Customer Reviews

Go West

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

GO WEST (1925): In Go West, Keaton cast an unusually thick role to his leading lady. She's actually the plot. She's a cow. The plot centers around Keaton becoming emotionally attached to her and desperately trying to save her from the slaughterhouse. The beginning of this movie was filmed on a ranch in Arizona, and later in Los Angeles, so we get to see some good authentic 1920s location shots. One of the things that's sort of missing from Go West is Keaton's avalanche of whirleygigs, spin-arounds, and flipflops that pepper his other films (especially the early one's with Arbuckle), but since he's centering the plot on sympathy this time, the slapstick is kept to a minimum. Don't worry, Keaton fans, the sympathy isn't as shmarmy as Chaplin's. This film is charming and it's understandable why it was a hit for MGM. One of the things I discovered about Go West was that, earlier in the day of the first time I viewed it, I happened to have been reading some of Keaton's autobiography. He mentioned that when he was a toddler, he got his index finger stuck in the wringer of a clothes washtub, which crushed it, and then had to be amputated at the first joint. After I read this, I wondered if there was evidence of the amputation seen in any of his films. Later that night, I watched Go West and along came a close-up scene of Keaton going through the contents of a lady's purse. The camera was right on top of his hands. Because of this scene, sadly I discovered the index finger of his right hand was substantially shorter than his middle finger.

THE SCARECROW (1920): The Scarecrow is one of Keaton's best early shorts. The first reel is hilarious because we get to see Buster and his perennial heavy, Joe Roberts, as roommates living in a house full of useful gadgets which hang by strings from the ceiling. They are both competing for the same girl, and Keaton wins her by accident. I found the film fun to watch because of numerous 1920 L.A. exteriors - they seem to be a priority with me on Keaton's films.

THE PALEFACE (1921): In the Paleface, Buster is at the wrong place at the wrong time. When a tribe of indians get cheated out of their land by an oil company, the indians decide to punish the first white guy they will next see on their land, and it happens to be Keaton who is cast as a butterfly catcher. After being chased by the tribe for awhile, Keaton comes across a bundle of asbestos which he wears under his clothes because he knows the tribe wants to execute him Joan of Arc style. The gag is hilarious as we watch the flames surround Keaton and then eventually smolder. After surviving this, Buster is looked upon as a living God and becomes part of the tribe.

GO WEST provides cinema with one of its most surreal moments ever: Buster Keaton, dressed as Satan, riding a cow through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, being pursued by a large herd of angry cattle. I thought I'd mention that right up front, so that people know what they're getting in to.

This is a rather sweet film. The driving force behind it is the relationship formed between Buster Keaton's character and a cow named Brown Eyes. Keaton removes a troublesome pebble from Brown Eye's foot, and Brown Eyes saves Keaton from being trampled by a bull. They become firm friends afterwards. Yes, I know that this sounds like something out of a nauseating children's movie, but the whole thing is obviously played for laughs. While it's silly, it never becomes overbearingly so.

After a quick criss-cross dash around the country, Keaton eventually ends up in the Wild West. Dressed as a cowboy (although he forgoes the usual cowboy hat in favor of his trusty porkpie), he quickly goes about subverting many Western clichés. There's the tense poker-game with the cheating scoundrel, of course (where the Great Stone Face finds himself flummoxed when told to smile), and the exciting shoot-outs (where Buster is equipped with a ludicrously small weapon).

As with Keaton's SEVEN CHANCES, the big payoff comes in the final third. But instead of enraged would-be brides, Keaton alternatively herds or flees from hundreds of cattle running through city streets. Cows run people off the road. They create chaos in barbershops and department stores. Let's face it: cows are funny.

One thing I didn't like about this release was the reliance on sound effects. Silent films don't require cymbal crashes during gun battles, nor do slapstick pratfalls scream out for "hilarious" comedy musical riffs. Still, the picture looks quite nice.

THE SCARECROW (the first of the two shorts also included on the disc) is a film that you've seen parts of, even if you've never watched a silent short before. This is the one with Buster Keaton and his large roommate (played ably by Joe Roberts as a nice guy rather than his usual "heavy" role) sharing a mechanized apartment and attempting not to share the farmer's daughter. With utensils and gadgets hovering over their kitchen table, suspended by strings and counterweights, the pair eat their meals in a wonderfully choreographed display of swinging salt and pepper shakers, torpedoing bottles and revolving bathtubs. The rest of the film is composed of various chases: Buster running from a dog, Buster running from the farmer and Joe Roberts, and Buster and the farmer's daughter running from the farmer and Joe Roberts. Wonderful stuff.

