History Film / TheEagleHasLanded

* AdaptedOut: The present day BookEnds, Steiner's father and his arc involving being imprisoned by the Gestapo, renegade Brit Harvey Preston and his arc explaining how he came to be fighting on the German side [[TruthInTelevision as there really was a (very small) SS unit comprising of British and Commonwealth soldiers recruited from POW camps [[/note]] and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin and their own arc are not present in the film adaptation.

* AdaptedOut: The present day BookEnds, Steiner's father and his arc involving being imprisoned by the Gestapo, British member of the German paratroopers Harvey Preston and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin and their own arc are not present in the film adaptation.

* TheScapegoat: [[spoiler: Hitler never signed off for the mission to capture Churchill; Himmler faked the order, and while visibly upset that the mission failed he was able to easily buck the blame to Radl and have him executed for "treason", since he was "exceeding his authority". Radl seems vaguely aware of this, but can't do anything about it, though he claims he was "measured for my casket months ago"]] - though that was probably just to tease his doctor rather than because of [[spoiler:presentiments of death.]]

-->'''Verecker:''' "Colonel, my one consolation is that thanks to my sister, your plot has failed."\\
'''Steiner:''' "Really? [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished I thought the plot failed because one of my men died saving the little girl out there]]."

* TragicVillain: Radl, Steiner, and Steiner's men could easily be the heroes if this movie if they just weren't fighting for the wrong side. [[spoiler: The Nazis screw them over, ruthlessly use them, and basically get them all killed.]]
* VillainProtagonist / NaziProtagonist: The protagonists are a group of German commandos trying to assassinate Churchill under orders from Heinrich Himmler. The film does establish that the commandos themselves are honorable men [[MyCountryRightOrWrong concerned only with their mission]] and are disgusted by the war crimes they witness, even if their bosses might be mass murderers.

!!This film provides examples of:

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the book, Himmler [[PetTheDog ordered to have Steiner and his crew to wear their uniforms underneath their disguises so they do not get prosecuted as spies]], however, in the movie, it was Steiner's demand alone to wear their German uniforms under their Polish ones, Himmler on-screen never suggested such a thing as he never cared for the lives of Steiner and his men.

''The Eagle Has Landed'' is a 1976 UsefulNotes/WorldWarII film directed by John Sturges and [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the novel of the same name]] by Jack Higgins, detailing a fictional plot to capture or kill UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill by a group of German commandos. Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/DonaldSutherland and Creator/RobertDuvall star as, respectively, the leader of the squad, their Irish nationalist liaison, and the German colonel in charge of masterminding the mission. Also in the cast are Creator/JennyAgutter, Creator/DonaldPleasence, Creator/JeanMarsh, Creator/TreatWilliams, and Creator/LarryHagman.

''The Eagle Has Landed'' is a 1976 UsefulNotes/WorldWarII film directed by John Sturges and [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the book of the same name]] by Jack Higgins, detailing a fictional plot to capture or kill UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill by a group of German commandos. Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/DonaldSutherland and Creator/RobertDuvall star as the leader of the squad, their Irish nationalist liaison, and the German colonel in charge of masterminding the mission.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: The German paratroopers disguise themselves as a Polish unit. Subverted, in that they wear their German uniforms underneath.

* BadBoss: [[spoiler: Himmler has Radl executed by firing squad to distance himself from the failed operation, using Radl as a scapegoat and making it seem like exceeded his own orders after Himmler manipulated/forced him to carry it out. Averted with ReasonableAuthorityFigure Canaris, however, who Radl tells his junior staff officer will protect him and his family from reprisal.]]

* DefiantCaptive: Father Verecker.

* GloryHound: Colonel Pitts refuses to call in the presence of the Germans to the British or other American units so he can hog all the glory for himself.
* HeroAntagonist: The Allied forces of course.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Steiner's and his men's act of trying to rescue a Jewish girl from the Holocaust is what led them to face a court-martial by their [[ThoseWackyNazis SS rivals]], transferred to a penal colony for his men to die one at a time in suicide attacks and eventually embarked on a mission to kill or capture Churchill, which happens to be their only means of escaping court-martial.

* ActorAllusion: This is not the first time Robert Duvall played a sympathetic WWII German Wehrmacht character, as Duvall previously guest-starred in two episodes of ''Series/{{Combat}}'' as a Heer medic named Peter Halsman and a Heer demolition expert named Karl.

