Imagine if the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark were an entire movie. That’s basically what The Keep is, with a little bit of Hellraiser and a whole lot of Tangerine Dream added for spice. Its narrative doesn’t have the precision you normally see in a Michael Mann movie (in fact, quite the opposite), but it’s visually and aurally stunning, and who among us couldn’t use more Nazis getting absolutely annihilated by spectral light?
Figured I should watch/play this before it gets memory-holed next week, just to see what the fuss was about. It’s not the most mind-blowing entry in the series (at least of the ones I’ve seen), but it’s got some competent performances in it (Will Poulter is particularly good) and the interactivity gimmick is kinda fun, if not terribly original in its structure. I hope someone preserves this just from a digital history perspective, but I feel satisfied with what I got out of it from an evening.
I might as well get it out of the way before starting in on why I like this film. The story of this film about sailors looking for romance in an idealized Los Angeles is dumb and has not aged well (and yet La La Land seemingly borrowed heavily from it). Heck, most of the songs are forgettable fluff as well. So what's left? The performances. And the performances, fortunately, are nothing short of phenomenal. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and…
