Das Schloß in den Ardennen

I had been wanting to check this one out for over 20 years (it used to be available as a VHS rental at the local outlet but I never got around to it) but especially after reading up on the film on the internet since its 2004 DVD release(s) where its unusual "artiness" a'-la Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (1961) was played up. Now that I've watched CASTLE KEEP for myself, all I can say is that it's arguably the strangest mainstream war movie ever and decidedly not for all tastes!

The relatively large cast (for what turns out to be an introspective film) is uniformly excellent and is well up to the requirements of the brilliantly surreal, funny and literate script; Burt Lancaster, wearing an eye-patch throughout, has an unsympathetic role as the formidable leader of a group of misfit soldiers taking over a Belgian castle against unseen invading German troops. He is skillfully abetted by Peter Falk (as a soldier who abandons his post to indulge in his vocation as a baker), Jean-Pierre Aumont (as the "degenerate" owner of the titular castle), Patrick O'Neal (as a celebrated art historian all at sea on the battleground but well in his element surrounded by the castle's objets d' art), Scott Wilson (as a soldier who gets into quite a unique relationship – more on this later), Tony Bill (as the most spiritual of the men) and, the other side of the coin, Bruce Dern as a Bible-thumping conscientious objector who walks the Belgian rubbles with his ragged band of revivalist deserters-followers. The terrific cinematography of the awesome European locations – courtesy of Henri Decae – is complimented by a fine Michel Legrand score and, when they finally come, spectacular battle sequences.

But it's the odd, surreal touches – including Scott Wilson falling in love with a Volkswagen, the same car rising from the sea after it has been drowned by his envious companions and floating ashore all by itself, the moving sequence between Tony Bill and an unseen German soldier (subsequently needlessly shot by Peter Falk) where the latter teaches the former how to play the flute correctly, the unusually realistic talk of fornication, sexual organs, impotence, the ambiguous (perhaps ghostly) nature of the characters involved and the events being enacted, etc. – which really make this show stand out from the crowd of WWII spectaculars and stick in one's memory – not to mention endear it to its legion of fans (who have famously decried online its original abominable pan-and-scan DVD incarnation, forcing Sony to re-release it in the correct Widescreen aspect ratio a mere four months later). The theme of the relevance of art in times of war brings forth comparisons to John Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN (1964), also starring Burt Lancaster, whose third (and final) collaboration with director Sydney Pollack – after the previous year's THE SCALPHUNTERS and THE SWIMMER (where Pollack replaced original director Frank Perry but goes uncredited) – this proved to be…perhaps as a result of the critical beating the film received upon its original release!

Jean-Pierre Aumont offers us the ultimate in hope over expectation in this wartime drama. He is the "Count" who offers shelter to "Maj. Falconer" (Burt Lancaster) and his battle-weary squad of soldiers in his beautiful 10th century castle. They set up some defensive positions knowing that these ancient battlements will be no match for the Nazi war machine that they are soon to be facing. Perhaps naively, the "Count" and the "Falconer" hope that they will decide against desecrating and/or decimating his ancestral home. Well, the writing is on the wall (or, more accurately, bits of it) but meantime the Major has an affair with the "Countess" and the assembled soldiers get up to all sorts of mischief before being called up to deal with their foe. Peter Falk stands out as the sergeant "Rossi" - who likes his bread, and Bruce Dern pops up too as "Lt. Bix" who seems to have found God - a bit late in the day, maybe? The whole thing is vaguely surreal as some of the platoon care about the artworks (like Paul Schofield in "The Train" - another Lancaster film from 1964) whilst others are very much living for the moment, but as the inevitability of it all sinks in it becomes rather a sad siege story that resembled the three little piggies and the wolf - in the straw version of their house. This is a curious film that I think would have worked better in black and white, somehow colour sanitises it just a bit too much - but it is worth watching.

"Castle Keep" is a film looking to find an audience in all the wrong places. Wrapping a 1960s free sex and love anti-war message around a World War 2 suicide mission is like trying to shovel crap against the tide. Seriously surreal, this failed film is nevertheless not without interest, because of the cast. The movie more belongs on an art gallery wall than in a theater, because the photography is stunning, with each shot vivid and memorable. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the film. Because it is so disjointed, the whole experience is somehow lacking in impact. By the time the bang bang ending appears on the screen, most audiences will be so bewildered by what has preceded it they will hardly be awake. - MERK

An eccentric allegory dealing with a Major , Burt Lancaster, and his underlings , a captain : Patrick O'Neal, a lieutenant : Tony Bill and soldiers : Al Freeman Jr , Michael Conrad , Scott Wilson, James Patterson , Peter Falk . As Burt Lancaster as the one-eyed American Major billets his few remaining men at an Ardennes fortress filled with priceless art treasures .All of them take shelter at a French castle inhabitated by an aristocrat : Jean Pierre Aumont and his young wife : Astrid Heeren . At the finale , the Germans throw everything at the fortified location and its occupants .As there takes place an endgame in which the platoon fights to hold the medieval castle keep against the Nazi invaders.

An interesting but disjointed film with surrealist scenes , emotion , a love story , skirmishes throughout , and impressive final battle . Being based on William Eastlake's novel , critically culted in France , it results to be an acceptable movie , though a little bit boring and some scenes with no much sense. A pretty bizarre yarn that hovers between reality and fantasy , adding some breathtaking warlike battles at its end , including a really colossal holocaust . This is a failed attempt at likewise fusing European style with American wartime genre . But Sidney Pollack flops and it remains as a simple and at times confusing flick , in spite of its pretensions.

It contains a colorful and glimmer cinematography by Henry Decae , shot in Yugoslavia and France . As well as lush and sterling production design from art design by Max Douy . Equally , a sensitive and attractive musical score by Michael Legrand . The motion picture was professionally directed by Sidney Pollack, though it has some flaws , gaps and failures , it resulted in failling commercially at the box office everywhere. Deemed to be a moving curio and an ill-omened flick that was marred by its Euro art-house wake. Sidney Pollack was a good professional who acted/wrote/produced and directed several films , as he made the following ones : The property is condemned , Scalphunters , The Shoot Horses Don't They? , Jeremiah Johnson , The Way We Were , Yazuka , 3 Days of Condor, The Electric Horseman, Absence of Malice , Tootsie , Out of Africa , Havana , The Firm, Sabrina Random Hearts , The Interpreter , among others .

Thanks to this film, I can never entirely think of "Private Benjamin" as a comedy about a society girl in the army (not that this one doesn't have a lot of funny moments, of the very strange kind). "Hessian" is right - it's so strange, you almost have to either love or hate it, and I'm completely attached to it. With the kinds of actors in it, it's really hard to think of anyone as especially standing out, but (as attached as I've always been to Burt Lancaster) the answer would almost have to be Patrick O'Neal as Beckman. It took me a long while to think of it, but he's almost like the Eleanor character in The Haunting, because of the way he's taken over by the castle completely, and his "private war" with the major because of it. One of the best scenes was between him and Private Benjamin (played by Al Freeman Jr.), who was pictured as his "soulmate" in a way. Beckman admitted that he'd been a war hero (before the beginning of the story), but he wrote it off as being temporarily crazy. Benjamin said, "But you'd fight to save this castle." Beckman said, "Yes - but I don't know who. Which side."

One of the best funny lines was one of Peter Falk's - "Swim the moat? What the hell war is this?"