* AdaptedOut: The present day BookEnds, Steiner's father and his arc being imprisoned by the Gestapo, British member of the German paratroopers Harvey Preston and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin and their own arc are not present in the film adaptation.

* InspectorJavert: Colonel Pitts and especially Father Verecker towards the German paratroopers.

* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Captain Clark is this to Steiner and men. He even gave Steiner and his team a chance to surrender without any bloodshed, however Steiner chooses to FaceDeathWithDignity and remain DefiantToTheEnd since he's an enemy soldier.

* AdaptedOut: The present day BooksEnds, Steiner's father and his arc being imprisoned by the Gestapo, British member of the German paratroopers Harvey Preston and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin and their own arc are not present in the film adaptation.

* AdaptedOut: Steiner's father, British member of the German paratroopers Harvey Preston and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin are not present in the film adaptation.

* AlasPoorVillain: Steiner's team who were all killed in the line of duty with Neumann and Devlin as exceptions are given this treatment by the Allied forces who respected them and in the book weren't posthumously honored and completely forgiven by the townspeople and the vicar until after the war. Only Preston (who was AdaptedOut in the film) wasn't acknowledged in the posthumous honor in the book.

* BadassPreacher: After learning the truth about Steiner and his men, Father Verecker remains defiant with his anti-Nazi PatrioticFervor against them. In the book, it is revealed Verecker used to be a military chaplain until a CareerEndingInjury caused by a German bullet to the face cuts his service short causing him to have a personal grudge against the Nazis for his disfiguration (which Father Verecker doesn't have in the film, making his hostility towards the Germans being mostly out of patriotism rather then also personal reasons).

* ShutUpKirk: Steiner quickly gets fed up with Father Verecker's posturing.

'''Steiner:''' "Really? I thought the plot failed because one of my men died saving the little girl out there."

* ThoseWackyNazis: Played straight with Himmler and the SS handling the Holocaust, averted with Steiner and his platoon, who are disgusted with their government's crimes against humanity and only undergo a mission to kidnap Churchill to escape court-martial after trying to save a Jewish girl. Averted with Radl, his junior staff officer played by Michael Byrne and Admiral Canaris (like in RealLife) as well.

* AlasPoorVillain: Steiner's team who were all killed in the line of duty with Neumann as an exception are given this treatment by the Allied forces who respected them and in the book weren't posthumously honored and completely forgiven by the townspeople and the vicar until after the war. Only Preston (who was AdaptedOut in the film) wasn't acknowledged in the posthumous honor in the book.

* AlasPoorVillain: Steiner's team who were all killed in the line of duty are given this treatment by the Allied forces who respected them and in the book weren't posthumously honored and completely forgiven by the townspeople and the vicar until after the war.

* AdaptedOut: British member of the German paratroopers Harvey Preston and the Special Branch detectives hunting Devlin are not present in the film adaptation.

* InspectorJavert: Colonel Pitts.

* DeathByAdaptation: Downplayed, Arthur Seymour is shot dead by Molly, while in the book he survives up to after the war only to die in a drunk driving accident.

* DeathByAdaptation: Arthur Seymour is shot dead by Molly, while in the book he survives up to after the war.

* GeniusBonus: [[spoiler: a couple of other tropes note that Radl tells Karl that Admiral Canaris will protect his family. In real life, Himmler was on to Canaris and less than six months after the events of this film are said to have taken place, Canaris was put under house arrest and his department abolished. After the bomb plot against Hitler, Canaris was arrested, humiliated, and eventually executed in a concentration camp in the final month of the war. He would not have been in a position to help Karl.]]

** [[spoiler: Most of the troops who proposed BolivianArmyEnding to help Steiner escape.]]

* TheScapeGoat: [[spoiler: Hitler never signed off for the mission to capture Churchill; Himmler faked the order, and while visibly upset that the mission failed he was able to easily buck the blame to Radl and have him executed for "treason", since he was "exceeding his authority". Radl seems vaguely aware of this, but can't do anything about it, though he claims he was "measured for my casket months ago"]] - though that was probably just to tease his doctor rather than because of [[spoiler:presentiments of death.]]

* GloryHound: Colonel Pitts refuses to call in the presence of the Germans to the British so he can hog all the glory for himself.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Captain Clark is this for Colonel Pitt. Unlike Pitt, he is not a GloryHound and actually does value diplomacy and tactical approaches.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Michael Caine as Colonel Steiner, a German paratrooper posing as a Polish officer for much of the film. While the German characters all speak English, at no point does he even attempt to affect a German or Polish accent, even when the rest of his men do.