THE PALEFACE isn't exactly the most sensitive portrayal of the Native American people that you'll see. Er, I'll leave that aspect of the film at that (though it should be noted that the bad guys are the white corporate types who try to throw people off their land). This isn't nearly as strong a film as the other short on this disc, but it's certainly got some good sequences to offer. The obligatory chase scenes are quite fun. The picture quality is fairly good throughout most of it, but there are a handful of individual camera shots where the image goes completely fuzzy and blurred. I imagine that some sort of reconstruction from various sources was involved.

GO WEST might not be the film that's more representative of Keaton's work, but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to enjoy it. The two short films are quite funny; THE SCARECROW should be required viewing for anyone interested in what made the silent short such an enjoyable art form. GO WEST, young DVD-collector, GO WEST!

"Go West" is one of Buster Keaton's more disappointing films. Shot on location outside Kingman, Arizona in 1925, "Go West" is one of the few Keaton movies that hasn't stood the test of time. It contains many gags that may have been revolutionary upon its initial release, but have worn thin to today's comedy standards.

Gone is the trademark chase, which was always a favorite of Buster Keaton fans. Gone is the cohesive storyline, as I get the feeling that 50% of this film was 'forced' on location. In all his films, Buster Keaton always battles the elements, be they man-made or natural, but as we discover in "Go West", there are truly a small, finite number of prop gags that can be accomplished in the barren desert. In fact, Buster's own review of "Go West" wasn't too encouraging; "Some parts I liked, but as a picture, in general, I really didn't care for it."

But this DVD has the saving grace of 2 very hilarious shorts: "The Scarecrow" and "The Paleface". Made in 1920 & 1921, respectively, these two shorts are perhaps some of Buster's best non-feature productions. They include many excellent chase scenes, many hilarious gags, and very inventive props & storylines. The 'High-Tech Dining' scene in "The Scarecrow" is maybe one of the funniest and most creative segments I've seen in the entire Buster Keaton catalog. "The Paleface" is equally entertaining, however today's audience will probably notice the blatant stereotyping of American Indians. It's a different world now.

"Go West" is a good DVD to have for 2 reasons: A) To enjoy 40 minutes of marvelous shorts and B) to complete your Buster Keaton collection. Newbies to Buster Keaton are better off starting with "The General" or "Sherlock Jr".

Go West is not out one of Keaton's very best films, but this DVD should still be a must for Keaton fans. After all, gradually one wants to collect them all. Go West is not consistently funny nor ingenious and thus cannot really compare with either The General or Our Hospitality. Nevertheless, it has many brilliant moments. I particularly enjoyed the parody of the 'smile when you say that' scene from The Virginian. How is stoneface Buster going to smile? His solution is another parody, this time of Lilian Gish in Broken Blossoms. The best thing about this DVD however, is not Go West but the short film The Scarecrow. This is both extremely clever and funny. It is among the very best of Keaton's films. As far as I'm concerned it is worth the price of the DVD on its own. The final short film The Paleface I found the least interesting part of this DVD. The story, even within its own terms, did not quite hang together. Even so, once again, it has moments of great comedy. The quality of the prints on this DVD are fine while the music is appropriate and well played. This DVD is probaly not the best place to start for those new to Keaton's films. However, for those fans who are building a collection it should not be ignored.

One of Buster Keaton's most underrated features, "Go West" (1925) remains a memorable Western spoof with a none-too-subtle swipe at Chaplinesque pathos. Shot mostly on location in Arizona, the 69-minute silent comedy is highlighted by Buster's touching relationship with "Brown Eyes" and the incredible cattle stampede through downtown Los Angeles. A delightful film for viewers of all ages.

The two short films and one feature in this set span four years (1922-25) of Buster Keaton's rise as a comic film star. They amply illustrate that, of all the great comics, Keaton was able to mine visual humor from the widest range of situations. The Scarecrow, the earliest of the three, is a charming, innocent romp, from a mechanized "house with all rooms in one room", to a love triangle with Joe Roberts and Sybil Seely, to a wild chase involving Luke the dog (who was at his best either chasing someone or being chased), to a happy climax involving a wedding ceremony on a motorcycle. The style and pace of this film is not far removed from the Fatty Arbuckle-Buster Keaton period just completed, and Joe Roberts, Buster's rival, suggests Fatty at least in girth, if not in comic style. It is a perfectly charming and often very funny outing. By the way, the scene in which Buster disguises himself as a scarecrow was used later by Max Linder in Be My Wife.

