MICHAEL MANN'S "THE KEEP" (1983)

DIRECTOR MANN'S PULPISH "WEIRD WAR TALE" MEETS "FRENCH NEW WAVE" GIVES BIRTH TO A NEW BRAND OF 80s ERA FILM MAKING ... AND FILM MAKERS 

VAULTED TREASURES:
HARD TO FIND FILMS
WORTH SEEKING OUT

     Streaming is wonderful, but many cinematic gems (for various reasons) have yet to make the leap to NetFlix, Hulu, Blu-ray or even DVD. In fact some have never been released in ANY home video format. And many which DID have long since gone out of print and become high priced collectibles. For this reason, in this age of streaming, we not only saved those DVDs, but old school VHS tapes / players and DVD burner; and love to return "to the vaults" to relive old faves.

     "MY purpose is madness; (it) is the only way you can tell what happened in a war; by lying you can open the door a little crack on the truth." Those words, spoken by the narrator of William Eastlake's prototypical satirical 1965 anti-war novel, CASTLE KEEP, seem to perfectly sum up Michael Mann's similarly named (and in some respects similarly THEMED) 1983 cinematic horror / fantasy excursion, THE KEEP.

     In CASTLE KEEP, adapted in 1969 into a film directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Al Freeman Jr. and Peter Falk, a group of eight American G.I.'s seek a little R&R during WWII's Battle of the Bulge at a castle in the Ardennes Forest, where each in succession slowly begins to descend into an increasingly long personal well of surreal experiences and imagery - some of which film critics and audiences of the day found fascinating, but of which others felt were just plain wacky. And in Mann's THE KEEP (in some respects obviously taking "here and there" inspiration from Pollack's earlier endeavor) a group of WWII Einsatzkommandos take refuge in a fortified ancient Romanian citadel, then, upon releasing a dark force, each is plunged into a well of increasingly surreal experiences and imagery - some of which critics and audiences found fascinating, but the reactions of most being the furrowing of collective eyebrows, scratching of heads, and silent mouthing of the phrase "What the f*** was that?" while exiting theaters.

      Originally dissed and dismissed as one of the great turkeys of 1980s genre cinema (to this day Michael Mann himself seldom speaks of the film), over the years THE KEEP, without the benefit of a wide theatrical release in the first place, and no EVER release on DVD in the second place, has managed, via well worn VHS and Laserdisc copies, late night cable TV airings and revival house screenings, to climb in status from derided (hey, call it what everyone else did at the time) "Filmic piece of s**t!" to genuinely loved and respected piece of genuine cinematic art. But it took a while.

      Upon first seeing THE KEEP theatrically we ourselves despised the film, and used it as the butt of numerous (we, at the time, felt rather clever) jokes for years to come. Any true movie lover however realizes that even the worst of films have SOME artistic merit buried somewhere in their creative DNA. And always admiring THE KEEP's visual style and hypnotic Tangerine Dream score, over those same years in which we ridiculed it, we ironically still continued to watch and rewatch those weird goings on at that ancient castle in the Dinu Pass until, lo and behold, finally realizing that in the process we too had not only become a member of that odd movie's fervent international cult following, but a prophet now ready to "spread the word" of it's there-all-the-time (yes, we'll use that word again) ARTISTIC merit. Stranger things have happened.

      Released in 1981 by William Morrow, THE KEEP was the first published novel by F. Paul Wilson, who (like his contemporary Michael Crichton) moonlighted as a young writer while attending medical school, and used earnings from sales to magazines such as "Analog" to help fund his tuition. A great admirer of legendary pulpsters Robert E. Howard (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, PEOPLE OF THE DARK) and H.P. Lovecraft (creator of the "Cthulu Mythos" in stories such as FROM BEYOND and THE CATS OF ULTHAR), Wilson's THE KEEP plays as an amalgam of both, ... with a nod to the famous 16th century Jewish legend of "The Golem of Prague". In 1941, during "Operation Barbarossa" (Germany's invasion of Russia), one by one the members of a detachment of Nazi soldiers garissoned at an ancient castle in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, are murdered in grisly / macabre fashion. Symbols about the castle (or "Keep"), which have ties to ancient Hebraic pictograms, lead some to conclude that Jewish partisan rebels have infilitrated the local village. In order for the German officers to learn more of the "terrorists" and their language, a Jewish history professor from Bucharaest named Dr. Cuza, along with his daughter, Magda, are coerced into service and brought to the Keep.

