The film's portrayal of the relationship between Landor and Poe is effective (and upon review, arguably one of the movie's best parts), but it almost entirely skips one of the biggest and best parts of the book: the gradual buildup of a genuine father-son relationship, one they both desperately need.
The movie only truly touches on this dynamic at its very end, when a regretful Landor wonders how much better life would have become if Poe had somehow met and married Landor's daughter Mathilde (Hadley Robinson). The book, on the other hand, dives into this hypothetical early and often. The height of this dynamic, at least emotionally, comes when Poe's childhood foster father, John Allan, comes to visit the boy at West Point.
Allan, sick of Poe's lifestyle and alleged lack of character, has come to the academy to cut the boy off from financial support, and to tell him off. In a fit of defensive rage that surprises even himself, Landor slams Allan against the wall and hisses at him, "You bastard. He's worth a hundred of you." Then Landor, always the self-deprecating old sot, releases him and adds gently, "If it's any consolation, Mr. Allan, he's worth a thousand of me."
