Film Snail

Castle Keep
Castle Keep

5.7

Castle Keep

R·1969·105m

Summary

During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans.

Crew

Director

Sydney Pollack

Novel

William Eastlake

Screenplay

David Rayfiel

Screenplay

Daniel Taradash

Reviews

John Chard

John Chard

December 24, 2013

3

You can keep this movie. Castle Keep, directed by Sydney Pollack and adapted to screenplay by Daniel Taradash and David Rayfiel from the novel written by William Eastlake. Starring Burt Lancaster, Bruce Dern, Patrick O’Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Peter Falk. Music is by Michel Legrand and cinematography by Henri Decae. Ambitious for sure, intriguing even, but ultimately a misfiring piece of pretentious tosh! An endgame allegory that finds Lancaster in WWII leading the defence of a medieval castle and its art collection against the German hordes. The action when it comes is savage and colourful, and Lancaster’s one eyed Major is good fun, it’s just everything else is masquerading as a near hallucinogenic anti-war movie mixed with euro pontifications. There’s some war is hell messages in the mix desperately trying to get out, either as satire or serious (it’s really hard to tell), but this is ultimately faux-art and painful to sit through until the explosions mercifully grace the last quarter of picture. 3/10

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

based on novel or book
castle
battle of the bulge