Ian McKellen as Dr. Cuza; Alberta Watson as Magda

   The being behind the killings calls itself "Molasar", and during Cuza's investigation it reveals himself to the elderly Professor, then procures his services via false promises. Molasar's real name / identity is "Rasalom" - who originated as a powerful sorcerer from the "First Age" of humans before being transformed into a near immortal being trapped between worlds. That is until German soldiers stationed at the Keep, Rasalom's prison for eons, accidentally set him free. Slowly rebuilding his strength and corporeal form by feeding upon the life essence of those he murders, Rasalom cleverly becomes novelist Wilson's dual homage to both Bram Stoker (in some respects he's the origin of Romania's Dracula and "Dracula's Castle" legends) and Lovecraft (a nifty new version of that writer's inter-dimensional imprisoned-then-accidentally-released "Old Ones").

     Horror / fantasy novelist Clive Barker would spawn a very similar character rift / homage to Lovecraft five years later with the creation of the "Cenobites" in his 1986 novella "The Hellbound Heart" - the foundation for the first HELLRAISER film in 1987. Stephen Sommers' 1999 cinematic reinvention of THE MUMMY would, while on the surface don the tone of an INDIANA JONES adventure, in it's written narrative actually be based upon the tried-and-true formula of Lovecraft / Wilson's "ancient Old One" - accidentally released from an inter-world prison, regaining it's strength and bodily form via feeding upon victims, then seeking to unleash itself upon the modern world. And the demonically resurrected "Rasputin" from graphic novelist Mike Mignola and director Guillermo del Toro's 2004 film HELLBOY (both writer and director life long Lovecraft aficionados) would follow the exact same "rebirth, feed, conquer" character paradigm.

     Knowing Molasar seeks to expand it's destructive reign beyond the walls of the Keep and into the realm of the human world, a mysterious warrior named "Glaeken" arrives at the pass. A member of the "Forces of Light", and armed with a sword imbued with supernatural properties (the story's Robert E. Howard influence kicking in here), Glaeken and Molasar are enemies across time. And finally once again face to face, the two ancient adversaries engage in a fierce battle which will determine not only the outcome of WWII, but the fate of the entire world. All in all a highly (shall we say) "stylized" story which would seem more at home in an old well-loved / dog-eared copy of WEIRD WAR TALES magazine than on the big screen. Enter Michael Mann.

Michael Mann today

      Born in 1943 into a working class Chicago family, young Michael Kenneth Mann sought to combine his "street bred" blue collar roots with an artist's sensibilities by obtaining a graduate degree at the London Film School, then during the 1960s becoming a commercial director side by side other similarly budding visual stylist cohorts as Ridley Scott (ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER), Tony Scott (THE HUNGER, TRUE ROMANCE), Adrian Lyne (9 /12 WEEKS, JACOB'S LADDER) and Alan Parker (PINK FLOYD - THE WALL, ANGEL HEART). Returning to the U.S. to alternately write and direct hard-edged but stylish episodes of STARSKY & HUTCH, VEGA$, and POLICE STORY, Mann made his feature debut with the multi-award winning 1979 ABC TV movie THE JERICHO MILE, which starred Peter Strauss as a Folsom Prison inmate and track runner with a shot at becoming a part of the U.S. Olympic team. Then in 1999 the up-and-coming director would burn up the big screen for the first time with the trend-setting crime thriller / character piece, THIEF, starring James Caan.

     In conjunction with cinematographer Donald Thorin (AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, PURPLE RAIN) and frequent collaborator from then on - film editor Dov Hoening (MANHUNTER, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, HEAT), with THIEF, Mann (arguably for the first time in mainstream American cinema) brought traditionally considered "background" elements such as cinematography, music, editing, sound design, and even the selection of alternating film stocks, to the forefront - hypnotically merging them WITH, and in so doing elevating them TO, a level of importance every bit as essential in the telling of a filmic story as the script and the actor's performance. For the first time since Disney's FANTASIA (and surely a first for an extended narrative piece) a cinematic story would become the new tech version of the silent movie's "Pure Cinema", in which the emotional content (and film's subsequent audience involvement / immersement) would be earned via the combined effect of image and music "speaking of and to" a character's psychological state, and doing so without words.

