Raselom Has Risen From... The Keep!!

There haven't been many more frustrating cases of films on home video than Michael Mann's The Keep (though I can think of a couple).  There has been no DVD release in the US and no blu-ray release anywhere in the world.  It wasn't until 2017 that we got any kind of non-bootleg release, only in Australia, in 2017.  But it was an old fullscreen rip, and even the legitimacy of that disc is highly questionable (it has a UPC and is listed in the usual catalogs, but doesn't credit a distributor anywhere on its packaging).  Only now in 2020 do we at least have something in proper widescreen thanks to Via Vision finally taking hand of Paramount's unreleased catalog titles down in Australia.

Update 7/23/20 - 1/10/25: If you were wondering if Paramount licensing The Keep to Via Vision was an indication of floodgates opening and more to come, I'm pleased to confirm it.  How about a proper, 4k restoration on a 2-disc special edition set from Vinegar Syndrome?  Yup, they've really caught a big fish this time!

And it's worth caring about, because The Keep is pretty neat.  It reminds me a lot of Michele Soavi's The Church and The Sect, from its "dreamlike" logic to its vibrant score (in this case, famously by Tangerine Dream).  It's a wildly ambitious tale, based on a novel by F. Paul Wilson, about Nazis who set up base in an ancient Romanian keep inhabited by an ancient evil.  An imprisoned Jewish scholar comes to see the being in the castle as "a hammer" to eradicate the Nazis, although it seems to have a corruptive effect on the already oppressed locals.  And to further complicate matters, Scott Glenn plays a sort of fellow cosmic warrior who lives to battle the being in the keep, and he's got a laser staff.  Yeah, it's an odd story, in that it attempts to deal with very heavy, deadly serious content like the holocaust and the morality of war, but does it with space vampires and Ghostbusters-style special effects.  Meanwhile, Mann's shooting the thing like a music video with lots of dry ice and slow motion.  Photographically, it's a weird dark fantasy... again, very much like Soavi's work.  The advantages Mann has, though, are major studio production values and a terrific cast including Das Boot's Jorgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellan.  You can feel the ideal blend of high and low-brow that Mann is shooting for, but it just gets so damn silly.

A lot of the blame for that is typically laid at the feet of Paramount, who forced Mann to heavily cut down the theatrical cut.  Fans have spent decades crying for something more complete, fueled by photos and low quality footage of deleted scenes from alternate TV edits, the trailer, and a supposed director's assembly cut.  Another blow was that, even before these cuts, visual effects artist Wally Veevers died during production, so a number of effects sequences are compromised and a final dramatic showdown couldn't be completed.  Plus, anyone who's read the book knows the film's taken some liberties.  But honestly, I'm not so sure a director's cut would help all that much.  Much of what I've seen described online seems to be additional exposition explaining what's already evident in the film if you're paying attention, and a couple more fights that would've done more to hurt the pacing than anything.

For one thing, I've seen the extended ending, and while I understand it's closer to the book, it doesn't fit as well with the alternate version of the story that is Mann's film.  In the movie, Glenn's character is just an unrelatable third party who detracts from the more meaningful climax between McKellan and the monster.  As it is, he interacts so little with the plot that when he does, it feels like an arbitrary deus ex machina breaking up the drama.  And I rather suspect all the additional scenes, which fans hope would flesh his character out and make the film gel and feel more coherent, would just take the film further off the rails.  The fact that Glenn's giving a detached, robotic performance in order to seem alien saps the life out of all his scenes anyway.

Oh well.  Ultimately, I think this cut, flawed as it is, is pretty much the best cut possible... or at least, an ideal director's cut would only make minor alterations, and leave a lot of the famously missing sequences as "deleted scenes."  That could go some way towards explaining Mann's continued reluctance to go back and re-edit the film all these years later, if he feels we've already juiced the footage he managed to get as much as he could.  Plus, there's the question of what film elements still exist, if any, and apparent difficulties licensing Tangerine Dream's music.  Up 'till now, anyway, it all lead to this weird little Australian DVD being the best we've managed to get in 2020. And even Vinegar Syndrome's fancy new, 4k special edition starts off with the above disclaimer that they could only license the same, theatrical cut.  But it sure does look better.

