Based on the novel about German soldiers on the eastern front, during the lull before the Kursk offensive in July 1943.
The incompetent Wehrmacht Hauptman (Captain) Stransky (Maximillian Schell) admits he wants nothing more then to win the Iron Cross. Stransky will do anything to get it. In one scene the unjustly demoted and disgraced Sargeant Steiner (James Coburn) is baffled by this admission, and simply tosses his own Iron Cross across Stransky's desk - "You want the Iron Cross? Here - take it!"

One of the best movies of the 1970's. Directed by Sam Peckinpah. stars James Mason, Coburn, Maximiliian Shell, Senta Berger. Filmed in the former Yugoslavia.