Cross of Iron must be the worst film about the eastern front. Here's why:

The german soldiers speak English, they have seventies haircuts, they wear their uniforms incorrect, they sneak through the bush like it's Vietnam, armed with knives, german officers piss against trucks in front of their men. So many historical inaccuracies... it's ridiculous. I would not recommend it

«Cross of Iron» is probably by far one of the best movies; for 1970s it was really good.

I agree with Panfilov. As a film attempting to convey the anarchic brutality, futility and ultimate absurdity of war, Cross of Iron does a good job. The characters are well drawn, and, for me at least, the errors in realism didn't seriously distact from an appreciation of the film.

Cross of Iron was a different kind of movie compared to what I was watching back then, good stuff all in all.

Anyone watch The Pacific series from HBO? Not quite what I expected but not to bad either, its just that I expected more in some episodes.

Cheers

Tom

Watched it and stopped in the middle, it was becoming a bit stupid, with one scene I did not know if to laugh or cry. I think it was either in episode 2 or 3 the guy was running through the jungle holding M1917 Browning in his arms, fully loaded with a belt, and then a Japanese soldier jumped right in front of him. So the dude shot him with a machine gun by just pulling a trigger and then just kept on running.

A M1917 Browning weights over 15Kg + water + ammunition all of which probably amounts to 20kg+. I don't know if you ever seen one, especially in action, but it's not a very comfortable to either shoot from without a tripod and definitely not from holding it in your hands. And if you do manage to shoot it from your hands, which this dude did by holding the thing like a machine gun!, the hit-back would be such that you would definitely drop the thing. So unless the dude is a Schwarzenegger, and the dude did not look like one, that's not very possible.

«Band of Brothers» was hell of a lot better, and a lot more original.

Though I just did found Ermey doing it . I saw this thing in action and to shoot and run with it....

So there you go Panfilov, it can be done!

I shot from M1917, it was a lot of fun!!!! $100 of ammunition in like 7 mins... it took us like an hour to put the belt together We had to assemble the thing, put it on the tripod, fill it with water, and load the ammunition. I am not a small boy but when I picked this thing up fully loaded (water and ammo).... you can bench press the thing easily. However, running and shooting with it — trust me it's only possible on HBO.

I just didn't like «Pacific.» Band of Brothers was a lot more original.