Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow

I use the phrase "America's greatest director" not ironically, not unqualified, & not because I admire or otherwise favor silents over "talkies." I use it because I honestly think it's true. & this biography reenforces that belief more than anything I've seen or heard with the exception of actually seeing Keaton's movies. But sometimes you need something to get people to see these movies, movies which may seem quaint or curious to people used to hearing dialogue & sound effects. This documentary does it.

You see, Keaton UNDERSTOOD. Sometimes his movies are corny, sometimes they aim high & hit low, but mostly they're amazing. Mostly they happily present a very scrappy & sympathetic (but not perfect) protagonist & the many foul-ups & challenges he faces. He doesn't fret or moan but simply takes his beatings & tries again. Unlike Chaplin's main characters, Keaton's hero is very often the least important figure in the shot - because the effect is far more important than some kind of identification with the protagonist. Gags & foibles are fluid; nothing seems contrived or extraneous because so

much thought has been placed into each shot, each moment, to render everything crucial to the story. There's a reason that silent comedies are valued (in general) more than silent dramas: comedies speak more to the human condition, & the outrageous in a comedy is accepted where the theatrics & overemoting of a drama seems downright quaint. Keaton knew this. Keaton thrived within this.

How his career was cut short & reduced to nothing is documented here (I'm giving nothing away; volume 2 is entitled "Star Without A Studio") as well as his own problems with alcohol. I am especially suspectible to people who have a sense of the successes & failings of their lives & come to a grateful, gentle end; Keaton, like Harpo Marx, felt blessed by the chances he was given & modestly rated his own body of work. But listen: if you see this documentary, you'll want to see the movies, even if the documentary does show most of his most spectacular stunts. Because for Keaton, context was important: the star can be shown running at the bottom of the screen while a hundred cops chasing him take up most of it. So too can a single stunt, even the best stunt of a movie, make little sense without the context of the film.

Find this. Buy or rent this. Watch critically, note the precision of every scene, the skill with which they are composed & shot & carried out, & then seek out the originals. You'll compare them with your favorite films, you'll find that somewhere in the silent age of movies someone was actually an artist, someone making *comedy*, & you'll understand why people today mention Keaton in reverent tones.

I adore so much cinema, but I am always, always impressed by the skill of Buster Keaton.

I fully concur with all the above. A wonderful film about a wonderfully talented and undersung human being we are lucky enough to have record of in his extraordinary movie clips. The first video is just plain fun and the third video is as satisfying and joyful as the second is painful. Truly a great documentary for anyone who enjoys biography. 10/10

After Hollywood, and THE UNKNOWN CHAPLIN, Kevin Brownlow and David Gill did this documentary on Buster Keaton, and how he developed as the leading rival of Charlie Chaplin as number one comic of the Silent Period (Harold Lloyd is number three, and then - supposedly - Harry Langdon, Raymond Griffith, and Laurel and Hardy). Keaton had begun with his parents in a lively, knockabout vaudeville act (literally his father threw him about the stage). When he entered movies it was with Fatty Arbuckle's company, and as Arbuckle's friend and admirer. Unlike most silent performers, Keaton was interested about how movies were made, and actually took apart a camera to study it's workings. He learned to build jokes into his films to develop character. And he never lost his fascination with the power of what films could do. Look at a film like SHERLOCK JR., where he carefully spends time using cutting to make a series of improbable events occur on screen (such as jumping through the chest of a man standing in front of a wall). Chaplin plucks at the heartstrings, Lloyd takes ordinariness and perks it up with dangers, but Keaton is concerned on how man is at the mercy of nature and science. In one long sequence joke in OUR HOSPITALITY, Keaton is being chased to a waterfall set of cliffs. He ties himself to a rope hoping to climb up. An enemy finds the rope and ties it to himself, planning to surprise Keaton when he climbs up. Keaton sees this and yanks on the rope causing his enemy to fall off the top of the cliff into the waterfall, but as the body of the man fall down in the background, Keaton realizes the rope is still tied securely to his own body. Looking stoically into the camera and waiting, a moment later we see Keaton pulled off the screen by the falling body of his enemy. He can fight human enemies, but not the law of gravity.

Keaton did well until 1928, but then family and health problems hit him, especially his growing alcoholism. Stripped of his dignity by a studio boss (Louis B. Mayer) who had no time for has-beens, he became a gag writer. But he still occasionally made films in the sound period. The film shows how Keaton's rise occurred in the 1950s, spurred on by the rediscovery of many of his films. It is a remarkable story of a gifted genius who lived long enough to know he was not a drunken failure but universally admired.

This was an amazing documentary. Instead of the usual superficial and boring bio, it's jam-packed full of stories about the film making process and interesting anecdotes you'll hear no where else.

The show was presented in three 1-hour segments--going chronologically through his long career. One of the most memorable aspects was the film discussing his awful "bio-pic" (THE BUSTER KEATON STORY)--how it was mostly untrue and Keaton was not a hard-core drinker. Yes, he did have a drinking problem but it was short-lived and not a defining moment in his career.

Wonderful, thorough and lovingly made--an absolute MUST for fans of silent comedy.

FYI--Another similar project was created by the same writers for Harold Lloyd (AMERICAN MASTERS--HAROLD LLOYD, THE THIRD GENIUS) and Charlie Chaplin (UNKNOWN CHAPLIN). All three are terrific and must-see for fans of silent comedy!

This has to be one of the best documentary/biography's around. Narrated by distinguished British director Lindsay Anderson, this is an incredibly detailed portrait of one of the silent screen's, nay, movies greatest and most talented legends. It details his life from cradle to grave in an unflinching manner, from his childhood in vaudeville to his debut in the Arbuckle shorts to the dizzy heights of the 20's to the tragic lows of the 30's and 40's then on to the rediscovery of the master film maker's work in the later years of his life, something we are all grateful that he lived to see. Full of wonderful interviews with the man himself and his wonderful wife, the late Eleanor Keaton, to those who knew him as a young man and the friends he had in his later life, with many examples of the work he did in television after his rediscovery in the 50's and 60's which show that he still had genius. I am fortunate to own it on a single video having seen it many years ago when it was shown on British TV, but, when oh when will it be on DVD? It's shocking that this and many other glorious movies particularly of the silent era are unavailable and some of the most turgid drivel, that is a waste of fresh air, is out there to buy, as if you'd really want to. It took them long enough to bring out "The Cameraman" on DVD, a perfect example of his genius. 10/10