reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (09/17/85)
In article <837@udenva.UUCP> showard@udenva.UUCP (showard) writes: > I find Buster Keaton to be far from humorous. As for a comic persona, hav- >ing the exact same expression on one's face for an entire film career is over- >doing it just a bit. Houses falling over, massive destruction, and hanging >from the sides of tall buildings just aren't that funny. Mack Sennet, too, >used violence more than humor in his films. You may find pie-fights and banana >skins hilarious but to me it seem juvenile and annoying. I can hardly argue that Mack Sennett isn't juvenile, since he is. Sennett is not to everyone's taste, and a little of his work goes a long way. Buster Keaton, however, is hilarious, in my opinion. To say that he only has one expression is to miss the point. Keaton's genius lay in his persistence, his ability to carry on in the face of any disaster without complaint or even the slightest show of exasperation. If his expression changed even once, it would ruin the joke. Just how much Keaton have you seen? I should also point out that, Sennett aside, most silent comedians were not especially violent or deeply into slapstick humor. Slapstick was one of many tools they used. Keaton probably never slipped on a banana peel or threw a pie in any of his films. Violence is not a major component of Keaton's films. There's a hurricane in "Steamboat Bill Jr.", and a house front does fall over in that movie (right on top of Keaton, who fortunately happens to be standing at a point where a window falls), but Keaton doesn't use the pull-the-nose, kick-the-ass type of comedy perfected by the Three Stooges. The standard Keaton bit is to set him to an impossible task and then watch him persevere in the face of incredible odds. Chaplin used a bit more slapstick, but he was incredibly inventive about it. You won't find your standard custard pie fight in any of Chaplin's own films. Have you actually seen Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last"? I suppose if one's taste is exclusively to Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, and Woody Allen, biting verbal wit, then one might not enjoy classic silent comedy. Otherwise, I do not understand how anyone could fail to appreciate it, and you are the first person I have ever heard say that he has actually seen it and didn't like it. I won't argue preferences (Chaplin vs. Keaton), nor a dislike of an individual performer, but, taken as a whole, the great silent comedies of the 1920s are, in my opinion, the funniest films ever made. The true test, of course, is listening to an audience. Whenever I see a great silent comedy in a theater, the laughter is almost deafening. Good thing they were silent, because you never would have heard anything they said. -- Peter Reiher reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
tomczak@harvard.ARPA (Bill Tomczak) (09/21/85)
In article <6860@ucla-cs.ARPA> reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP writes: >... Keaton probably never slipped on a banana peel or >threw a pie in any of his films. Although I TOTALLY agree with everything you said in this article, I had to correct this one error. There is a pie throwing scene in at least one Keaton film. It's one of the earlier ones with Fatty Arbuckle. In fact, looking in my "Buster Keaton Autobiography" I believe it was his very first film ever - "The Butcher Boy"/1917. Actually, now that I think of it, I think they were throwing flour bags at each other - oh well, same idea. Incidentally, the Orson Welles Cinema here in Cambridge had a Keaton festival last year. I'd never seen any Keaton before and I was hooked as soon as I saw the first one. I went to absolutely every film in the fest (3/night changed every 2-3 days for about two months! I was half blind but ecstatic with laughter!) Bill Tomczak@harvard.{ARPA, UUCP}
leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (09/21/85)
>Buster Keaton, however, is hilarious, in my >opinion. To say that he only has one expression is to miss >the point. Keaton's genius lay in his persistence, his >ability to carry on in the face of any disaster without >complaint or even the slightest show of exasperation. If >his expression changed even once, it would ruin the joke. >Just how much Keaton have you seen? I'll second that opinion. But I have to say that what I like about Keaton comedies are so many of the jokes that revolve around clever ways to solve physical problems or unusual ways to see common objects. The sort of thing is Keaton has to cook a meal, though he has no experience in a kitchen. He uses all the kitchen implements in wrong ways, but in doing so finds some very clever uses for the appliances nobody else ever thought of. I am sort of a mathematician and in math the unconventinonal use of standard tools can be extremely useful. Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper