Page 1 of "THE KEEP" - Weird or Wonderful?

Hi all!

Michael Mann`s second feature "The Keep" is notorious for polarising critical response. U.S. reviewer Leonard Maltin saw it as "Outlandish, incoherent and mostly awful", while Empire magazine look upon it as being "...a unique, intelligent film".

Since this is a site dedicated to the art of review, I thought it would be cool to find out what you guys thought of it!

Oh, and does anybody have any news regarding a DVD release of the picture?

Kinjo.

Can`t say that I have ever heard of it! What`s it about?

I thought the film was crap, and I read that the author disowned the film.

Floyd

Is this the one with the Nazis and they keep looking in a hole in the wall? Something keeps killing them, and then I fell asleep and had school in the morning so that is all I can remember about it.

Edit : Just checked IMDB and it is the movie I thought. Apparently if you like this horror about Nazis releasing an ancient evil from deep within the keep walls, you`ll also like Schindlers List. Quite how they link the 2 I have no idea.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 25th September 2002, 20:49

cos there are German soldiers in both films?.....or perhaps this is a little too obvious :-)...anyway..I think it`s quite a stylish film, let down by a plot that we`ve all seen before many times (mind you, this may have been one of the first, and so everyone else nicked it)...generally a fairly starightfoward good vs evil battle - where the goodies are the Germans, which makes a change.

That`s the one where Scott Glenn is slightly `odd`, with weird shoulders and glowing eyes - in true Lynch style it is not explained or questioned!! Everyone takes it in their stride. He wakes up and goes to the place where the Nazis have awoken some demon. Along the way he pulls this woman, who isnt bothered by his oddness, and then spends eternity fighting the demon in The Keep...or something like that!

Even a basic DVD release would be a good idea. A 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer would do justice to the photography that suffers so badly at the hands of the awful 4:3 Pan and Scan VHS that currently exixts. That together with a crisp DD 5.1 soundtrack - as I find it hard to understand some of the mumbling dialogue in several scenes with Prochnow.

The Shenkman.

This item was edited on Thursday, 26th September 2002, 00:34

Interesting to hear that the author disowned the film - I loved the film so much that I sought out the book, which is awful (predictable, cliche vampire nonsense). Mann is a very visual director - like Ridley Scott - but quite thoughtful with it. The Keep is full of very striking visual elements. Not a brilliant script, but a very interesting fim - well worth watching. Avoid the book.

This item was edited on Friday, 27th September 2002, 22:46