ranxerox wrote:Normally I would be turned off by a fellow who graphically confuses rape with good sex, but Peck knew how to put such ambivalence into contexts which made the resultant ill ease instructive.

Jeff wrote:So that queasy feeling I get during the rape scene in Cross of Iron is really a teaching moment?

I hate to sound dense, but what exactly am I learning?

Jeff wrote:So that queasy feeling I get during the rape scene in Cross of Iron is really a teaching moment?

I hate to sound dense, but what exactly am I learning?

The other standout set-piece revolves around Steiner’s men coming upon a group of female Russian soldiers. Steiner and his men engage in a fire fight with a platoon of female Russian soldiers. They quickly gain the upper hand. The men, who at first seem menacing to the women, fall prey to these enemy soldiers. The women defuse the situation by appearing to be sexually interested in the men. The leader of the Russians takes on the most volatile and aggressive of Steiner’s men. She sends looks to the others as she willfully submits to this brutality. The women know what to do. The youngest woman is told to seduce a young German who has barely reached puberty. With these two young people, Sam shows the horror of rape in a very ironic way. The young girl puts the young soldier at ease. She looks at him as if she loves him. She then clumsily thrusts a bayonet into his stomach as she covers his mouth. She sobs uncontrollably as the blade first penetrates her victim. She is overcome by the horror of the act as she watches the young man die. Sam shows what its like to be raped with both of the characters. The male is the one penetrated. He cries out in agony and dies with a bewildered look on his face. A look of betrayal. A look that has crossed the faces of many a rape victim. The female cries as she is forced to kill or be kill. She cries for her lost innocence. Another more experienced Russian orally castrates one of Stiener's men as he forces her to perform fellatio on him. Steiner saves the rest of his men by leaving the castrated soldier to be tortured by the women. Ulysses saving his men from the sirens. War is hell.

Bernardo wrote:I certainly don't expect to see a representation of the world as I wish it would be every time I see a movie or read a book.