MovieChat Forums > The Eagle Has Landed (1976) Discussion > DONT read the book first and then watch ...

DONT read the book first and then watch the movie...

posted 17 years ago by tejas_itraj2
2 replies | jump to latest

...you'll be in for a disappointment.

I made the mistake. The book is superbly well written, and by far the best Jack Higgins novel. It is also very well followed up by The Eagle Has Flown.

There were several aspects of the movie which were disappointing; and biggest disappointment though came from Liam Devlin. In the books, Devlin is portrayed as a very witty, cunning and resourceful man. As one reads the book, one actually comes to admire the character a lot, who is also extremely entertaining. I feel Donald Sutherland failed to bring out the real Devlin.

So I can not offer a neutral opinion about this movie, as the book had raised the standards too high, and the movie could not reach those standards.

[–] gooney_77 16 years ago

i made that mistake too. i watched the movie and it felt like the story was rushed. that they wanted to stay with the plot. a group of german soldiers parachuted into england to kidnap churchill. the end. it didnt go into a lot of character detail like the novel. i would have liked to feel something more steiners character. i mean he was a great, noble, soldier. that wasnt brought out in the film. neither was devlin. they were the two main characters and their roles were flat. there wasnt any chemistry between them or any of the characters in the movie. people say it was a good movie. for 1976 yeah. but a lot of other biopics stayed true to books and proved to be better films. this one wasnt.

[–] crayonzero 16 years ago

Absolutely.

I was quite annoyed when I first saw the film, being so lacking in the depth of the novel.
It was a decent film but it could have been a great one.

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