It is 1943 and the German army, ravaged and demoralized, are hastily retreating from the Russian front. Conflict brews between Corporal Stiener, whose main concerns lie with the safety of his men, and Captain Stransky, who longs for the Iron Cross so he can return to Berlin a hero.

For his only war film, Sam Peckinpah transposed his poetic studies in futility and violence from the American west to the Russian front. Assuming a German perspective, Cross of Iron unflinchingly depicts the tail end of a barbarous campaign and the vicious conflict between its superlative leads.