1) 2020 Via Vision DVD; 2) 2024 VS BD; 3) 2024 VS UHD.

A quick glance at the screenshots and you can immediately see why Via Vision couldn't, in good conscience, release this on blu.  But it was nice to get this on an anamorphic DVD, at least, after all those years.  The Keep had a couple of laserdisc releases; a fullscreen one in the 80s and a widescreen one in the 90s.  I suspect this is taken from the same master as the latter.  The picture is presented in 2.36:1, and looks good in motion.  Colors (when there are any) are bright and attractive.  You mostly notice the restricted resolution when you struggle to read the on-screen captions, but even before clicking through these screenshots to view size, you can see the soft edges around everyone and everything.  Looking up close, then, is when the compression artifacts, digital noise and haloing really jump out at you.  Even for a DVD, this feels like an old master.  But honestly. we'd all have been thrilled if it came out in 2001.

BUT IT'S GARBAGE NOW!!  Ha ha  No, it's still fine for an older DVD.  But Vinegar Syndrome's new UHD, restored from the original camera negative in Dolby Vision HDR, is playing on a whole new level.  The framing's been slightly modified to 2.40:1, actually pushing in very slightly tighter.  Haloing and noise are of course cleared away, and the colors are far stronger with nice, deep blacks.  That caption... still looks a little soft, especially on the BD, but it's much clearer than the DVD.  Grain is fine, but may be a little soft, too, especially in that first, dark shot.  It's still a first class presentation worthy of an ambitious film of this type, and I'm delighted to have the upgrade; but I wonder if this restoration is Paramount's handiwork rather than VS's.

The DVD's trailer.

The DVD audio is just the one basic stereo mix, which is mostly clean, but you'll notice a little hiss if you pump up the volume.  VS has graduated us to DTS-HD, the hiss is gone, and it's generally sounding more robust. There are no subtitle options on Via Vision's DVD, but Vinegar Syndrome has added English HoH ones.

The only extra on the DVD is a fullscreen trailer, but you may want to check it out, as it offers glimpses of alternate takes and scenes.  Via Vision has also included reversible cover art that hides the ugly blue ratings logos slapped all over the outside, so that's nice.

Vinegar Syndrome has found a proper widescreen version of the trailer, added an additional TV spot, and, oh, just a proper special edition's worth of brand new extras.  First there's a very good expert commentary by film historian Matthew Aspery Gear.  He does speak rather slowly and with a lot of pauses, but he's quite well informed, able to dutifully spell out differences between the original novel, the film we're watching, and Mann's first draft screenplay.  Then there's a series of excellent interviews with the producer, Wilson (who's very candid about his feelings for how the film turned out), two of the effects artists (one is audio only and rather brief, but still informative), one of the composers/ member of Tangerine Dream, and the actor who played the monster himself.  Fans won't want to miss a word of any of it.  There's also a stills gallery and reversible artwork.  And if you sprung for their fancier, limited edition, you also got a slipcover, rigid outer box, and a 44-page booklet with notes by Bilge Ebiri & Caroline Golum, as well as a reproduction of a vintage Mann interview from Film Comment magazine.

Apparently The Keep has been so in demand that Vinegar Syndrome sold out of their full 12,000 run within two days of it going up for pre-order!  But if you missed out, don't be too disheartened (or sacrifice too much of your retirement fund to some EBay scalper), as Imprint has already announced their 4k Ultra HD/ Blu-ray set for "early" 2025.  And maybe they'll have some nice exclusives.  Plus, if you still want more, there's always that elusive documentary called A World War II Fairytale: The Making of Michael Mann's The Keep.  It was started independently way back in February 2011 and put up for crowd-funding support on IndieGoGo in late 2015.  Well, after all these years you may've assumed it withered on the vine, but I've looked into it and it's still kicking.  They'd just posted on Facebook when I first made this post in 2020 that they were in post production and working through Covid lock-down to finally finish their film.  And they just posted a new teaser trailer roughly two weeks ago.  So it might still be a while, but at least in 2015, they said they'd be releasing it on BD.  So there's more to look forward to.

