Castle Keep
Castle Keep
R | 23 July 1969 (USA)
Castle Keep Trailers

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.

Reviews
Lovesusti

The Worst Film Ever

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Vashirdfel

Simply A Masterpiece

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Mjeteconer

Just perfect...

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Abbigail Bush

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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bsmith5552

"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.

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jongo-93084

They certainly look and act as a squad except that they look more like a downed B-17 crew; so the beginning is missing some impact; The briefing, the downing, and ability to strip the bomber of gear, ammunition, and guns, after happening onto a jeep; and that's your point of taking the castle; something that Falkner curiously investigates before the mission, and most definitely a place of refuge if he managed to get there in some fouled mission gone awry. So there is the event of having the map of the area in Falkners possession, and some other details from a ranking officer about his briefing of the situation in the Ardens, before the mission as well.

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Jeff (actionrating.com)

Skip it – This is the most disappointing World War 2 movie I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. I would call it campy, even zany. It tries to be "artsy," similar to "Thin Red Line," only it doesn't work. Was the director on drugs? Burt Lancaster is a Major with an eye patch in the U.S. army commanding a squad of men charged with protecting a medieval castle. Sounds good so far right? That's what I thought. Well, his men don't even fire their guns till the very end. Ol' Burt is more concerned with having sex than fighting Nazis. Peter Falk co-stars as a soldier more concerned with baking bread. Seriously, he's a baker, and more importantly, he's not funny in this role. This is no action movie. This is a made-for-TV quality movie at best. I'm not a fan of most 70's war movies, and even though this was made in 1969 its close enough. 1.5 out of 5 action rating

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deetya

my father rented this movie when I was 7. I couldn't understand this weird movie, and only enjoyed the battle scenes.Seeing it again after I became more mature ;-), I was hit by the quirky, black-humor, sardonic, sarcastic nature of it all. This movie is the best antidote for those Chuck Norris-type of movies :-)Burt Lancaster is brilliant as the straight-arrow Maj. Falconer, stubbornly insisting on holding back the German advance. Like all stone-headed commander, he insists that he is right on everything, even when he is not. Patrick O'Neal as Beckman, who sees himself as a civilized person, tries his best to infuse the men with some culture and steer his CO to a more civilized course of action, but of course good ol' Falconer insist on seeing things in black and white. The rest of the men, war weary to the bone, fall back to "fighting their own private wars" to paraphrase Falconer. For example, Peter Falk plays Rossi, the baker-soldier, obsessed with bread; baking it, eating it, having wine to eat with it, sleeping with the baker's wife, etc. Wilson plays the soldier who falls in love with an *ahem* Another soldier played by Tony Bill focuses on his music, helped by none other by a German, who, of course, was shot to death by a fellow G.I. And who can forget Bruce Dern, in his best "loony" role yet. The Count and his young wife provided the foundation for all this non-standard war time atmosphere. The battle scenes are also excellent. Watching them, you wouldn't think that this is a thinking film, and not just some brainless action movie.

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