Brando's interpretation of Christian Diestel was quite different from the book. In the book, He does start out as in the movie, a simple man who is ski instructor and lives off the tips he makes from tourists. When he joins the army he is never permitted to go above the rank of Sergeant because someone in his family had been in the communist party. He is at first bitter about this, but as time goes on through each battle and horrifying experience he slowy becomes more hate-filled and fanatical. Towards the end of the film when he finds Simone again and is told about his friend's plans of deserting, he leaves not because of honor, but because he decides to turn them all in. He makes his way to Germany and ends up killing Noah who is walking with Michael in the woods. He is about to kill Michael when he accidently steps on a landmine. Michael then ends up finishing Christian off.
Brando felt that after 10 years, it would be important to show Christian as a humane person. I believe it was a great choice and performance, but the original reason of Irwin Shaw's interpretation of Christian was to show how a simple man could be inwardly destroyed by the war and the machinations of cruel beliefs like Nazism.
I do believe that there were many German soldiers who were gravely horrified by the camps, but sadly there were all too many who let it happen and also perpetuated the existence of such horrors.
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