* AdultFear: A member of Steiner's squad asks him where his children are. He simply responds with "I don't know."

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Zoll]] suffers a brutal and humiliating GroinAttack and is soon after killed after he tries to rape a female Russian soldier. It's hard to feel sorry for him.

* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: Lance Corporal "Schnurrbart": see the entry for BadassMustache.

* BadassMustache: Lance Corporal Reisenauer sports a doozy. His nickname is Schnurrbart ([[BilingualBonus German for mustache]]).

The film focuses on a German infantry regiment commanded by the war-weary Colonel Brandt (Creator/JamesMason), whose subordinates include his embittered adjutant, Captain Kiesel (Creator/DavidWarner), and the battle-hardened, officer-hating Corporal (later Sergeant) Steiner (Creator/JamesCoburn). Their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Captain Stransky (Creator/MaximilianSchell), an arrogant, aristocratic Prussian and a GloryHound who wants to win the Iron Cross. When Steiner refuses to lie for Stransky when the latter tries to claim credit for an attack that might get him the Iron Cross, a battle of wills ensues between the two men, and when Steiner and his squad end up behind enemy lines, he soon discovers that there are people out for his blood in both directions.

A 1977 film directed by Creator/SamPeckinpah, and his only war movie, [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] the 1955 German novel ''The Willing Flesh'' by Willi Heinrich, who served during the war and was wounded five times. It is set on the Eastern Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, specifically the retreat from the Taman Peninsula during the Russian offensive of 1943-1945. It is also notable for using a large number of accurate Soviet and German weapons and vehicles, thanks to being filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}.

!!Provides Examples Of:

[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cross_of_iron_ver2_4220.jpg]]

A 1977 film directed by Creator/SamPeckinpah, and his only war movie, based on the novel ''The Willing Flesh'' by Willi Heinrich, who served during the war and was wounded five times. It is set on the Eastern Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, specifically the retreat from the Taman Peninsula during the Russian offensive of 1943-1945. It is also notable for using a large number of accurate Soviet and German weapons and vehicles, thanks to being filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Zoll, who is the only truly committed Nazi among the main characters, suffers a brutal and humiliating GroinAttack and is soon after killed after he tries to rape a female Russian soldier. It's hard to feel sorry for him.]]

* TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter: Steiner and some of his men capture a number of Russian PPSh-41 submachine guns and their accompanying drum magazines. They use these almost exclusively for the rest of the film rather than their standard-issue MP-40s.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Sergeant Rolf Steiner carries a Russian PPSh-41 sub-machine gun originally chambered for 7.62x25 Tokarev, a round the Germans did not (officially) use, but the 41 was easily rebarrelled for a 9 millimeter parabellum round, which the Germans did use, and the weapon was, in fact, adopted by the Germans as the [=MP717(r)=]. While the drum magazine worked with 9mm ammo, the Russian curved stick magazine did not. If the Germans chose to use stick magazines with this gun, they had to modify the magazine housing to accept German issue [=MP38=]/40 magazines. However, doing this would prevent the use of the drum magazines. So Steiner's weapon, therefore, may be in the original caliber, or may have been rebarrelled for 9mm parabellum, but had not been modified for German stick magazines.

* ChildSoldiers: The squad capture one during an attack on a Russian mortar position. They adopt him, but Steiner eventually releases him. [[spoiler: he is gunned down by attacking Russians]]. Another one, played by the same actor but with dyed hair, shows up in the finale [[spoiler: and shoots at Stransky]].

The film focuses on a German infantry regiment commanded by the war-weary Colonel Brandt (Creator/JamesMason), whose subordinates include his embittered adjutant, Captain Kiesel (Creator/DavidWarner), and the battle-hardened, officer-hating Corporal (later Sergeant) Steiner (Creator/JamesCoburn). Their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), an arrogant, aristocratic Prussian and a GloryHound who wants to win the Iron Cross. When Steiner refuses to lie for Stransky when the latter tries to claim credit for an attack that might get him the Iron Cross, a battle of wills ensues between the two men, and when Steiner and his squad end up behind enemy lines, he soon discovers that there are people out for his blood in both directions.

* MonsterSobStory: At one point, Stransky privately admits to being a coward and even says he didn't want to be a soldier. But had he refused, his family would have disowned him.

