The Keep

Plot synopsis:
Within an uninhabited citadel (the “Keep” of the title) in World War II-era Romania lies entrapped a dangerous demonic entity named Radu Molasar (Michael Carter). The inner walls of the citadel contain 108 T-shaped icons, supposedly made of nickel. When the German Army under the command of Capt. Klaus Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow) occupies the castle to control the Dinu Mountain Pass following the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Molasar is unleashed by a pair of looting soldiers who identify one glowing icon as being made of silver. In the ensuing days, Molasar kills several soldiers. A detachment of Einsatzkommandos under the command of sadistic SD Sturmbannführer Eric Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) then arrives to deal with what is thought to be partisan activity, executing villagers as collective punishment.
At the instigation of the local priest, the Germans retrieve a Jewish historian, Prof. Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen), from a concentration camp. He deciphers a mysterious message emblazoned on a wall of the citadel. Molasar saves the professor's daughter, Eva (Alberta Watson), from sexual assault by two Einsatzkommandos by feeding on their essence, and then enlists the aid of her grateful father to escape. Cuza is also cured of his debilitating scleroderma by the touch of Molasar and therefore becomes doubly indebted to the entity, who is taking on a solid form. However, a mysterious stranger named Glaeken (Scott Glenn) suddenly arrives to foil this plan. After an unsuccessful attempt by the professor to have the stranger stopped, the two supernatural beings confront each other. Molasar, who is not perturbed by Christian crosses, is weakened and drawn back into the innermost recesses. Glaeken is transfixed, taking the place of the seal that was broken by the German looters.

Tags: fantasy, gothic, murder, allegory, cult, good versus evil, psychedelic

Review:
I wish that Mann had been a more experienced director when he tackled this really bizarre film, but all things considered it is really a damn fine movie.
As much as Manhunter (one of my all time favorites) and Heat (right up there with them) are ranked by most as very good films, THE KEEP, if for no other reason than its novelty should be accorded more respect than it gets.Read the other reviews here and you can more or less understand the story line.
I can't ever know for sure, but I don't think that Mann, with all his individual sense of style (remember, his visions and realizations virtually defined a substantial part of the 80s -- whether you liked them or not) was all that concerned about the impact of the trappings, but more on what they allowed the story to play against.
However it's Mann's surreal direction, Alex Thomson's arresting photography and the moody electronic music score by Tangerine Dream that clicks in this atmospheric combination of fantasy, war and horror.
Most of the cast are merely okay while Gabriel Byrne plays just about the most blood chilling and convincing Nazi I`ve ever seen in a movie , but Scott Glen is wooden and Ian McKellen gives an awful performance as Dr Cuza , a Jewish intellectual who seems to have all the speech patterns and mannerisms of a Hollywood producer .
My understanding is that Michael Mann produced a film which was about 3 hours long and spanned most of the book - keeping largely to the plot as written.
Actually if you look at this, there's already a lot of reviews here, so strangely enough this film is not as forgotten as its ashamed director would like it to be.THE KEEP starts out extremely well with a spellbindingly dreamlike and somewhat pretentious sequence with the Germans rolling into a small Romanian hamlet during WW2.
Another thing this film has going for it is Michael Mann's completely OCD touch to the whole thing which oddly suits the subject matter.Not to mention the inspired casting; Jurgen Prochnow shines in his first major English-language role as a conflicted Wehrmacht captain matched by a cold and calculating Gabriel Byrne as his closed-minded S.S. superior.
Scott Glenn and Alberta Watson do about as much as they can with their very underwritten protagonal characters and Ian McKellen hams things up considerably as a Jewish professor who tries to maneuver the demon into destroying the Germans for him.Actually, come to think of it, this film would have done just fine without Glenn or Watson - they seem only to exist to sidetrack the film into romantic drama territory which adds nothing.
What's odd about Mann's film is that while it strains for a sophistication above it's generic roots, it misses out on the un-forced passages of contemplation in the book, where Wilson ruminated on his different character's inner desires.
To his credit, Mann addresses in it in an original way, and tries to say the two are differently similar: the age old evil of 'Molasar' (never named in the film, but listed in the credits and faithful to the book), designed to look like some demonic Teutonic Knight, was born of hatred and a lust for power, much like the Nazis.