ZAZ 2: Top Secret!

For whatever reason, Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker's next film wasn't such a hit.  In fact, it was a flop, and I even remember in 1984 when it came out thinking that Top Secret! was a serious let-down.  Most of my friends & family did, too; only one kid I went to school with seemed to really get it and revere it as the film everyone hoped it would be.  And this isn't just localized anecdotal evidence, because it was a surprising flop at the box office, that pushed the trio into more conventional comedy afterwards.  And it's really weird, because looking at today, Top Secret! absolutely holds up as one of the trio's best works.  I even re-watched it with my parents, and they were laughing with it this time just as hard as Airplane!  I don't know why we couldn't see it back then, but whatever the cause, that's probably why it's only available on blu-ray in Australia.

Update 8/9/20 - 5/23/22: Well, it's available in the US now!  It would be pretty egotistical, I suppose, to take credit for that just because of what I wrote here in 2020, but I think I will anyway.  😁  It's good news for those who never imported; but for those who did, is this new release any better?  It couldn't possibly be any worse, right?  In fact, you might think it would be almost exactly the same, but no...

Update 12/7/24: Paramount's taking another crack at it with their 'ZAZ: The Collection!,' a 6-disc set of Abrahams' and the Zuckers' most famous collaborations, including Top Secret!, on BD and UHD.

A then-unknown Val Kilmer got his very first role as the lead, playing a old school pop singer who gets caught up in an international spy conspiracy.  He really hits it out of the park, nailing everything from the dry delivery of the absurd humor to the genuinely impressive musical numbers he has to perform.  As we've come to expect from Abrahams and the Zuckers, there's another strong supporting cast including Omar Sharif, Michael Gough and Peter Cushing; but this time the weight's really on one man's shoulders, and Kilmer carries it expertly.  The film is packed with as many great jokes as any of their best work; I really wonder what put so many people off back in its day.  Perhaps many of the "meta" jokes about the filmmaking itself were ahead of their time?  Or maybe general audiences' unfamiliarity with the Elvis-style star vehicles they were spoofing this time were less familiar, and therefor less resonant, to 80s audiences than the disaster, kung-fu and cop shows of their previous endeavors.  Whatever it was then, in 2020, Top Secret! really due for a rediscovery.

Top Secret! may've been rare on blu, but the market's sure been flooded with DVDs.  Paramount first released it as a widescreen special edition in 2002, and they've repackaged it with alternate covers, double-features, triple features, banners along the top, no banners along the top, ugly "I Love the 80's" slipcovers, boxed sets... but it's always the same disc.  Not until 2020, in Australia, were we finally presented an HD option.  And yes, it's from Via Vision, once again rescuing catalog titles from Paramount's big box of neglect.  But lately, Paramount's been turning a kinder eye to their titles under-represented on home video, including a 2022 blu-ray edition of Top Secret!, though it doesn't seem like they sprung for a new master.  But they simply had to for a 4k Ultra HD release, which is what we got in their new Zaz: The Collection! boxed set.

1) 2002 Paramount DVD; 2) 2020 Via Vision BD; 3) 2022 Paramount BD;
4) 2024 Paramount BD; 5) 2024 Paramount UHD.

Paramount continues to frame a 1.85 film for 16x9 televisions at 1.78:1 on their blus.  The DVD is actually 1.77, with a slight vertical pinch that the BDs correct.  They also pull out ever so slightly to reveal slivers of additional picture along all four edges.  The Via Vision blu does leave something to be desired... it's sharper, but instead of revealing the film grain that the DVD failed to capture, we just see pixelated digital noise.  That DVD really is too soft, though, even by old DVD standards; so it looks like they tried to sharpen the same old master rather than scanning a new one.  Well, the end result is a clear improvement over the DVD, but compared to other BDs, it would score pretty poorly.

