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Blistering performances.

"Castle Keep" is a strange sort of movie. The first three quarters are spent for the most part within the walls of an old Belgian castle before the final action.A group of eight rag tag soldiers going nowhere in particular, come upon an estate located in a strategic area, whereupon there is a large castle. The castle is owned by the Count of Maldorais (Jean Pierre Aumont). The motley crew includes three officers two sergeants, a corporal and two privates. Where they came from is unknown.Leading the group is a one-eyed Major Falconer (Burt Lancaster) who wastes no time in bedding the castle's Mistress Therese (Astrid Heeren) who is by the way, the wife/niece of the Count. Also in the group are Art loving Capt. Beckman (Patrick O'Neal), Sgt. Rossi, a baker (Peter Falk) who moves in with the local town baker's wife, Cpl. Clearboy (Scott Wilson) who falls in love with a Volkswagen, young Lt. Amberjack (Tony Bill), Sgt. Devaca (Michael Conrad), Pvt. Elk, an Indian (James Patterson) and Pvt. Benjamin (Al Freeman Jr.) an aspiring author who narrates the story.Count Maldorais manages to convince the group to defend his castle and its treasures against an expected German attack. For most of the first three quarters of the movie, the men enjoy the luxuries of their environment even to the point of going to town to visit the ladies of "La Reine Rouge". In town, the men encounter a group of burnt out veterans led by Lt. Billy Bix (Bruce Dern) who see themselves as conscious objectors.Major Falconer, in one of the most bizarre sequences, rides into town on a white horse to recruit retreating soldiers to help him defend the castle. He sees that they are shell-shocked and recruits Bix and his followers to lead the group to the castle, at which point all but Falconer are blown to smithereens.So that leaves the original eight alone to defend against the advancing Germans. Falconer will defend at all costs including the destruction of the castle, Beckman wants to fall back and thus protect the castle. What ensues is a "Wild Bunch"/"Alamo" type of battle with the predictable results.The final battle is well done but we have to wait through all of the nonsense preceding it before there's any action. Director Sydney Pollock, whom I admire, has done much better work.

If a bunch of hippies teamed up with Federico Fellini to make a WW2 film after attending an anti Vietnam war rally, it would probably look something like director Sydney Pollack's "Castle Keep".Psychedelic, surreal and zany, "Castle Keep" opens with a series of dreamy shots. Stepping into focus is Major Falconer, a gung-ho military man in charge of a small company of men. Recognising that the German Army is advancing toward a nearby town, Falconer decides to turn a medieval castle into his own private fortress; the Germans will have to destroy it and him if they wish to advance any further.Fittingly for a film released in 1969, amidst the social turmoils of then-contemporary United States, Falconer's men are a gang of Vietnam-era slackers, shirts untucked, jaded, cynical and tired of killing. Falconer, infectiously played by Burt Lancaster, is the opposite. Square-jawed and mean as hell, Falconer exists for war."Keep's" second half revolves around a series of bizarre philosophical ruminations. Falconer says he wants to preserve life, land, people and things, but everything he does brings about utter destruction. In the end, killing "the enemy", for Falconer, necessitates destroying even the things he's sworn to protect. Better the world on fire than belonging to the "enemy". Art aficionado Captain Beckman (Patrick O'Neal) argues with Falconer, pleading with him to "preserve the beauty" of the castle and its many artifacts, but Falconer ignores him. Destruction, for Falconer, is its own brand of beauty.Late in the film, it is revealed that Falconer is sleeping with the wife (Astrid Heeren) of the Count (Jean-Pierre Aumont) to whom the castle belongs. The Count allows this, as he is impotent and wishes Falconer to provide him with an heir. In this way, Falconer's brand of 20st century violence is explicitly linked to the violence of feudal Europe. Indeed Falconer, a foot-soldier of "enlightened", "democratic nations", simply preserves the barbaric seeds of the monarchists before him. WW2 was itself but an extension of 19th century Imperialism, even a bogeyman like Hitler merely replicating what European and Western colonialists had, were and still are doing in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. More importantly, Falconer's cosying up to aristocracy echoes the past 200 years of history, in which every supposed "enlightened" superpower has sided with, funded, armed or put in power monarchs, dictators or terrorist cells, from Vietnam to Russia, Saudi Arabia to Iraq; better devils than peace.Falconer's regressive ties with the past are brought up throughout the film. "We've been here before," soldiers repeatedly state, and the idea of "eternal recurrence" is a theme which runs throughout their escapades. Elsewhere there are suggestions that our band of heroes are already dead, that their castle exits in some kind of limbo (or purgatory), and that they're merely repeating battles that have already been fought and lost. "All of us had been killed twice, sometimes three times before," one Private Benjamin outright states, "maybe that's why we were at the castle".Other surreal moments occur. Sgt Rossi (Peter Falk) states that he was a baker before he enlisted. His homecoming fantasies are realised when he seduces the widow of a local bakery. Corporal Clearboy, a mechanic in the past, likewise falls in love with a Volkswagen Beetle – an illicit affair, as it's a German machine. These love affairs mirror that of Private Amberjack, a soldier who studied music as a kid. Amberjack finds a flute which allows him to befriend a German soldier. Then there's Captain Beckman, a famous art historian who just happens to find himself in a castle containing precious works of fine art. As the film progresses, the bakery, artwork, German, flute and Volkswagen will all be destroyed. The only one who gets what he loves, seems to be Falconer."Castle Keep" echoes the counterculture-inflected war films of the 1960s and 1970s ("Catch-22", "Kelly's Heroes", "Go Tell the Spartans", "MASH", "Dirty Dozen" etc). For Pollock, war is stupid, absurd, futile and benefits only psychopaths. But whilst Pollock embraces the cynicism of his contemporaries, aesthetically his film is something else. Opening with talk of fairy tales, and sporting its own "once upon a time" narrator, Pollock constructs something dreamy, surreal and filled with odd, incongruous moments. His soldiers seem caught out of time, as though they've stepped right out of a Sam Fuller movie and into a medieval fantasy. Shot in Yugoslavia, the film features fine photography by Henri Decae.7.9/10 – Flawed, but underrated. From the mid 1950s to the 1980s, Lancaster specialised in selecting interesting material. The majority of his pictures during this period are atypical of their genre or era.