Mann's neo-noir crime milieu (clockwise): THIEF ('81), HEAT ('95), MIAMI VICE ('06), COLLATERAL ('04)

     Shortly after THIEF established the "legitimacy" (and commercial viability) of this taboo-breaking stylistic paradigm, legendary pulp director Walter Hill (THE LONG RIDERS, 48HRS) would create his own similar rift on the newly realized "cinematic vocabulary" with 1984's STREETS OF FIRE. Then a rapidly emerging generation of future feature directors (among them David Fincher, Michael Bay and Antoine Fuqua) would follow in their footsteps with a succession of critically acclaimed music videos raising that then-nascent "P.R. offshoot of a music album release, but nothing more" to the level of a respected new film genre in and of itself. But it all began with THIEF.

     As Michael Mann had been so closely associated with TVs MIAMI VICE (1984 - 1989), many over the years erroneously surmised he was the show's creator. The actuality however is that, while Mann's aforementioned stylistic imprint was evident in almost every frame of the iconic series, which went on to influence the fashion sense of an entire generation, he was it's executive producer / showrunner. He'd eventually write and direct the 2006 MIAMI VICE theatrical remake starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Ferrell. But during the time of VICE's TV pre-production and original run, Mann was primarily immersed in the writing and filming of the back to back theatrical features THE KEEP (released in 1983) and MANHUNTER (1986) - adapted from Thomas Harris' novel RED DRAGON, and which first introduced the world to genius serial killer Hannibal Lector, later made famous by Sir Anthony Hopkins, but in MANHUNTER portrayed by veteran Scottish character actor Brian Cox (X2, RUSHMORE, TROY, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES).

      Produced by Gene Kirkwood and Howard W. Koch (the team behind GORKY PARK and THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE), THE KEEP's stunningly macabre production design was by the legendary John Box (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, 1974's THE GREAT GATSBY, 1975's ROLLERBALL). Box created the film's main castle set (as one of the film's characters says) "Inside out, as if constructed to keep something IN rather than AT BAY" at London's Shepperton Studios, though some of the castle's intricate internal stonework was actually shot on location at the Llechweed Slate Quarry, an historic deep railway accessed mine near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales. The Romanian village at the base of the Keep was built at the abandoned Glyn Rhonwy quarry - a gray and black (almost otherworldly) sunblasted landscape near Landberis, North Wales; the site which, just last year in fact, became home to a $155 million environmentally conducive hydro-electric power generating station.

     Admittedly, upon one's initial viewing of THE KEEP (and we first caught it in '83, as the second half of a grindhouse theater double-bill, paired with David Cronenberg's THE DEAD ZONE), it's tone and narrative evolves (some at the time said "devolved") into such surreal-ness that it can become indecipherable to the point of maddening. And we considered walking out. Compelled however by it's visuals and tone, we found ourselves strangely unable to budge from our seat - knowing that there HAD to be SOMETHING going on here which (like some jokes in the old daily comic strip "The Far Side") we just weren't getting at time, but which might "kick in" and make sense later.

      As in some intimate relationships, it can be disconcerting when a film becomes both off-putting and fascinating at the same time. And we knew THE KEEP was such even while sitting there pissed off (yet transfixed) at it's apparent lunacy. After repeated viewings on VHS at home over the years, and as our education in cinema history increased, we came to realize that Mann's THE KEEP wasn't (borrowing a phrase from The Three Stooges) "a beautiful mess-terpiece", but in actuality was his rather shrewd, if obscure, attempt at creating the genre version of a European "New Wave" film of the 1960s / 70s.

     Tonally, thematically, ... and certainly visually, THE KEEP is cinematic kin to other such "indecipherable" trips as Jean Luc Goddard's ALPHAVILLE ('65), Bernardo Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST ('70), Tarkovsky's SOLARIS ('72), Wertmüller's SWEPT AWAY ('74), and especially Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (1961) - which would go on to influence Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION (2010), and that same director's 80s era return to "New Wave" thematics and execution, LA VIE EST UN ROMAN ("LIFE IS A BED OF ROSES") - it's influenced felt in the Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer's recent CLOUD ATLAS (2012).

