CASTLE KEEP

US, 1969, 107 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Patrick O' Neal, Jean- Pierre Aumont, Peter Falk, A1 Freeman, Scott Wilson, Tony Bill.
Directed by Sidney Pollack.

Castle Keep's anti-war tone is often lost in the attempt to portray what the publicity calls 'the big, bawdy novel'. The crudity, as well as the carnage and violence, are out of proportion. The background of the film is a protest against
war by appealing to man's better achievements, art and architecture. Beauty must be sacrificed to man's cruelty and duty. The castle, the medieval tones of the set design and the costuming, Burt Lancaster in battle-dress on a white charger remind us frequently of what the film wants to say. But with a set of generally unengaging characters and mixed box-office values, much of the effect of the film is lost.

1. How would this stand up as an ordinary war film? Successful?

2. Is it a good adventure film?

3. The film is clearly meant to be a parable, what was the purpose in making this film? How anti-war is it? What impact do you think that this kind of anti-war film makes on ordinary audiences?

4. The castle belonged to the 10th Century. The war and people to the 20th. How was this contrast between centuries emphasized in the film? The castle itself, the opening hunt scene, Major Falconer on a white charger etc.? What points were being made by the contrast between centuries? The values of beauty? The need for change, forced change? The fact that a 10th Century castle was completely destroyed in the 20th Century and yet it had lasted for a thousand years prior to this without destruction?

5. How did the visual impact of the film reinforce the message about art, beauty, war, and destruction? The filming of the art treasures of the castle during the credits, the duchess on a charger, the beauty of the castle itself and its remoteness, the gardens, and the style of the destruction at the end, the destruction of the castle and all its art in a 20th Century war, the cross-cutting etc.?

6. How was the castle and its inhabitants a microcosm of our 20th Century world? Can we identify with the people in the castle in this film, in their crises? How did the film convey its message by using the castle as this microcosm?

7. What did the film have to say about war, its effects on human beings, the inhumanity of war, the changes, effected by war?

8. Major Falconer - as a person, was he real? His human feelings and attitudes? As a soldier, his military values, his impersonal feelings about art and tradition, his relationship with the Countess? Was he in any way noble or a hero? His capacities for coping with situations, in the castle, with his men, in his encounter with Beckman, and his dying at the end?

9. Beckman - the art historian, what he stood for and symbolised in the film? His interest in art and his collecting and cataloguing? His contrast with the other men and Falconer? His closeness to the Count? His attempt to communicate his knowledge and appreciation to his men, the force of his lecture? As a symbol of the artistic mentality trying to communicate to the ordinary men? Why his change of heart in the war situation? The impact of his shooting people and downing the plane, his dying in the same cause in the same way as Falconer?

10. The Count - what he stood for, tradition, the past, decorum. elegance, respectability? His measures to get an heir artificially? The old order being destroyed in his death?

11. The Countess - young, modern Europe being taken by the Americans to produce an heir, when old Europe is impotent? Was she more than a symbol in the film? Her personal response to Falconer and her escape?

12. Comment on the interaction of the main characters as symbolising human interaction in times of crises.

13. The soldiers - what kind of men were they? How ordinary?
Amberjack - as a religious person, as a timid person, especially as regards the Red Queen, his relationship with the others, his frustrations, the manner of his death? Clear Roy - as a cowboy type, as American, as obsessed with the Volkswagen, in his death? Benjamin - as black, as an author, as an ordinary person observing what happened at Castle Keep, the fact that he survived? The other men, especially the Indian and the representative group of Americans at the Castle?

14. The religious fanatic - his place in this film, his style of singing and rebuke, Puritanism, the band of his followers and their conscientious objection, their employed and led by Falconer, their deaths?

15. The place of the Red Queen in this symbolism, the brothel, the girls, and yet their friendliness and rowdiness joining against the enemy to destroy them?

16. Rossi, the baker - whom did he represent, a degree of sensitivity? The ordinary man, the baker, seeking the baker's wife, and making bread? And yet his returning to the war and his death?

17. The impact of the battle scenes, both in the town itself, the sniping, e.g. the Germans with the flute and Amberjack, but especially the scenes of the destruction of the castle. Did these sequences impose an impression of the harsh reality of war?


18. The impact of the finale, and the utter futility of war, absolute destruction, death, to what purpose?

19. The film was strong in ideas; was it as effective visually?