And it looks like someone at Paramount has done the best they can to correct all this... shy of actually springing for a new scan and the updated master this film really calls out for.  Their 2022 disc is no fancy, high end edition.  But it's still better than the DVD and even corrects the old BD's most frustrating issues.  Starting small, the framing zooms in ever so slightly, about two pixels on each side, cropping some distortion along the very edges of the Via Vision frame.  You'd never spot it in motion, but it does make screen shots look more professional.  It also cleans up dirt and noise.  That big hair on the frame of the first set of shots has been mostly cleared up.  Everything showing against the smooth wall has been digitally altered, but the bit that's on her eye, which would take more time-consuming personal work to correct, is still there.

1) 2020 Via Vision BD; 2) 2022 Paramount BD.

Most critically, though, the disc doesn't have that over-sharpened digital effect, and a little more original picture information is retained.  It's more than just a better encode; or, if it is down to the encoding, it's a lot better.  Instead of pixelation and overly smoothed areas, we see soft grain.  Soft, because it's still the same old master, but more film-like and natural.  So, overall, it's progress, but would still score rather fair (as opposed to poorly) compared to other BDs.

And in 2024?  Well, those who haven't made the leap to 4k yet will be disappointed to know that the BD in this set is just a copy of the 2022 disc - they didn't use the new transfer.  But the UHD, thank god, does.  And unlike Airplane!, they actually do finally frame the film at 1.85:1.  It's not just vertical matting, either; the UHD unveils noticeably more on the sides.  Beyond that, it's an overall improvement to the 2022, let alone the earlier editions.  Contrast is more natural, edges are better resolved, and you can make out subtle hints of additional detail.  Grain is still a little light, so like with the Airplane! disc, I suspect a little DNR was applied.  But otherwise, it looks great and is clearly the best edition going by far.

Paramount kindly gave us both the original stereo mix plus a new 5.1 with optional English subtitles on their DVD.  Oh and a French dub, too.  And happily, though Via Vision drops the dub, they keep both English tracks, in lossless LPCM and DTS-HD, respectively, as well as the English subs.  And Paramount's newer releases?  Things may look even better at first... both the 2022 and 2024 editions have got the 5.1 in DTS-HD, plus French, German and two Spanish dubs.  They've still got standard English subtitles, plus English HoH, German, French, Japanese and two sets of Spanish subs.  That's a lot, but if you're paying attention, they've dropped the original stereo mix.

Back to the good news: Paramount loaded up their special edition pretty dutifully.  First there's an audio commentary with Abrahams and the Zuckers, plus producers Jon Davison and Hunt Lowry.  It loses steam a few times, but they point out a lot of fun behind-the-scenes information and obscure jokes all with a healthy dose of self-deprecating laughs.  In fact, they're self-deprecating in all their commentaries, but here it's compounded with the fact that they're still clearly wincing from the sting of rejection this film received in 1984, so they're good sports for still supporting this film here.  We also get a look at four of the film's deleted scenes, which just add a little more fun to the pot.  Finally, there are three sets of storyboards and the theatrical trailer.

All of these have been carried over to Via Vision's blu, and it's mostly the same on Paramount's.  The 2022 and 2024 releases both have everything except the storyboards.  But in their place, we get the famous backwards scene played in reverse, so we can see how it was originally performed.  One annoyance, again like the Airplane! UHD, they only include the commentary on the blu-ray discs, so you can't listen to it with the new transfer,  As part of the boxed set, the 2024 edition also includes an exclusive 15-page booklet and three fold-out posters.

So it's not perfect, but the UHD is a sizeable upgrade in terms of PQ.  It's a shame about the stereo track, and I'm sure this isn't the best the film could've possibly looked had it been left to more diligent hands like Vinegar Syndrome or Sony, but there was never much chance of that.  This is still a fine 4k release that should satisfy all but the most strictly perfectionist fans.  And honestly, it's more than I had realistically hoped for this particular film.

