I really like very much the original story of Mr Paul Wilson but I really like very much the Michael Mann version of "The Keep"too.

Fair enough. While I dislike the film version (though I liked the cast a lot), I guess I can relate to your view. I, for one, really like Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining even though Stephen King hates it. I liked his later miniseries version, too, although for different reasons. They both have their appeal for me. And I liked King's original book. Maybe I would be able to let go of my dislike of Mann if someone else would finally do The Keep justice.

One point, though: No matter how long Mann's original cut was, it was still going to be a poor interpretation of the book in my view. The main reason: no vampirism. I don't see how you can translate the story into a meaningful film while losing one of its central themes, perhaps its most central one. The crosses, for example, don't make any real sense in the movie, from what I remember. From reading Cuts, I'm betting FPW would agree with me (though I shouldn't presume).

I could see the film having a credit like "inspired by the novel by F. Paul Wilson" or "a loose interpretation of the novel" or something to that effect. But actually "based on the novel"? That's a stretch.

Hmmm... I just thought of something that was probably obvious to most other people: "Cuts" (the title) could be a metaphor for cuts made to a story when fashioning it into a movie script. It's an interesting phenomenon when my brain works....

Blake

I didn't know William Shatner was in that movie.



Blake

I understand that he was a consultant.

The main reason: no vampirism

Nice meet you guys,thank you Stèphane for the link...


There's a sort of vampirism...Molasar in the movie absorb souls,give back body like stone...totally burnt

It's almost like seen on Space Vampires by Tobe Hooper(book by Colin Wilson 1976)....with some big differences of course...

Anyway..Christine by John Carpenter was great(great Dialogue and Adaptation),Shining by Kubrich was Great..but King hates both the adaptions,The Lord Of Rings(I HATE these Films and books) filmic adaptation is hate by Book Lovers...
The Keep was cut by company production ,and you can't judge it,but I found it so great(expecially the first 30 Minutes)
Paul and his fan hates Mann and his adaption..please start to hate Paramount and his blind / deaf chiefs...
Last,a lot of fans book have forgot humility...where is wrote that THE KEEP book is far better than the adaptation seen on the film??
Sometimes could be better take the positive side of the situation and skip the negative stuffs...

I truly hope in a DVD version totally remastered and with a new editing,with all the musics included...and a lot of extras...

Finally I found the italian version of the book,I'm reading and I found quite great where Kaemppfer throw any milk on the depth of the Keep Walls

Nice meet you guys,thank you Stèphane for the link...


There's a sort of vampirism...Molasar in the movie absorb souls,give back body like stone...totally burnt

It's almost like seen on Space Vampires by Tobe Hooper(book by Colin Wilson 1976)....with some big differences of course...

Anyway..Christine by John Carpenter was great(great Dialogue and Adaptation),Shining by Kubrich was Great..but King hates both the adaptions,The Lord Of Rings(I HATE these Films and books) filmic adaptation is hate by Book Lovers...
The Keep was cut by company production ,and you can't judge it,but I found it so great(expecially the first 30 Minutes)
Paul and his fan hates Mann and his adaption..please start to hate Paramount and his blind / deaf chiefs...
Last,a lot of fans book have forgot humility...where is wrote that THE KEEP book is far better than the adaptation seen on the film??
Sometimes could be better take the positive side of the situation and skip the negative stuffs...

I truly hope in a DVD version totally remastered and with a new editing,with all the musics included...and a lot of extras...

Finally I found the italian version of the book,I'm reading and I found quite great where Kaemppfer throw any milk on the depth of the Keep Walls

Welcome to the board, glaeken.

You live in Italy? That's cool! This is hot and fun places. I live in Japan, by the way. Can you translate to Italian titles about FPW's book's titles? Tell me please.

I didn't know William Shatner was in that movie.

Freaky. Is it just me or does that sound like Leonard Nimoy doing the voice over?

Call me crazy, but after viewing the trailer, I rented "The Keep" last night. I saw the movie long ago and did not hate it.

I've watched the first 20 minutes, and so far, I find the score to be immensely annoying, more so than any score I've heard in a long time.

I'll post more after I've seen the whole movie.

Call me crazy, but after viewing the trailer, I rented "The Keep" last night. I saw the movie long ago and did not hate it.

I've watched the first 20 minutes, and so far, I find the score to be immensely annoying, more so than any score I've heard in a long time.

I'll post more after I've seen the whole movie.

I've never seen the movie either, but after all this talk I may have to find a copy to watch. I just gotta see for myself . The movie rental places around here are kinda crappy, I'll probably have a hard time finding it, but I'm really curious!

Seeing how they're(Hollywood) remaking every other horror movie, wht not remake the keep? The book was excellent and could be one cool and atmospheric movie.

There's a sort of vampirism...Molasar in the movie absorb souls,give back body like stone...totally burnt

But what I said about the crosses still stands. There's not much context for them in the film.

The Keep was cut by company production ,and you can't judge it,but I found it so great(expecially the first 30 Minutes)

I can at least judge it on the lack of vampirism (with the disclaimer that this is all just my opinion anyway). And remember, you can't judge the longer cut, either! We can speculate about how much better it might have been, but for all any of us knows, the actual footage just didn't work.

Paul and his fan hates Mann and his adaption..please start to hate Paramount and his blind / deaf chiefs...

I'll agree with that. I really would like to see a special edition DVD released with either a new cut of the film or at least as much of the deleted footage as possible. That should be preserved for posterity regardless of what any of us thinks of it, IMO. To paraphrase Glaeken from the book, knowledge of everything -- especially evil -- must be preserved.

Just kidding about the "evil" part.

Last,a lot of fans book have forgot humility...where is wrote that THE KEEP book is far better than the adaptation seen on the film??

In Paul's book. Just kidding again.

Seriously, that's why I used the phrase "in my view" in my previous post and mentioned the caveat that I myself like Kubrick's version of The Shining. I can understand the point of view some people have with Mann's version of The Keep even if I don't agree with it.

And let's not get carried away with the "humility" thing. Being humble is one thing; being able to express an opinion in a public forum is another. And that's all it is: an opinion. I don't lack humility just because I'm willing to say what I think. I might lack humility for other reasons, but not that one.

Sometimes could be better take the positive side of the situation and skip the negative stuffs...

But for so many of us on this board there's just so much negative. I'll reiterate the positive here, though: I thought the casting choices were terrific. I thought Mann made them overact a bit (one of Jürgen Prochnow's scenes in which he's lecturing Gabriel Byrne comes to mind), but I liked them overall. I mean really, how can you hate Ian McKellen as Cuza? I'd still pick him for the part myself. I thought Scott Glenn was a good choice for Glaeken, too, though he's too old for the part now.

And while I thought the Tangerine Dream soundtrack was inappropriate for the movie, I think it's interesting and enjoyable on its own.

And here's one more positive: If it hadn't been for that movie, I might not have found FPW's work. A friend of mine had a copy of the book after he had seen (and liked) the film back around '83 or '84, I guess. I saw the film and found it intriguing enough to read the book as well. I personally was stunned at how much the story had been changed and preferred the book, but the fact remains that I owe some thanks to the film.

Blake

I've never seen the movie either, but after all this talk I may have to find a copy to watch. I just gotta see for myself . The movie rental places around here are kinda crappy, I'll probably have a hard time finding it, but I'm really curious!

I would definitely say that anyone who's a fan of the book -- or even just horror films in general -- should see the film if they haven't already and form their own opinion on it. Don't let any of us naysayers sway you! You might find some merit in it.

Personally, I'm only looking forward to seeing it again with FPW's commentary, but that's me.

Blake