Castle Keep

Two World War 2 flicks involving a European castle came out in 1968-1969, "Where Eagles Dare" and "Castle Keep." If you're a fan of war films you've no doubt heard of "Where Eagles Dare," which is one of the greatest war action/adventure films ever made; but I wouldn't be too surprised if you've never heard of "Castle Keep" or only vaguely heard of it. There's good reason for this.

THE PLOT: The Germans are marching on a Belgium village in the Ardennes where a squad of American soldiers makes a stand at a 10th century castle.

"Castle Keep" has a lot going for it: a great cast, including Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk, Bruce Dern & more; fabulous Yugoslavian Winter locations & castle; thrilling action scenes; it's well-made on a technical level by renowned director Sydney Pollack; and it hardly comes across dated, even though it's fifty years old (as of this writing). Fans of the film describe it as "poetic" & "haunting" and it's obvious the filmmakers were shooting for something groundbreaking, meaningful, artistic and amusing.

Unfortunately "Castle Keep" is mostly uninteresting until well into the second half, which is when the great action scenes start. The characters have a lot of dialogue but you never get to know them or care about them. Maybe because the chatter comes across as unreal, artsy and inscrutable. Here's a sample: The Count comments to Theresa, his wife/neice, "They planned this war because there was something they hadn't yet smashed." She replies, "Who are we, Henri?" "We are the keepers."

The script is full of such "deep" nonsense. Which I suppose would be okay as long as the story itself is captivating, but it isn't.

Want another example of the "unreal" vibe? The soldiers go to the village with empty streets to kill time at the Red Queen, which isn't a pub if you know what I mean. When they enter, all the prostitutes are standing or lying around in various tantalizing poses in lingerie. I'm sure they were just hanging around like that waiting for five soldiers to walk in. Why Sure! You gotta see it to believe it. I busted out laughing!

Speaking of which, I busted out laughing quite a bit throughout, which shows that the movie works as a satire or low-key war comedy.

A reviewer offered the interpretation that one soldier, the writer, is simply remembering how it was, not how it really was, and that's why it comes across so dreamlike and bizarre. I find this a valid explanation. Others point out that it's an allegory about the futility of the Vietnam War which was raging at the time of release. Another interpretation is that the message is one of contrast: Life from death, and death where once life was.

Actually, the symbolism is too obvious: The castle represents art or anything celestial created by humanity whereas the countess represents inspiration and the writer imagination. War is the ongoing destructive force that destroys everything in its path: The village and the bakery (home and business), the church facility (religion and faith), militarists and civilians, conscientious objectors (that is, those who embrace the folly of ABSOLUTE pacifism, which is different from LIMITED pacifism, as represented by the Allies) and, lastly, art (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature and music). The only thing it cannot kill is inspiration and imagination, which will continue to reproduce art despite the ongoing specter of war.

Hey, I'm all for "message" films with deeper meanings as long as the film itself is interesting and done with tact; the original "Apocalypse Now" (AP) is a good example. Much of AP is surreal, but you know the characters and care about their fate; plus, surreal or not, AP never departed from reality. "Castle Keep," by contrast, contains parts that are SO contrived and unreal they're actually funny (note, for instance, when Rossi meets the baker's wife). The greatest sin in filmmaking is to be boring. The second is to be pretentious. Unfortunately "Castle Keep" commits both of these transgressions. But, thankfully, there are several amusing and thrilling moments. As far as the latter goes, the tower/plane sequence is great.

At the end of the day "Castle Keep" is an avant-garde film palatable to a chosen few. It was groundbreaking at the time but was doomed by its arty pretentiousness. I respect it and enjoy numerous aspects noted above, but I suppose it's somewhat of a failed experiment.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minute.

GRADE: B-/C+

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 .

Burt Lancaster leads the able cast assembled here for a WWII tale of an eyepatch wearing Major and his team of quirky characters, who take over the isolated Belgian castle of a Count played by Jean-Pierre Aumont. They are determined to defend it from the Germans, even as the war is starting to move towards a conclusion. The Captain on the team, a man named Beckman (Patrick O'Neal), knows that he would rather the Nazis not get their hands on the vast treasures taking up space inside this castle.

"Castle Keep" is based on a novel by William Eastlake, and is directed by Sydney Pollack, the latter making one of his more intriguing films. It does come off as a bit pretentious and self-consciously "arty" at times, but at the same time does make some interesting parallels between art and war. Beckman, in fact, tries to drive this idea home to a rather disinterested bunch of soldiers, as he gives them a lecture on art history.

This picture does become more conventional as it goes along, delivering some genuinely intense battle scenes that are pretty exciting. Overall, it's still more of a war drama "for the thinking person", albeit with some memorable absurdist humour. (Scott Wilson plays a Private named Clearboy who becomes enamoured of a Volkswagen, and saves it from receiving a death sentence.)

Lancaster is efficient as always, in a rather unsympathetic role, but concedes the major acting showcases to under-rated actors such as O'Neal and Al Freeman Jr. (as the Private with literary aspirations), and the typically amusing Peter Falk as a Sergeant who temporarily puts fighting on hold to pursue his more valued vocation of baker. The excellent ensemble also includes the gorgeous Astrid Heeren as the Countess, Tony Bill as the serious-minded Lieutenant, James Patterson as the "Indian" soldier Elk, Bruce Dern as a conscientious objector who's found religion, and Michael Conrad as Sergeant DeVaca.

This viewer would agree that "Castle Keep" is not for all tastes. However, it does provide a striking and surreal alternative to the traditional war film.

Seven out of 10.

I remember watching Castle Keep many times as a youngster. The film was a staple on local TV and showed up several times a year. I loved it then and recently saw it again, for the first time in 20 years, on TCM. The film has lost none of its lustre and in its widescreen format is even better than before. Cinematographer Henri Decae (The 400 Blows) creates a surreal fairytale atmosphere without sacrificing wartime realism in this tale of stranded GIs in the Ardennes at the end of World War II. The squad, led by an eye-patched Burt Lancaster, try to halt the German advance by hunkering down in a medieval castle that has been miraculously unaffected by the tribulations of the war. The film has echoes of Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast and it's stylistic contemporary, King of Hearts, but stands on it's own as a superb philosophical exploration of warfare and violence. If you enjoyed A Midnight Clear, you will enjoy Castle Keep.

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?"