     Released in 1983, a few months prior to THE KEEP, LA VIE UN ROMAN was structured as three stories featuring three different sets of characters, with each of those stories taking place during three distinct periods in history (the Medieval era, WWI, and the 1980s), and all at the same locale - a castle in the Ardennes. Further stylistically blood-linking THE KEEP and Resnais, both the French director and Mann brought onto their productions as a designer the noted French artist / comic book illustrator Enki Bilal - best known in the U.S. at the time for his work in HEAVY METAL magazine on stories as "Exterminator 17" and "The City That Didn't Exist". For THE KEEP Enki conceptualized the superhumanly "ripped" yet otherworldy physique of the demonic Molasar.

Director Mann on set with McKellen

     The European cinematic aesthetic continued to influence Mann in his choice of THE KEEP's cast, most at the time largely unknown in America, but respected award winning performers of stage and screen at home. THE KEEP featured the American feature film debuts of England's Ian McKellen (best known today as Gandalf in the LORD OF THE RINGS series, and as Magneto in the X-MEN franchise) as the elderly Dr. Cuza, and Germany's Jürgen Prochnow (DAS BOOT, DUNE, AIR FORCE ONE) as Vermacht Captain Klaus Woermann. Dublin born actor Gabriel Byrne (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, MILLER'S CROSSING, HBO's IN TREATMENT) would become sadistic SD Sturmbannführer Erich Kaempffer - who butts heads (and ideologies) with the more even-tempered Woermann. And from the American continent, Canada's Alberta Watson (SPANKING THE MONKEY, THE SWEET HEREAFTER) essayed the role Dr. Cuza's daughter, Magda. And from the U.S., Mann's THIEF alum, Robert Prosky, would portray village priest, Father Fonescu. And the young and strapping Scott Glenn (at the time enjoying critical acclaim for his breakout performance as astronaut Alan Shepard in THE RIGHT STUFF just two months prior) would star as the mysterious warrior Glaeken Trismegestus.

     While Mann's most recurring cinematographer relationship over the years has been with Dante Spinotti (on MANHUNTER, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, HEAT and THE INSIDER), THE KEEP's stunningly surreal (even theatrical) filmic color design was in conjunction with lauded British Director of Photography Alex Thomson. The cinematographic master behind those painterly images captured for John Boorman's EXCALIBER, Ridley Scott's LEGEND, and Nicholas Roeg's EUREKA and TRACK 29, with THE KEEP Thomson helped create what for years would come to be known as the "Michael Mann look" - a cold and aloof, almost exclusively primary color palate principally featuring a stark / high-keyed blue. This "industrial" look, in tandem with scores by alternative recording artists such as Michael Rubini on MANHUNTER, and iconic German electronic band Tangerine Dream on THIEF and THE KEEP, would invade the fabric of both MIAMI VICE and early MTV in the mid 1980s, and help create and establish the modern day concept of what is now known as the "music video".

     Opening on December 16, 1983, THE KEEP's debut weekend was stellar, ... at least financially. With a production budget of $6 million, and playing on a mere 500+ screens, it's three day opening U.S. box office take was a respectable $1.03 million. Critically however THE KEEP immediately became the year's 3-legged dog ripe for a'kicking by nearly every major reviewer in the country. As did the audience (including us initially) they left the theater scratching their heads, mourning and mouthing "WTF!", then sat down to rake Mann's "weird war tale" over the hot coals as yeah, stylish but ultimately "incomprehensible", "silly", "devoid of logic and reason" and more. Leonard Maltin (in one of the more kind written assessments) called it "... outlandish and mostly awful", but gave it a merciful 1 1/2 stars on a scale of 0 - 4, realizing there was something about it which might "interest fans of strange cinema".

     In the days before the word "viral" became part of entertainment industry lexicon, negative word quickly spread on THE KEEP. The next weekend, audience attendance dropped considerably, and the film closed it's U.S. theatrical run within a month with a paltry $3.7 million in ticket sales. Overseas it was released under various titles: in Brazil as "A Fortaleza Infernal" (Infernal Stronghold), in Sweden and Denmark as (seriously, we're not kidding) "Satan's Borg", in Finland as "Paholaisen Pesä" (The Devil's Nest), Portugal as "O Guardador do Mal" (The Keeper of Evil), and in Russia as "Крепость" (Fortress). Taking in approx. another $7 million in foreign receipts in those and other territories helped THE KEEP to (barely) finish in the ledgers as a non-loss. But the film quickly vanished from cinematic memory after home video release on the now defunct VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc formats. Well, ... OFFICIALLY disappeared, until, as with Molasar himself, curious interlopers into THE KEEP resurrected the film over the years.

