Cross of Iron
Cross of Iron is a 1977 film about conflicts that arise within the leadership of a Wehrmacht regiment during the German withdrawal from the Taman Peninsula on the Soviet Crimea in 1943 on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Men on the front lines of Hell
- Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Written by Julius J. Epstein, James Hamilton, Willi Heinrich and Walter Kelley.
Captain Kiesel
- (When asked by Captain Stransky to describe who Steiner is)
- Steiner, is a myth. Men like him are our last hope and in that sense, he is a truly dangerous man.
Sergeant Steiner
- (As he is releasing a captured young Russian soldier):
- It's all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever. Yet we stand here in the middle of no man's land. Me and You.
- (To Captain Stransky, after Stranksy says "I'll show you how a Prussian officer can fight" ))
- And I will show you, where the Iron Crosses grow.
- (To Leutnant Triebig who had just gunned down most of Steiner's platoon))
- STOP!!! YOU.
Dialogue
- Colonel Brandt: What will we do when we lose the war?
- Captain Kiesel: Prepare for the next one.
- (As Steiner cradles the young and naive Private Dietz, who had just been stabbed by a female Russian prisoner of war)
- Ansel: Do you believe in God Sergeant?"
- Steiner: I believe that God is a sadist, but probably doesn't even know it.
- (Bertold Brecht quote at end of movie)
- Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world stood up and stopped the Bastard, the Bitch that bore him is in heat again.
- Unteroffizier Schnurrbart: Rolf, what are we doing here?
- Sgt. Steiner: We are spreading the German culture throughout a desperate world.