The Korean R-Point was a much more creepy war-horror movie, making the grim observation that the horror unleashed on its small island setting is cyclical, like the cycle of war, an idea Mann never touches upon.However, The keep remains more than just an interesting 'curio' as it's often termed, thanks largely to the scale of the production and some truly draw-dropping visual effects: the Nazi troops passage through the mountain pass in the opening credits, with Tangerine Dream's distinctive score rattling in the background, is a triumph, and the troop's violation of the vast crypt, the 'camera' pulling away for an age, is magnificent.
But this is one movie for which it is apparent that the director was forced into some choices that did not turn out well.Like most fans, I found the book to be great (though Wilson, once he came up with this mythos, went on to milk it dry in both succeeding stories and in his Repairman Jack series) and the movie to be a pale imitation.The loss of Veever basically plunged this movie into a hole from which it could not pull itself out.
The crux of the problem is not the fact that it hasn't aged well - though the 2005 viewer will have to work hard to see past the rope effects, discordant music (supplied by Tangerine Dream - nice) and distinctly non-erotic sex scene - but rather the fact that the whole film feels unfinished.
Several poorly edited shots also jar the viewer out of the experience, making the entire affair seem amateurish and sloppy.The acting is patchy, with the cast straight-jacketed by an awkward script which offers some of the stronger players a few chances to shine (except Glenn, who is made to struggle along in an appalling whisper) but despite the opportunities the situation affords, this never rises above the mediocre.All in all, this film is hard work, but worthwhile if you look at what was achieved with an obviously limited budget.
He's as wooden as the 'special' effects.Ian McKellen struggles to hide his embarrassment.Gabriel Byrne, by the end of the film, can't even be bothered to look too scared of the 7 foot demon (but then again who can blame him!)
it is very crisp and stimulating, and any cinematographer should take notes from this one.Critic Tim Brayton echoes Wilson, saying, "After a brilliant opening act, the plot gets flabbier and flabbier until around the half-way point, when it stops making any sense whatsoever." This may be blamed on the severe editing, or perhaps on Mann's desire to make an epic when the studio would not allow it -- cutting more than half of the film is bound to create plot holes and continuity gaps.I find it interesting that the last time this film was publicly released was in 1995 on laserdisc, a format that is basically dead.
I'm not a fan, but I have heard of it.Anyways, I red the description for The Keep and it sounded interesting and it had Ian McKellen starring so I thought, I'll give this one a whirl, as a horror fan anyway, I love the whole supernatural/horror deal.I couldn't find it to buy anywhere, so like everyone else in the same situation I turned to eBay where I found a number of people selling this film.
The beginning promised great things.The action takes place in Rumania,a country where Dracula legend was born(you can always visit his castle nowadays)!WW2 could provide the movie with an appropriate historical background.The first third is absorbing:the soldier's arrival in a blinding light-which will contrast with the soon -to- follow darkness of the fortress.This place seems to contain secrets of the ancient times and recalls for a while the strange fort of "il desero dei Tartari" (Zurlini,1976).For a while too, we feel that the movie has in store some psychological terror,close to that of "the haunting"(Robert Wise,1963)The invisible enemy -Rumanian partisans- could have been a captivating topic,had it been fully exploited.The captain's dream puzzles the viewer-He dreams he 's sailing to Constanza,the Rumanian harbor-, but here again ,the sequence leads to nowhere.Things are beginning to go wrong as soon as the special effects show up.The white smoke was already used by...Cecil Blount De Mille in 1956(the ten commandments)!And the monster (the beast in you) recalls "forbidden planet" (1956 too!).The biblical references do not help;the film would rather get bogged down in unwitting and laughable parodies of Abraham's sacrifice and of the All-Mighty on the Mountain thing .There were problems and M.Mann who intended a two-hour movie saw his work reduced to hardly 100 minutes.This may account for the numerous incoherences in the second half.The captain's dream certainly had a purpose which we 'd always ignore.But the fact remains (nonetheless ) that the cinematography is superb ..