Two World War II flicks involving a European castle came out in 1968, "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 small group of American soldiers make 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 & many more; fabulous Yugoslavian Winter locations & castle; thrilling action scenes; it's well-made on a technical level; and it hardly comes across dated at all, even though it's forty years old. Fans of the film describe it as "poetic" & "haunting" and it's certainly obvious the filmmakers were shooting for something groundbreaking, meaningful and artistic.Unfortunately "Castle Keep" failed to grab my attention until well into the second half of its 1 hour & 45 minute runtime, 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 off as unreal, artsy and inscrutable. Want a sample? The Count of the castle comments to Theresa (who is his wife, I think), "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 pulled me in, but it didn't. The story doesn't perk up and grab the viewer's attention until the Germans march on the village well past the hour mark.Want another example of the film's "unreal" vibe? The soldiers go into town to kill time at the local whore house. 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! One 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, bizarre and unreal. I find this a valid explanation. Others point out that it's an allegory about the futility of the Vietnam War which was going on at the time of release. Another interpretation is that the message is one of contrast: Life from death, and death where once life was (Huh?).Hey, I'm all for "message" films with deeper meanings, that is, as long as the film itself is interesting; the original "Apocalypse Now" is a good example. The greatest sin in filmmaking is to be boring. The second is to be pretentious. Unfortunately "Castle Keep" commits both of these transgressions IMHO.BOTTOM LINE: "Castle Keep" is an avant-garde film palatable to a chosen few. It's either groundbreaking or pretentious depending on your tastes. I certainly respect it and enjoy numerous aspects noted above, but personally deem it a failure. Still, I'm an open-minded person. Maybe next time I'll "get it." If my words intrigue you, check it out. I strangely found it worth viewing (and owning) even though I currently don't like it. I can't figure it out but, then again, I can't figure the film out either.GRADE: D+

During World War II a small squad of 8 American soldiers led by Major Abraham Falconer (Burt Lancaster) relocate to a castle in Belguim. They rest there for awhile but then find themselves in the direct path of the advancing German army during the famous counter-offensive known as the "Battle of the Bulge". Rather than retreat and rejoin the main American army, Major Falconer decides to make a stand with his few men within the castle. Now, obviously the entire idea is ridiculous. But the director (Sydney Pollack) was trying to make a point about the insanity of war. The end result is a film that tries to be artistic and stylish for its time but, in my opinion, goes beyond the realm of believability. I say that because some of the scenarios are too far-fetched to be believed. For example, at one point a handful of prostitutes totally destroy a German tank with a few small Molotov cocktails. If that doesn't strain reality to the breaking point then another scenario a few minutes later features two American soldiers completely capturing another tank by firing a bazooka at it. Nevermind that a bazooka round would simply bounce off of the tank. Apparently the "message" was too important to be bothered by any sense of realism. Unfortunately, it gets even crazier when they decide to defend the castle. Only in Hollywood. Be that as it may, Burt Lancaster put on a decent performance and Astrid Heeren (as "Therese") was absolutely gorgeous. But other than that I found it difficult to get past the absurdity of it all.