Vaqueiro Avacalhado

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.

After trading all his belongings for a large sandwich, Keaton's nameless character hops on a train with the intent of leaving his small town for the big city. He quickly realizes that city life is no better for him as he's literally trampled underfoot by a crowd of people and jumps on the train again, this time with the intention of seeking his fortune as so many did in the west. He falls out near a large cattle ranch and manages to secure work there.

Of course he's quite unsuited for the ranch lifestyle as well. He befriends a cow that's nearly as unwanted as he is and spends most of his time on the ranch protecting his bovine protégé. All is not well at the ranch, however, as the proprietor must sell his herd right away or risk losing his business. Keaton's character accompanies the cows on their train ride and ends up attempting to drive the whole lot of them to the slaughterhouse all by himself. This is fraught with complication and the cattle run riot through the streets (and buildings!) of Los Angeles in an exciting set piece that includes Keaton dressing up in a red devil costume complete with horns and a tail.

The film is interesting in that it focuses on an area of Western life that gets less attention: the day to day lifestyle of ranchers and their hands. The first half of the film is full of humorous scenes that set up the character and the situation and the later half of the film has the most laughs as Keaton navigates his way through a series of wild cow in the city scenarios. The story is a bit on the slight side but the comedy works as well as always. This film is proof that even a minor work from a legend like Keaton is still near great.

Go West is a movie that you seldom hear about and even Keaton did not consider it among his best. However, every time I see it, I cannot help but think that it is one of his funniest and most touching films. In his independent work, Keaton had an amazing ability to portray very unfortunate characters and yet not seem to be pandering to the audience for its pity. In this film, Keaton plays a character referred to as Friendless. The opening scenes of the film show him bouncing around from one unfortunate (and hilarious) situation to another. Yet rather than feel pity for him, the audience can root for this character and good-naturedly laugh at how Friendless reacts to and deals with his misfortunes. It's difficult not to admire the way he overcomes all challenges. When he finds a friend in a cow named Brown Eyes, his loyalty to her and the rancher that employed him precipitates an amazing sequence of events, culminating in an unbelievable cattle stampede through the streets of LA. Although, the scene may drag on a bit, I'll never forget the image of Buster Keaton running down a city street in a red devil's outfit being pursued by a giant herd of cattle. It is one of the most hilariously absurd scenes ever committed to film. There are great gags from beginning to end and, as usual for Keaton, the final sequence is very satisfying. In addition, the Kino release has an outstanding soundtrack which enhances the film considerably. I would highly recommend Go West to anyone as an introduction to Keaton, silent films, or comedies in general.

I have to say I really like this movie because my recently deceased Grandfather had this movie on VHS tape and when I watched it I was able to get a huge amount of laughs out of it because of what Buster Keaton did when he dressed up in the DEVIL costume to get those cows to chase him to the Livestock yard. That was one good movie that should be available for everyone to watch. I just love how it shows that chase down the streets of that one city when those cows are all stampeding after the man in the costume because of how cows chase red things. I just wish that TV stations like AMC and Turner Classic Movies would show this film over and over again because this is a whole lot better than the films that are released today.

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.