9.) Tangerine Dream can't release the full score because: a) Virgin records won't let them, (maybe) or b) Tangerine Dream is mad at Michael Mann himself because he hardly used any of their score and re-edited the music they gave him (even stealing parts from LOGOS Dominion theater) to fit his movie, without their permission.
I'ts possible Mann was waiting on Tangerine Dream to finish their score for THE KEEP and just used bits and pieces from LOGOS as a temp track, which was never meant to stay in the movie (at the time).
We need Anchor Bay on this.11.) UPDATE: "documentation : Studio Magazine July/August 2006 (France) article/overview on the career of (Michael Mann) excerpt/rough translation : "Critical and box office failure (details on the plot) This feature film, ignored by the filmmaker himself during his interviews, has not been released in DVD and can't be seen in theaters or on TV.".
Shortly, German soldiers are being-found...completely-carbonized.With an incredible-cast of Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Prochnow, and Scot Glen, the Keep is still a very-good film with high production-values.
Not only does this film feature the worst performances of Gabriel Byrne's and Sir Ian Mckellen's careers, it also commits the sin of wasting one of the best performances ever given by Jurgen Prochnow in a sloppy, under-plotted, under-thought mess.
While the Germans procure the services of an aged, ailing Jewish historian (Sir Ian McKellen, the "X-Men" franchise), their humane, level-headed officer Woermann (Jurgen Prochnow, "Das Boot") butts heads with his brutish young associate Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne, "Miller's Crossing") over methodology, and a strange mystery man named Glaeken (Scott Glenn, "The Silence of the Lambs") is drawn to The Keep to fulfill some sort of mission.Michael Mann ("Heat", "Manhunter"), here following up his smash debut "Thief", also adapts the novel by F.
First, I will admit that it's patently obvious to anyone who has watched Michael Mann's other films that the studio totally butchered this movie.
Mann has disowned the film, and I am sure it's because the version he FILMED is nothing like what was theatrically released.What makes The Keep so special is not just the originality of the story line or the performances by the principals, esp.
Ian McKellen, Jurgen Prochnow or Gabriel Byrne, but more than anything else, the fusion of cinematography with music, done by Tangerine Dream, and this is actually a better score than they gave Mann for Thief, as hard as that might be to believe.I know the author of the book the film is based on (who once emailed me personally after seeing a post of mine on alt.rec.arts.movies many years ago) hates this film due to the substantial changes Mann made to the story line, but that aside, this is a brilliant film which creates an atmosphere of dread and fear which far surpasses many more typical genre films.It's a tragedy that due to several contractual issues The Keep will never ever get to DVD.
For Theodore this task brings the promise of an ultimate solution to the Nazis, as the maleficent force promises their destruction in return for his freedom.As these characters intertwine in the misty Gothic backdrop created by Michael Mann and his talented cinematographer Alex Thomson, a sense of dread permeates (aided in part by great haunting atmospherics by Tangerine Dream).
And when the embodiment of evil is finally shown, he just kind of looks like an over-inflated version of the Silver Surfer.Prochnow, McKellan, Glenn, Prosky and Byrne all stand around and say things that made more sense to Mann, probably, than to them, but everyone looks so bored by what is happening, that some of the inherent boredom seems to trickle out into the viewers' minds.
Then there are bad special effects, a ridiculous plot which makes no sense, completely underdeveloped characters and some supernatural nonsense and the obligatory unsatisfying ending.If you wanna see Germans in a war movie, see "Die Brücke" or maybe "Das Boot" (though definitely not the odious "Stalingrad" which is almost as bad as this!).