The Paleface, from 1922, shows more maturity and coherence. The chases here are more refined; for example, Buster eludes his pursuers by moving a bridge, piece by piece, between two mountains. Hilarious sight gags abound, as when after Buster escapes being burned at the stake by wearing asbestos underwear, he casually pulls out a cigarette but can't find a match! This film also has more of the Keaton character's persona: a victim of nature, machine and being at the wrong place at the wrong time, he perseveres by creative use of his environment, as well as his physical grace and athletic prowess.

Go West, from 1925, shows how as Keaton moved into features, his films sometimes took on more dramatic, even darker themes. One recurring theme here is Buster caught in a "stampede", either people, cattle, horses, or barrels on a moving freight train. Many shots of Buster are from a distance, standing alone in a field against a distant backdrop. The mood suggested here is a lonely lost individual trying to survive with no friends and no prospects. Unlike Harold Lloyd in a film like the Freshman, Buster's character does not conquer by winning society over to his ways; he wins alone, in this case, successfully leading a cattle drive single-handedly through the streets of Los Angeles! Buster's love interest, Brown Eyes the cow, only increases the sense that his character is incapable of attracting human friendship, that each relationship with a human will be one of conflict. This film does not have the optimistic charm of The Three Ages or Our Hospitality. It has funny moments but the enduring appeal of this film is mostly figuring out how "Friendless" Buster can escape the endless abuse of man and nature. The result is a classic comedy of a unique kind.

You simply can't go wrong owning this set.

"Go West, young man, go West"


In his memories Luis Buñuel mentions Buster Keaton's films as the favorite comedies of André Breton's group and Buñuel himself: "Go west" is not an exception, and what's more, it inspired a little play to Lorca and a delicious surreal poem to Rafael Alberti. A young man (Buster Keaton) whose precarious economic situation forces him to move permanently decides to go West to try his fortune after a brief and discourageous stop in an overpopulated New York. Travelling by train without money and no ticket he arrives accidentally to a ranch in the middle of the desert and try to make a living as a cowboy. With a cow named "Brown eyes" as his best friend he'll try everything for avoiding that his "lady" be carried to the slaughterhouse.

"Go West" is one of the most subversive and lyrical of all Keaton films. In it Keaton satirizes western movies' platitudes and dynamites many topicals of romantic melodrama through the unusual "romance" between the protagonist and his peculiar female partner (a cow) using surrealist discontextualization techniques. The film includes also one of the most hilarious and finest satires against the law and order forces and the practice of all kind of authoritarism (and now we can understand why the group leaded by André Breton adored this movie): the climactic slapstick scene in which Keaton try to take the cattle through the streets of Los Angeles provoking the panic of the citizens and the crazy and surreal chase with the cops running away of the cattle unable to stop the angry herd and stopped by the water of the firemen (for Keaton is pretty obvious that cops can be a true social menace) could be placed perfectly as one the most remarkable and inspirated moments in film history. But beneath this comic and satirical scenes we find too a sort of dissafected pessimism or strangement about human condition that at time finds his counterpoint in the ironic and comic distancing Buster's conception of comedy and pathos and the resistant, no-submission attitude of the character played by Keaton taking the movie to the "climactic" and surreal epic ending. At the beginning of the movie Buster introduces his character as an uprooted: he moves from a quiet provician town to the convulsed and alienated life in the big city to finally try to get his place in a ranch in the middle of the desert where hard work and climate makes people tough for our hero: so, surrounded by this "fauna" he will find in a cow his closest ally. Likewise, the abstract landscape of the desert and the habitual use of long shots emphasizes the solitude of the character, a sort of accidental exiled looking for the promise land. But in this "primitive" new world the character will find laws and rules oldest than humanity, a new job and a very close and uncommon friend.

This Kino DVD edition of Buster's "Go West"also contains two splendid Keaton shorts: " The paleface " (1920), probably the first pro-indian "western" in film history and " The scarecrow " (1920), one of the best Keaton's two-reels comedies with an hilarious chase with Buster disguised as a scarecrow and the unforgettable one-room house in which live Buster and his friend and furnished with the most ingenious gadgets to make most bearable their housework routines.

This is one of the Bus man's strangest films. Our man, for reasons never made clear, is known as "Friendless" and is so despised that when he puts his arm around a dog, the dog walks away in disgust. Following Horace Greely's famous saying "Go west young man," he does that and even though he can't milk a cow or saddle a horse, somehow gets a job as a cowhand. Still abused by all of mankind, he does an "androcles and the lion" bit (as he did in "Three Ages" with a lion) with a cow named "Brown Eyes" and and last finds a friend. I'll let you see the rest for yourself. But this is really strange stuff, and the ending ("I Want her." You'll see what I mean.) will leave a particularly odd taste in your mouth.