      As a new generation of cinema buffs and students became fans of his films (the aforementioned THIEF, MANHUNTER, LAST OF THE MOCHICANS, HEAT and THE INSIDER, along with later hits such as ALI, COLLATERAL, MIAMI VICE and PUBLIC ENEMIES) Michael Mann became one of the most respected of contemporary American filmmakers, he also producing such titles as THE KINGDOM, HANCOCK (in which he has an amusing filmed cameo), and Martin Scorcese's THE AVIATOR. Listed as one of Total Film's "100 Greatest Directors Ever", Entertainment Weekly's "25 Greatest Active Film Directors", and one of Sight And Sound's "10 Best Directors Of The Last 25 Years", upon learning that their poster child for "High Tech New Aged Cinema" had directed a horror / fantasy film, said generation of young cinematic Turks began jonesing to experience this film to which they hitherto had no knowlege.

      Few things (in the arts or retail) make something more desirable to the masses than a lack of access to it. And as such those VHS and LaserDisc copies of THE KEEP became much sought after collectibles to those who still had access to equipment which could play them. And DVD copies (burned from unedited / commercial free late night airings on Showtime, HBO, Encore and The Movie Channel) began turning up via online outlets as for-sale bootlegs.

     After the success of the LP (then later CD) release of Tangerine Dream's score to THIEF, hopes ran high for an official release of THE KEEP's much desired hypnotically, otherworldly music. But the ever ubiquitous mine field of "licensing issues" between studio (Paramount Pictures) and artists precluded such, with the exception of a limited run of 150 units sold by the Dream themselves at a U.K. concert in 1997. Bootleg CD copies of this would also begin turning up online and at conventions for upwards to $200 per disc. In spite of it's critical drubbing, a distancing from it by it's own director, and harsh words about the film from original author F. Paul Wilson, around the world THE KEEP had become a full fledged / much loved member of the "Vaulted Treasure" club.

Tangerine Dream (circa 1986)

     While we don't necessarily enjoy Mann's reticence to reflect on his, to date, only cinematic excursion into genre territory, we kind of / sort of understand it. His second feature film, THE KEEP was a daringly bold attempt to step outside what many (himself included) considered to be his thematic "safe zone" of gritty crime thrillers, the umbrella under which all of his prior work - including STARSKY & HUTCH, VEGA$, POLICE STORY, THE JERICHO MILE and THIEF comfortably fell. THE KEEP not only failed to meet his own expectations (his original cut coming in at an epic 3 hrs., then trimmed down to 96 mins), but was met with vehement disdain by a public which at the time didn't understand his intentions. We admit once again that we were a part of that virulent public which at first stoned THE KEEP then later became one of it's most devoted followers. We don't however agree with the opinion of THE KEEP novelist F. Paul Wilson.

     There's a defacto belief that a book is ALWAYS far and away better than it's filmic adaptation can ever be. Part of this stems from the fact that when read, books are projected onto the greatest IMAX 3D / Holographic / Sennsurround / Dolby Atmos theater ever conceived and created - the mind of the reader, which will subconciously see and adjust the novel's intensities (toning down what said reader's psyche deems too severe), and "covering up", "filling in the gaps" and "bringing up to a level of acceptability" the novel's shortcomings, such as thin characterizations or a reliance on unbelievable coincidence in the extrication of a protagonist from a back-against-the-wall situation or scenario. When transferred to the VERY subjective medium of film, what the director's mind sees may be at odds with that "film" seen in the mind of the other reader.