'Michael Manns 'The Keep' Is one of his Interesting ventures into the cult mainstream, Essentially 'The keep'is about a platoon of war weary soldiers, circa 1943, Are Led by the magnificent Jurgen Prochnow, station their brigade in an ancient village high in the Carpathian mountains,(actually a disused quarry in wales,) The outfit set up garrison in a ancient castle Fortress, There are numerous and unusual crosses strewn throughout this building, According to the locals the structure was not built to keep anything out, but in fact it was built to keep something in' Later That night two soldiers on guard that night, have their curiosity get the better of them,And foolishly decide to plunder the keep's Cross's the pair inadvertently unleash a powerful demon housed inside.
who is convinced that the work is that of the evil force inside, Prosky,contacts the ailing medieval scholar Dr Cuza,played by a dubbed (Ian MCKellen, who along with his Ravishing daughter Alberta Watson, are on their way to a death camp, are in the nick of time are Luckily rescued, Dr Cuza discovers the Demon who day by day is growing more powerful, Somewhere across the water, is the mysterious stranger Glaeken, who makes his way to the keep with his date with destiny, which culminates in the ultimate struggle for good and evil,Love it or hate it 'The Keep' has a lot more to offer Despite its butchered Hour and Half running time, In the vaults of Paramount,somewhere inside their must be more material that is crying out for reconstruction.
The acting is for the most part terrible, and coming from respected actors like Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Prochnow and Ian McKellen is a great insult.
Unlike other films of this era, like Ridley Scott's Alien, Blade Runner and Legend or even Michael Mann's phenomenally great Thief (which strangely he made first) The Keep today comes off as bad and often just downright silly.
And even though the demon is actually kind of creepy looking he's shown on screen in such long medium shots that his appearance quickly goes from scary to just 'a-guy-in-a-suit'.And while Tangerine Dream's music was used to great effect in Scott's Legend, their synth-electronica sound is completely out of place in a WWII setting!
If you see the film first, it is unlikely you will want to read the book because the film is a low budget B movie (and thats being generous) that self-explains why they won't bother releasing it on DVD.I am still amazed that the likes of Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Scott Glenn and Jürgen Prochnow were in this film - they are totally out of place in this dire waste of time - 1983 or not.
A few things I liked about this film:Many of the people involved in the film, notably Michael Mann, Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Procknow, Ian McKellen and Alberta Watson, went on to much bigger and better things.The first 5 minutes look greatGreat soundtrack by Tangerine DreamAtmospherics are frequently good, before they are ovetaken by the awful special effects..
It's really not done in a typical thriller/horror style and Michael Mann seemed to have more eye for the visuals at the time rather than for its script, which he also wrote himself by the way and based it on a novel by F.
The story is told in a typical Michael Mann way, which means that its slow and it takes its time to set up things.
Also none of the characters really ever work out within the movie, mostly due to the fact that the story just doesn't flow very well.It was a movie that still definitely seemed to have potential and its source materials seems to be good and interesting enough but Michael Mann's style of directing just didn't seemed right for this movie and prevented it from ever really truly working out as a genre movie.
It's an enigmatic and mysterious experience and the film has quite a lot of gruesome images at display (granted, the latter is not saying much about the story being any good or not, but it helps to uplift things as the special effects were handled well at the time).
But let him do his acting-thing in movies like "The Keep" and "Das Boot" (1981), and he becomes highly believable (good directors know how to bring the best performance out of actors).
But even though award-winning director Michael Mann delivers a film full of stylish touches and terrific production designs, his film proves far from wholly satisfying, thanks to stilted performances, some horribly dated visual effects (and lots of dry ice!), and an intrusive and totally unsuitable score by Tangerine Dream that oozes the '80s with every note (I really like TD's brooding synth sound, but it simply doesn't suit the era in which the film is set).The result is a film that both impresses AND invites derision, at times exhibiting flair and atmosphere, but looking a lot like a tacky '80s pop video for much of the remainder..
I tend to like Michael Mann's work, and I loved this movie.
Director Michael Mann provides us with a war time horror movie.
If you watch this movie a dozen times, you'll discover something new in each viewing!!Powerful acting, a mind-blowing musical score by Tangerine Dream, and a GREAT good-vs-evil storyline make this movie a must-see!!The nazi's unleash something more vile and terrible (than themselves) upon the world!.
This movie had all the ingredients: decent director, Tangerine Dream's atmospheric score, great cinematography by the late Alex Thomson, some decent actors (Glenn, Prochnow, Byrne, McKellen), and to top it all, the great source - a very good horror book by F.
His confrontation at the end with Molasar is incredible.All in all, the movie is one of my all-time favorites, and deserves a look if anyone is interested in a great story of good vs.