Castle Keep (1969)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

William Eastlake (novel)
Daniel Taradash (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

October 1969 (Austria)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

A 10th-Century castle...a 20th-Century war...and the outspoken novel come to life on the screen!

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Battle Of The Bulge | Count | Pacifist | Drawbridge

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Maj. Abraham Falconer
Patrick O'Neal	...	Capt. Lionel Beckman
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	The Count of Maldorais
Peter Falk	...	Sgt. Rossi
Astrid Heeren	...	Therese
Scott Wilson	...	Cpl. Clearboy
Tony Bill	...	Lt. Amberjack
Al Freeman Jr.	...	Pvt. Allistair Piersall Benjamin
James Patterson	...	Elk
Bruce Dern	...	Lt. Billy Byron Bix
Michael Conrad	...	Sgt. DeVaca
Caterina Boratto	...	Red Queen
Elizabeth Teissier	...	Red Queen Girl
Anne Marie Moskovenko	...	Red Queen Girl
Marja Allanen	...	Red Queen Girl

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:18 | Norway:16 | Australia:M | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Yugoslavia

Company:

Filmways Pictures

Trivia:

Ronald "Butcher" DeFeo Jr. claimed he was watching this movie before he shot his parents and four younger siblings to death in Amityville, NY in 1974.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The soldiers refer to the car as a "Volkswagen", a name which some viewers believe was not given to the car until after World War Two. However, on 28 May 1937, the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH was established by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. It was later renamed "Volkswagenwerk GmbH" on 16 September 1938. It is not clear whether the GI's would have easily recognized the car, but any German would have readily recognized it as a Volkswagen during the war.

Quotes:

Lt. Billy Byron Bix: [leading singing]
Sfc. Rossie Baker: Hey, you're waking everybody up! Go back to your outfit!
Lt. Billy Byron Bix: [singing subsides] Excuse me?
Sfc. Rossie Baker: You're waking everybody up, go back to your outfit.
Lt. Billy Byron Bix: We have no outfit. We've withdrawn. We don't believe in fighting.
Sfc. Rossie Baker: Well who believes in fighting?
Lt. Billy Byron Bix: We believe in God. That frightens you, doesn't it? All you believe in is fornication, and killing.
Sfc. Rossie Baker: What?
Lt. Billy Byron Bix: We're conscientious objectors!
Sfc. Rossie Baker: You mean, you conscientiously object to fornicating?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Last Detail (1973)

Surreal, amusing, disturbing--and brilliant.

War is hell and war is insane, we've been told many times before, but rather than a bitter, angry polemic, this film is a surreal, dark-humored allegory that is as light as a fairy tale at times but ends up being the movie 'Apocalypse Now' wanted to be. It's set in a time and place that lend themselves to unreality. Toward the end of World War II the Germans are defeated yet continue on with their destructive fighting. A motley group of war-weary Americans comes upon a 10th century castle somewhere in the wintry countryside of France. Their commander (Burt Lancaster) stubbornly decides to fortify the ancient treasurehouse and put up resistance to the enemy rather than passing it by, risking the castle's destruction along with a millennium's worth of acquired art.

It's impossible to imagine this movie being made even five years before it was, but by 1969 the Vietnam War had done a number on a lot of people's thinking and provided some different perspectives. A brilliant job is done by director Sydney Pollack along with writers David Rayfiel and Daniel Taradash of adapting a novel by William Eastlake into this funny, horrifying and strangely beautiful film.