      And in the case of Mann's THE KEEP being hammered to this day as surreal to the point of "cinematic lunacy" by fans of the book (as well as those who never read it), well, ... come on (and we're sorry about this one you die hard Wilson fans!), but, while the 1981 book is a clever and enjoyable pulpy WEIRD TALES-like homage to Lovecraft and Stoker, we feel it runs off the rails narratively into it's own brand of "surreal lunacy" when Glaeken arrives with the mystical sword, connects it to the talisman, then he and Molsar engage in a telekinetic battle which feels like the climax of SUPERMAN II or a KULL THE CONQUEROR-like clash, but set during WWII. In our eyes Wilson took a brilliant concept, made it plausible in AND TO the real and tragic world of 1941's Operation Barbarossa (even managing to create a symbolic mirror equivalent to the Nazis evil in Molasar, which is now revisited upon them), ... then chucks it all out the plausibility window by turning things into (and this is a subjective opinion, remember) a mystical gee-whiz, Saturday morning blade-wielding HE-MAN cartoon.

     While we're certain many fans of Wilson's novel won't care for that assessment (as said, the reader's mind makes adjustments to make a book's shortcomings palatable, ... but in this case our narrative mind refuses to do so), we feel Mann's only "sensible" option in adapting the novel was to not start in the realm of the real, then in the third act leap into surreal fantasy, but rather to, from the very beginning, stylistically (with opening credits, music and that extended / hypnotic "troop caravan arrives at the Dinu Pass" opening sequence) set a degree of surreal-ness from the outset, then slowly increase the "surreal gauge" during the course of the entire film. Kind of like the analogy of cooking a live frog: toss a frog into a pot of hot water, and it'll immediately jump out. Set a frog in pot of room temperature water, ... then slowly increase the temperature, and it will not even realize it's being cooked until it's over. Perhaps a sordid analogy, but one get's the tonal idea.

     And granted, THE KEEP is far from a perfect film. As one of Mann's earlier endeavors, at times the "increasing of the surreal gauge" is a tad heavy handed, overwrought and cinematically perhaps immature. Not unlike a neophyte chef adding too much spice here and there during one of his earliest catering gigs (yeah, he's gonna catch some flak for that), THE KEEP, as a Michael Mann film, would certainly have a different and more coherent and smooth (if still surreal) tone if he made it today. But a film is what it is, at least such was the case in the THE KEEP's days before the advent and popularity of "Extended", "Expanded" and other types of augmented and re-edited and partially re-shot films. We've never been too keen on those kinds of things. And, warts and all, THE KEEP is a fascinating work which grows on you. In one of the very rare occasions in which he DID reflect upon the film, Mann opined ...

     "There is a moment in time when the unconscious is externalized. In the case of the 20th Century, this time was the Fall of 1941. What Hitler promised in the beer gardens had actually come true. The greater German Reich was at its apogee; it controlled all Europe. And the dark psychotic appeal underlying the slogans and rationalizations was making itself manifest". Mann would also state that his intention in using a genre delivery system to make comment on society en masse caught up in this dark aspect of the human psyche, was to create, "A fairy story for grownups. Fairy tales have the power of dreams - from the outside. I decided to stylize the art direction and photography extensively but use realistic characterization and dialogue". And as such Mann's THE KEEP is a stunning bookend companion piece to 1965's CASTLE KEEP, perfectly summing up that novel's narrator's assessment that his purpose was "Madness, (because it) is the only way you can tell what happened in a war; (and how) by lying you can open the door a little crack on the truth".

     In retrospect, viewed as an 80s era "New Wave film of the 1960s", Mann's THE KEEP is a fine artistic madness indeed! Spawning a legion of like-minded admirers, they were all thrilled upon learning in late 2014 that an independent British film production company was in the process of filming a documentary entitled A WORLD WAR II FAIRYTALE: THE MAKING OF MICHAEL MANN'S "THE KEEP". Still shooting (and while still in the process of raising production capital; ... and boy, do we know about that!) the film makers have established an official website to keep interested parties abreast of the latest developments.

     Check it out @ http://thekeepdocumentary.com/about/ .

     Until then, for those with DVD recorders, be aware that THE KEEP still regularly airs on various cable movie channels. And, for those without such equipment, know that Mann's WWII excursion into darkness was also recently made available to Netflix Instant and Amazon Instant Video. As such streamers however sporadically drop numerous titles from their lineups without much notice, we suggest you catch director Mann's nifty take on the old school WEIRD WARS TALES milieu sooner than later. For we think you'll agree it's a definite KEEPer.

                                                                                                                          CEJ

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