* DefeatAsBackstory: The film begins by showing footage of German generals surrendering at Stalingrad; for the rest of the film, there's a feeling among the German soldiers serving on the Eastern Front that the tide of the war has turned permanently against them.

The film focuses on a German infantry regiment commanded by the war-weary Colonel Brandt (Creator/JamesMason), whose subordinates include his embittered adjutant, Captain Kiesel (Creator/DavidWarner) and the battle-hardened, officer-hating Corporal (later Sergeant) Steiner (Creator/JamesCoburn). Their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), an arrogant, aristocratic Prussian and a GloryHound who wants to win the Iron Cross. When Steiner refuses to lie for Stransky when the latter tries to claim credit for an attack that might get him the Iron Cross, a battle of wills ensues between the two men, and when Steiner and his squad end up behind enemy lines, he soon discovers that there are people out for his blood in both directions.

* DefeatAsBackstory: Sergeant Steiner's reaction to Zoll raping one of the female Russian soldiers then beating her is to lock him in a room with the girl's comrades.
* DoWithHimAsYouWill: The film begins by showing footage of German generals surrendering at Stalingrad; for the rest of the film, there's a feeling among the German soldiers serving on the Eastern Front that the tide of the war has turned permanently against them.

A 1977 film directed by Creator/SamPeckinpah, and his only war movie, based on the novel ''The Willing Flesh'' by Willi Heinrich, who served during the war and was wounded five times. According to Creator/QuentinTarantino, it's the inspiration for ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''. It is set on the Eastern Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, specifically the retreat from the Taman Peninsula during the Russian offensive of 1943-1945. It is also notable for using a large number of accurate Soviet and German weapons and vehicles, thanks to being filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}.

* BolivianArmyEnding: Brandt, when the situation becomes hopeless, rallies several soldiers and leads a counterattack. [[spoiler:The way the scene is shot strongly implies he will be killed in action.]]
* {{Bookends}}: Both the very first sound we hear as the opening credits begin and the very last sound we hear as the closing credits finish are a single child's voice singing the first line of the German folk song "Hänschen klein" by Franz Wiedemann.

* TanksButNoTanks: The film takes place in 1943; the Soviet tanks in the movie are [=T-34-85s=] which weren't even used until 1944.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Zoll.]]

* AFatherToHisMen: Sergeant Steiner, Lieutenant Meyer and Colonel Brandt.

* GratuitousRussian: Most of the time the "Russians" are actually speaking Serbo-Croatian. Especially noticeable when the soldiers in the truck sing "Oj Kozaro", a Yugoslav partisan song.

* NewMeat: Private Dietz.

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Steiner]] is the only survivor of his squad in the end. All the others are either dead or seriously wounded.

* UncertainDoom: While the movie ends in the middle of a battle, it's not likely many Germans survived, including the remaining major characters. The only major character who ''may'' have survived is [[spoiler:Kiesel, who is last seen slumped in the sidecar of a departing motorcycle after Brandt orders him evacuated from the front lines so that he can help to re-build what is left of Germany after the war]].
* UnfriendlyFire: It happens towards the end of the movie, and it isn't pretty. [[spoiler: Stransky arranged it deliberately, aiming to get rid of Steiner. He fails, but all of Steiner's remaining soldiers end up either dead or seriously wounded.]]

The film focuses on a German infantry division commanded by the war-weary Colonel Brandt (Creator/JamesMason), whose subordinates include the embittered Captain Kiesel (Creator/DavidWarner) and the battle-hardened, officer-hating Corporal (later Sergeant) Steiner (Creator/JamesCoburn). Their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), an arrogant, aristocratic Prussian and a GloryHound who wants to win the Iron Cross. When Steiner refuses to lie for Stransky when the latter tries to claim credit for an attack that might get him the Iron Cross, a battle of wills ensues between the two men, and when Steiner and his squad end up behind enemy lines, he soon discovers that there are people out for his blood in both directions.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Steiner's reaction to [[spoiler:Zoll raping one of the female Russian soldiers then beating her is to lock him in a room with the girl's comrades.]]

* '70sHair: Not surprising given the release year, most of the principal actors have 1970s hair-styles. (The actors in the 1993 Stalingrad film have era-appropriate haircuts.) Can be partially explained away by the general situation the characters are in - fighting for their lives on a collapsing front. One would still be hard-pressed to find anything but extremely rare exceptions in period photography, even in the most bitterly contested theatres.