Cross of Iron
Yep, I missed the boat again. Great Sam Peckinpah film on the Eastern Front with James Coburn!
Cross of Iron - that's a good one too. Sam Peckinpah made some great movies - and some pretty bad ones too (as in "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"). The worst part of Cross of Iron was the attempt at a psychedlic fantasy between James Coburn and Senta Berger. That just did not fit. Otherwise, it was a superb rendition of the hopeless German experience on the Russian Front in WWII.
Has anyone ever seen "The Night of the Generals"? That was written by the same German author as Cross of Iron. It chronicled a Wehrmacht general officer who liked to murder prostitutes and the local policeman who hunted him down. As I recall, Peter O'Toole played the part of the General. He makes a really good psycho! It was loosely based on that sick b@st@rd Reinhold Heidrich.
The Wild Bunch was Peckinpah's best, though. You just can't beat a movie that stars William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson drinking, fighting, and carousing in Mexico in the early 1900's. That was a group of Men's men if there ever was one.
What a powerful book that is. Good flick, too.