See the Audie Murphy Version too..

After watching the 1958 original film tonight, I can say that while this newer version follows the book much more closely than the 1958 original did, I think the original succeeded in translating the intended statement to the audience more clearly than this version does and is worth seeing. Also, the '58 is a symbol of it's time: the British and American character roles are reversed so that the American can be the 'hero' in an era of virulent American patriotism -- and those qualities are unintentionally 'the point' of the novel and make watching both films worth your time.

Those days of McCarthyism, red baiting, the blacklist and congressional tribunals are not so far away in our distant past, it's nice to have this 2002 film that is true to the novel to view in contrast.

For more about the 1958 version, see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052106/