Product Details

• Actors: Buster Keaton
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302004470
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,191 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Keaton's Best Silents, May 1, 2000

By 

Cheated (California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cameraman [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Cameraman" (1928) is one of Keaton's best silent features. He starts off the movie playing a tintype photographer selling portraits on the streets of NY for 10 cents. He wants to become a newsreel cameraman but is burdened only with the tintype camera that is condescendingly referred to by his jealous rival as a "cocktail shaker" (1920s silent film "dialogue" seems to veer towards an obsession with liquor. Actually, the camera looks more like a chrome spacecraft from an Ed Wood picture). Keaton ends up trading in his tintype for an obsolete newsreel camera that the other news guys make fun of, but seems to work pretty well throughout the film, and which ends up making him a hero at the film's ending.

Unfortunately for us, the print on this edition is not too good. It's very shadowy and has that viewing quality of silent pictures made in the 1910s. In other words, it's not very clear. But the reason is probably because this film is so good that it was once viewed continuously at the MGM screening rooms by the rookie gag writers under contract to MGM and used as a basis of what was regarded as being funny. There are 2 scenes missing from this picture, probably because of that reason. One involves the exit of an admiral from a hotel. The gag was supposed to involve Keaton getting this guy mixed up with the hotel's doorman. We are robbed of this potentially wonderful scene because after it starts, the film immediately cuts to Keaton displaying samples of his filmwork in the newsreel office's screening room. The newsreel samples are a mixture of double exposures and other convoluted scenes (one of which shows a ship in the middle of a street - I think it involved the 2nd lost scene) intended to show us the amateurish quality of his work, but unintentionally look more like a scary nightmare when combined with the murky quality of this edition's print.

But there are other scenes worth mentioning here, i.e., Keaton doing a pantomime of every player in a baseball game (filmed at Yankee Stadium, and judging by the minute details he gives us of each player's job, it's obvious Keaton is acting out a real-life labor of love - for more Keaton baseball, see "One-Run Elmer"), sharing a tiny bathing suit changing room with another guy (it's not even big enough for one), and a frightening scene showing him filming a Chinatown Tong war that gets out of hand.

"The Cameraman" is a 5-star picture, but because this VHS print is kind of worn out, it may be irritating to some viewers who would not have the patience to just appreciate it for its artistic quality. It's a good picture, and it made me weep uncontrollably (I'm a girl!).

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keaton at the Top of His Game, December 14, 2000

By 

Scott T. Rivers (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cameraman [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Despite the loss of his creative independence, Buster Keaton somehow was able to make a comic masterpiece within the studio-system constrictions of MGM. "The Cameraman" shows Keaton at the height of his cinematic powers, with some terrific set pieces (such as his solitary baseball game at the newly built Yankee Stadium) and moments of unexpected pathos. The Great Stone Face's 1928 silent comedy remains among his all-time best. However, do not judge this superb film by the faded, unwatchable print provided by MGM for this VHS edition - it never should have been issued.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great film, horrible print, June 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Cameraman [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The tape I bought of this film is so bad, faces are turned into dark hair, an occasional mouth or eyes, and nothing but white in between - no expressions. And if I didn't already know the plot, I would have almost no idea of what is going on.

If there is a better copy out there, wait to buy until someone makes a copy of it. It's too frustrating to try to watch a bad copy of such a good film.