El rey de los cowboys

"Go West" is an enjoyable change-of-pace from Keaton. It has a creative story that enables Buster to demonstrate some different acting skills, while still having plenty of his trademark slapstick, chases, and stunts, especially in the last half of the film. It's not one of his best-remembered films today, largely because it is rather old-fashioned and sometimes slow, but it has a great many merits for those who enjoy silent comedies.

Buster's character is down on his luck, and decides to head west. He winds up on a ranch, working as a cowhand. As he tries rather ineffectively to learn the trade, he becomes attached to a particular cow, 'Brown Eyes'. While trying to protect Brown Eyes from harm, he is caught in the middle of the desperate attempts of the rancher and the rancher's daughter to save their business. Keaton is very good in evoking sympathy for his character while still being amusing, and the story is touching at times while remaining pleasantly silly at others. There are times when it does move pretty slowly, but it is always pleasant to watch.

The film would be well worth seeing for the last portion alone. Everything comes together in a madcap stampede sequence that is extremely funny and that contains a lot of inventive gags. It's classic Keaton, and a great way to top off a rather different story.

If you are a fan of Buster or of silent comedy in general, make sure to give this one a try. It's not the kind of film that could be expected to attract a wide audience today, but it's a pleasant and enjoyable film, and you might like it as much as those of us on this page have enjoyed it.

A young man named Friendless decides to head east when his luck runs out. After nearly getting trampled by an average New York pedestrian crowd, Friendless takes Horace Greeley's advice and heads west via rail. Friendless accidently is sent off the train, he ends up at an Arizona ranch, where the owner gives him a job as a hand. Soon there he meets his first friend, a cow named Brown Eyes. When Brown Eyes is to be taken with the rest of the herd for the slaughterhouse, Friendless goes with Brown Eyes to prevent her turning into a steak dinner, until a rival ranch holds up the train, and Friendless ends up driving the entire herd through the busy 1920's streets of Los Angeles to market. This Keaton film differs from the other's he made in the 1920's, where it is more of a drama, and sacrificing the Keaton routine of the young man who unwillingly is called to do the extraordinary things, in a sense a Chaplin film. There are a few good sight gags though (Buster waiting for a cow to give milk, his failures to get to the dinner table on time), but the scenes with Brown Eyes are the movie. Rating- 7.

While most of the things said above are true, don't let them stop you from enjoying this wonderful piece of film. If you love trains, or just Keaton's incomparable train gags, you'll be enthralled. If you really like Keaton, you'll appreciate the inside joke on his shtick (a rare indulgence on his part). If you think about the stampede scene while watching it, and consider how impossible it is to remake in this day and age, you'll appreciate it more. If you enjoy running gags, you'll find several strings through it. While I admit there are better Keaton efforts, and while I admit I'm very partial, I still say that if you appreciate Keaton at all you'll like this one, too.

Let the comments above warn you that "The General" it isn't, realize that they can't all be five-star classics, and enjoy this really nice film! Not his best, but not bad at all. There's certainly no sense in waiting for his next one (unfortunately). Jackie Chan may still be at it, but all the Keaton we have is all we have--and thank goodness for that much!

No, as most critics have said, this isn't one of Buster Keaton's better feature films, but it's not bad and surely it is better than what you might have read in some critic's book. It has its moments and is a bit different in way, if you consider a man and cow falling in love with each other! (This should be a "cult classic!")

Buster heeds the advice, "Go West, Young Man, Go West," and winds up out in the middle of nowhere after crawling inside a barrel and then the barrel falling out of a train.

He winds up taking discarded cowboy clothes and trying his hand at that profession but, of course, has no clue even how to ride a horse. His only accomplishment is taking a stone out of a cow's hoof. The cow is so grateful, it follows Buster around the rest of the movie and the two become quite attached.

After some low-key attempts at several projects, Buster winds up - I am really condensing this - back on a train with the cattle hoping to be sold so that the almost-destitute boss can get enough money to save his ranch. The train is robbed, the cattle derailed and the herd winds up in the middle of a big city!

That's the real fun part of the film, as it is in so many silent comedies. The adventures of seeing a herd of cattle going down the main city streets and then into barbershops, Turkish baths, Ladies Department Stores, etc., is very funny.

The ending was very clever and final punch-line not what the viewers anticipate. All in all, not a lot of laugh-out-loud scenes but a decent Keaton silent film and definitely worth a watch. I am glad most of the reviewers here appreciated this movie.

Have always had great admiration for Buster Keaton, one of the funniest, boldest and most important comedy geniuses of his time and to exist. His best work was hilarious, and not only is there very few people in comedy at the time and since as jaw-droppingly daring but he was one of not many, and possibly the best at it, to make deadpan work. There really were few people like him before, during and since, despite loving comedy of all decades and most kinds of styles Keaton was a true original.

'Go West' is not one of Keaton's best and is very rarely considered as such, there is much funnier, more inventive, more daring work of his from before as well as since. It is still though an amusing and charming watch, and does not deserve to be near-forgotten. While 'Go West' may not be Keaton on top form, it is one of his more under-appreciated efforts and shouldn't be dismissed because it's somewhat of a change of pace and not what one usually expects from Keaton.

It is best forgetting the story, as there is not much of one and it could have gotten going quicker with the first portion being a touch too on the slow side.

On the physical side of things, there could have been more of it and by Keaton, whose physical comedy was at his best very ahead of the time and bold, standards, some of it is a touch subdued.

However, 'Go West' is well shot and designed with the clever last shot standing out. The gags are always amusing though never quite reaching hilarious level, and the more physical elements are deftly timed and nimble, if not what one calls daring. It is silly at times but never played too broadly and the silliness doesn't go overboard.

There is not just comedy. It was actually nice to see a gentler tone and the film has a lot of heart and charm, some touching moments here without mawkishness. Keaton wasn't nicknamed "The Great Stone Face" for nothing, deadpan is not an easy way of acting to nail but Keaton was a master of this because he made it amusing and nuanced.

Concluding, not my definition of classic Keaton but under-appreciated and a lovely watch. 7.5/10