The worst war movies from the best war novels?

[Trevor]

IMO David Westheimer's Von Ryan's Express and Jack Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed are two of the finest war novels ever. However, not wishing to step on anyone's tootsies, I have to say that Mark Robson and John Sturges' films of the above mentioned films respectively are nothing short of terrible.

If you haven't read the books, then the films are OK. If you have read the books, then the films are bad. 

[Skull]

The only war novel I had read is War of the Worlds and so far I have not see a good movie based on the novel.

Although the 1953 movie was good it still miles away from the actual novel.

[Dennis]

Film versions of novels, with a few exceptions, never seem to be quite as good as the novel they're based on. One of the best war novels I've ever read is "Once an Eagle" by Anton Myrer, it tells the story of Sam Damon, a young man who enlists in the army as a teenager and retires after thirty plus years. This is a great book, but as a television miniseries it's just awful, sadly this seems to be true of most novels I've read that get made into movies.