SAM PECKINPAH DIRECTING | CROSS OF IRON (1977) BTS photo

[Los Angeles]: Avco Embassy, 1977. Vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white photo. Photo agency sticker on verso, fine.

Director Sam Peckinpah behind the camera for his brutal WWII film. Fans of the film include Quentin Tarantino, who used it as inspiration for his film Inglourious Basterds. Orson Welles, when he saw the film, cabled Peckinpah, praising the latter’s film as “the best war film he had seen about the ordinary enlisted man since All Quiet on the Western Front.” Iain Johnstone, reviewing the film’s release on Blu-ray in June 2011, praised the film, saying Cross of Iron bears all the hallmarks of a real classic, which ranks with Peckinpah’s finest work. As a poignant reminder of the sheer brutal obscenity of war, it has rarely been equalled.” Mike Mayo wrote in his book War Movies: Classic Conflict on Film that Cross of Iron, Sam Peckinpah’s only war film, “is a forgotten masterpiece that has never really managed to overcome its troubled and expensive production.” (Wikipedia)