The film changes quite a few major points from source novel. The novel is 95 percent training, and the actual mission is mentioned only in the last few pages, as the official report. Many character names and attributes are also changed. Posey, for instance, is a full-blooded native American (and a giant like Clint Walker) and is impossible to disguise, so his job is set according to that. Jefferson is called Napoleon White in the novel, and he's a Lieutenant. One night, he's harassed in a bar by some drunk soldiers, and is beaten and raped by them afterwards, and he ends up killing them (hence his sentence of death). Maggot is pretty much the same racist and psychopath, except in the novel he's much worse. And Corporal Morgan is a hangman, a character absolutely hated by each one of the characters including Reisman, and he's finally excluded from the mission. The biggest change, though, is one point that would have changed the movie's tone radically: In the book, Franco doesn't believe he'll be pardoned, and tries to surrender to the Germans, and is therefore shot by Sergeant Bowren.

Film

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