MovieChat Forums > The Keep (1983) Discussion > The problem is Glaeken (Scott Glenn)

The problem is Glaeken (Scott Glenn)


Everything about this film is fine except Glaeken, whose presence only confuses things and saps the narrative momentum. Get rid of him, have Klaus join forces with Dr. Cuza to defeat Radu, and you have a much tighter, more compelling story imo.

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Na Scott Glen was great...

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Scott Glenn was fine, the character he played was ridiculous and pointless.

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Glaeken isn't developed enough in the movie. Go read the book.

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I may well read the book, but that is irrelevant to my point, which is about the movie.

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oh i see... its the edit cut that was rushed... Glenn plays a big important part in the original cut. which hope will be released soon

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'Everything about this film is fine except Glaeken, whose presence only confuses things and saps the narrative momentum. Get rid of him, have Klaus join forces with Dr. Cuza to defeat Radu, and you have a much tighter, more compelling story imo.'

You don't get it. Glaeken is the protagonist. Glaeken is the only one who can stop Rasalom.

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You don't get it. Glaeken is the protagonist. Glaeken is the only one who can stop Rasalom.

Oh, I get it, that's the problem lol. I'm sure it all makes sense in the book. But the Glaeken character, as written in the film, makes for a piss-poor protagonist.

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I'm inclined to agree, I saw this for the first time the other night, really enjoyed it visually and the acting was great(Prochnow!!!) but it very much felt like half a film, and the half that was missing was backing up the Scott Glenn character. He just seems to show up with his magic stick and glowing eyeballs, has sex with the woman, gets shot and has his showdown with the bad guy. Who/what he is is reserved to a line or two of dialogue which teases more than explains;
"I'm here to stop him as he's close to escaping the Keep,...and he's insane btw."
"Oh, ok Scott"

I agree with your conclusion I also felt that if Jurgen Prochnows character ended up stopping the monster somehow the film would have been better in what it was. Also what was up with that sex scene, came out of nowhere! hahaha




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I agree that Glaeken isn't developed properly in the movie like he is in the book but you have to have him. Again no one else can stop Rasalom.

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Yeah but we're discussing the movie. You keep falling back on the book. Glaeken's failure to come across properly as a character is the fault of the filmmakers; we shouldn't have to go read the book to get the full story. Although for what it's worth, even without the book, I had no problem eventually figuring out what Glaeken's deal was. He's there to kill Molasar, can sense when he's released, and is apparently something more than human. Little is actually explained, but anyone with half a brain can figure out what Glaeken is about. The movie just provides enough to do that if nothing else.

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Glaeken Trismegestus is essential to the story both in the book and the movie, the problem is he was poorly written in the movie. Instead of removing one of the most important characters, the script writers should've developed the movie version of Glaeken a bit more.

To claim the movie would be better without Glaeken evinces a lack of knowledge about the source material and the film.

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There are a few rushed parts in THE KEEP especially in the last third act but the film is still one of my favourite "horror"/fantasy films ever, it is so unique, moody, dreamy and visually geeat.
I like Scott Glenn in the film, his character has a tragic side, sure his "character arc" is a bit rushed but these lines he delivers to Eva meaning he wants only to be like us, the human people, and his last scene (no true happy end in "The Keep"!), convey well enough how the character is tragic and desperate.
I somewhat thought about the Sonny/Isabella love story in another Mann movie, "Miami Vice".
Like in "Miami Vice" the love story in "The Keep" is doomed almost from the beginning and the male character (Sonny/Glaken) can't escape from his job, he can't live a love story with the girl.

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The movie feels like Exorcist and Highlander mashed up together. It's very uneven. I like both stories fine, but they don't really go together.

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There were a lot more problems with this film than just one character. There was the fact that it was really a 3.5 hour film edited to 90 minutes, bad special effects, poor character development, no real focus of story, bad music, attempting to be an arty film and a horror film and not really succeeding at either, poor direction of actors, poor set design....yeah, you could say i'm not really a huge fan of this film.

That being said, the premise is intriguing and it's an interesting failure.

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You can argue the toss about whether all the other aspects of the film are good or not but the music is great, full stop.

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