The Best Film of 2023 Is Now On Disc: May December

Until last year, I was beginning to fear Todd Haynes' best days were behind him.  In fact, not even "beginning to."  Don't get me wrong, all his movies are worth seeing once.  Dark Waters feels kind of like a made-for-TV remake of A Civil Action, but it's still an involving drama with a good message.  His actual remake of Mildred Pierce was... okay.  But for a long time - really since Far From Heaven two decades ago - it's felt like the magic of his early run of brilliant works like Safe and Velvet Goldmine, or his crazy early works like Superstar, Poison and Dottie Gets Spanked, had faded.  So when Netflix debuted May December, I was thrilled to see that Classic Haynes was back; and watching it a second time now on blu-ray from Via Vision was a relieving confirmation that I hadn't just over enthusiastically willed it into existence psychosomatically; it really is immaculate.

May December was nominated for one Oscar, but it should've been nominated at least for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Score, Best Original Screenplay (the one it actually was nominated for), and won half of them.  Of course I know it's silly to put that much credence in the stupid Academy Awards.  But my point is that this film got just a taste of the attention and accolades it should have received.  As I initially wrote on Letterboxd, "[t]he performances - not just Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, but Charles Melton, wow, what a triumph; I think his career's about to ascend - are superb."  And the swings this film takes, going so dark and then so melodramatic, near camp, all while being unusually real.

Of course, like the best crime films, it helps that it's at least indirectly based on a true story.  Sadly, there's been any number of such disturbing cases to draw from (and they're not stopping).  But this story is also very much its own thing, adding a whole other layer of Hollywood art and performance, and examining that relationship to our inner lives.  It's like Ingmar Bergman started off from a first draft by John Waters.  And maybe the discomfort all of that entails is why audiences have been a little reluctant to fully embrace this film.  You've got to be the kind of cinema goer who's ready to tackle the unsettling and weird.  But if you're here on this site, I'm guessing that's a lot of ya.

So May December has just been released (or in some cases: is about to be released) in various territories throughout the world on BD this season.  The naturally English friendly ones are the UK blu from Dazzler Media and the Australian one from Via Vision.  I've gone with the latter, and from online reports I've been reading, it sounds like I made the right choice.  Yikes.  I hadn't heard any of that back when I ordered my copy; I just knew I trusted VV to do good work and had barely heard of Dazzler.  So you can follow those links to hear what people have to say about the UK disc; now let's have a look at what we got from AUS.

2024 Via Vision BD.

Via Vision presents May December in 1.85:1 on a dual-layered disc.  This film was shot on digital, but there's clearly film grain on this transfer.  I'm not sure if that's because they took this scan from a film master, or if the filmmakers applied "fake" grain as an aesthetic choice, but I just fired this up on streaming, and it seems to have it, too, but much less well resolved (to be clear, I'm saying it's much sharper and better defined here on the blu).  This movie has a deliberately hazy, low contrast look (just look at that nighttime street scene), but detail is still sharp when it wants to be.  One of the users criticizing the Dazzler disc cited the floor in the classroom scene as "just a blocky mess."  Well, the screenshot just one paragraph higher is of that classroom scene, and I don't see any problems with the floor.  So whatever might be wrong with that disc doesn't seem to be an issue here.

Audio-wise, we're given the option of 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, both in DTS-HD with optional English SDH subtitles.  The only extra is the theatrical trailer, but that's still more than the Dazzler disc provides.

So barebones or not, Via Vision looks to be the ideal import, at least for English speaking audiences.  And importing's the only option unless you're holding out hope that Criterion will come through with a special edition sometime next year.  It did occur to me to wait and see, but it's not like they've been able to come through for all of Netflix's critical darlings.  Ask anyone still requesting The Ballad of Buster Scruggs six years later.  And I don't see them topping Via Vision's presentation in 1080p; they'd have to do a UHD.  Admittedly, a 4k with some high quality interviews would make me regret this purchase in the long run.  So we'll see what the future brings, but in the meantime, this is the way to get your May December fix.