Cross of Iron (1977 Sam Peckinpah)

Yes, a very tight anti-war film, reminiscent of the Sven Hassel novels, though in fact based on Willi Heinrich's novel 'Das Geduldige Fleisch' ('The Willing Flesh') published in 1955 and based on his own experiences on the Eastern Front.

James Coburn (one of my favourites) is perfect in the lead, with good support from officer material in the shape of James Mason, David Warner and Maximilian Schell. But all the cast is good: Dieter Schidor, Klaus Löwitsch, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Burkhard Driest and Senta Berger as a sympathetic nurse.

Yes, the montage that comes out of battle into hospital - Steiner's concussion - is seriously brilliantly done, and the ensuing hospital scenes. Indeed the editing, by Tony Lawson and Michael Ellis, is outstanding throughout, and the great underpraised cinematographer John Coquillon shoots in a suitably melancholic hue. (He died too young - 56.)

Has a most memorable ending also (which, incidentally, seems to have come about because the production ran out of money). Orson Welles reportedly loved it.