MovieChat Forums > Fatherland (1994) Discussion > Such a good book

Such a good book

posted 18 years ago by DannyRK
3 replies | jump to latest

I must have burned through Harris's "Fatherland" in three days, couldn't put it down. The way he reveals the different parts of the alternate history was genius, just telling the whole history of the German victory all at once would not have worked as well.

Too bad a bigger studio with a bigger budget didn't make the movie version. The whole premise of D-Day being the "turning point" is unrealistic, even if the Germans held Normandy, their losses on the Eastern Front were so great that the USSR still would have taken Berlin.

Having the Germans take the Caucasus as the "turning point" was smart, it showed how important oil supplies were in WW2.

[–] Rueiro 11 years ago

First I saw the film, and found the ending laughable and total rubbish. Then I read the book, and it beats the film by a mile. How the screenwriter managed to make such a terrible mess with the story is something he should be ashamed of.

[–] jersey-3 10 years ago

Loved the book! I think HBO did as best as could be expected for the time...but it did boil the book down WAY TOO MUCH.

I, too, flew through the book. I read the hardcover version while on an airplane. It is a little disturbing when there is a giant swastika on the cover. People give you weird looks.

[–] karpizan 8 years ago

The film is a miserable, watered-down, bowdlerised version of the book and is barely worthy of carrying the same name.

Robert Harris has distanced himself from it although he only has himself to blame as it's obvious he took mega-bucks from HBO for the film rights and thereby surrendered any input into the final screenplay, let alone the casting - I'm not knocking the cast members (they're all quality thespians) but they are pretty much all square pegs shoved inappropriately into very round holes. None of them even remotely display the characteristics of the individuals they're meant to be portraying.

Sadly, this was an opportunity to turn a terrific book into a terrific film which was well and truly wasted.