The Keep (1983)

Undescribable Perfection

Pretty Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

During WWII, Nazi soldiers decide to defend a Romanian mountain pass. As part of their plan, they make their headquarters in a nearby fortress. Unfortunately, two sentries get greedy, and in their search for the treasures that the fortress contains, they allow an ancient evil spirit to be released from its tomb. 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. Paul Wilson. One can see that this could have been interesting; he had good intentions and definitely did his research. Unfortunately, his squabbles with the producers & studio (Paramount) resulted in his ultimately disowning the film, since he was never able to properly realize his vision.As it is, this is a compelling, appropriately ethereal horror-fantasy story, but in this 96 minute long incarnation, it comes across as muddled and not fleshed-out enough. In addition, the inevitable confrontation between Glaeken and the imposing monster Molasar (played by Michael Carter of "An American Werewolf in London") is much too rushed and cheesy, robbing us of complete satisfaction.Still, there's a fair bit to respect here. Production design (by John Box), cinematography (by Alex Thomson), and the music (by Tangerine Dream) are all excellent. The film is shot through with some absolutely overwhelming gloomy atmosphere, and is quite sombre, with no real humour to speak of.It's the efforts of a superior cast that help to make "The Keep" work as well as it does. Prochnow and Byrne, in particular, have one great scene together. Also starring are Canadian beauty Alberta Watson ("The Soldier"), the late, great character actor Robert Prosky (the gangster in Manns' "Thief"), William Morgan Sheppard ("Wild at Heart"), Wolf Kahler ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and Rosalie Crutchley ("The Haunting" '63). Glenn has a commanding presence, but with so little to work with, his hero character doesn't leave that much of an impression.I think we can chalk this up as a "nice try, but no cigar" effort, and only wonder about what might have been, had there been no interference.Six out of 10.

It's a shame we'll never get to see the director's actual vision for this movie because it was cut from 3 hours to 90 minutes by the studio, because what is here is quite cool, even though it's chopped so badly that in some cases the sound mix is way off. There's something neat trying to get out, but we can only see what's here and say, could have been more.

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 had not yet achieved enough status to insist on final cut. This movie feels like it is missing about 30 minutes which is why many reviews point out how disjointed it is, especially the last 10-15 minutes or so. 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. Even in its obviously truncated (i.e. non-director's cut) version, it is still a masterful visual and musical fusion of horror and dread.

I have to say that I quite liked this movie. It is a fairly typical 80's horror movie but the visuals are quite enjoyable. I am not talking about the special effects here, which of course are fairly obsolete by today's standards, but rather the scenes themselves. The movie frequently have that mystical, eerie tone over it that you would expect from a horror movie with supernatural demons involved.The plot itself is nothing new. Stupid and greedy guy releases ancient demon. Demon kills a bunch of people. Mystical (supernatural) good guy comes and saves the day. The fact that the movie centers around a Nazi troop is more or less just a pretext for some SS silliness and heated outbursts between the SS commander and Captain Woermann (Prochnow). The movie could just as well have been made around another troop or in another time period.The acting is of good standard. Jürgen Prochnow and Gandalf, sorry Ian McKellen, are both strong actors. Even so, the enjoyment of this movie is mostly due to the look of the movie. If you watch it be sure to watch it on a decent screen and in its original wide-screen format.