The Keep

I love this movie, thank you iTunes xxx

As a fan of MIchael Mann's work, I'd been meaning to watch this film for a long time. This was Mann's second, full feature film after 1981's 'Thief'. In keeping with Thief the soundtrack for The Keep was masterfully produced by Tangerine Dream. The tone of the film and the shifts from dramatic to surreal and horrific are consistent throughout thanks to the film score - so much so that any fans of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness/The Fog/The Thing etc will immediately recognise that unmistakeable 80's sound. The film is probably a bit too long in places and a bit too ponderous, but then in today's age of Netflix it's easy to forget that film and tv creators haven't always used amplified sound effects and fast editing in order to keep the attention-deficient amongst us' attention! Essentially, we have a good vs evil plot that has shades of The Omen and brings in Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox references in order to paint the picture of a sleepy village in the Carpathian mountains that holds a terifying secret. To anyone whose researched the well known Nazi interest in Norse mythology, esotericism and the occult, you will understand the context of the German army's interest in the village and its keep. This was for me an overall 7/10. It has dated without a doubt and if it were remade today, it would arguably benefit from better locations/sets/effects etc. In essence, this film was a stylistic detour for Michael Mann, his main focus and interest is arguably the emotional landscape found in Noir stories. Thus, this movie stands out along with The Last of the Mohicans as being noticeably different subject matter to his long-established focus on crime as the narrative around which to explore the human condition and the psychological compulsions that drive his main characters. Kudos should I feel, go to Mann and his team who skilfully crafted an underlying theme about Nazi Germany and its effect on the national psyche between the super adherents of the Reich (the SS in this story) and the ordinary rank and file soldiers (the populace at large). There is an uneasy sense of forboding in the scene where the Jewish Professor and his daughter are waiting in a transit camp in 1941 and speaking with a Gypsy woman who had also been arrested and imprisoned to be transported to a 'labour camp' with all of the accompanying horrific connotations. I think from memory, that the year the film takes place is 1941, approximately a year before 'the final solution'. To his credit, Mann conveys to the audience the Jungian-style horror of the shadow self within Germany that was released with the ascent to power of the Nazis, a theme which is transposed to the battle to prevent the entity within the keep from being similarly unleashed to devastating effect. Worth watching for fully paid up Michael Mann fans, probably not to the liking of non-devotees!

I believe they ran out of money making this film and the sound recording suffered for this, however, excellent soundtrack from Tangerine Dream. Atmospheric, leaves you asking questions.

Excellent picture quality for Standard Definition.Definitely looks HD quality and is presented in full widescreen. Really glad I purchased this hard to find,under appreciated,and very atmospheric movie.Background music works really well with the scenes.Big thanks to iTunes for releasing this one. Shot in North Wales with a great performance from Scott Glenn who demonstrates perfectly here that less is more.So many American actors are superb at this,such as legends like Charles Bronson,Clint Eastwood,Burt Reynolds(tough guy roles),James Caan,Roy Scheider and Stuart Whitman. Let’s hope for a release with behind the scenes and commentary from the actors/director involved.