5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, a good copy!, March 19, 2000
This review is from: Three Ages (DVD)
For years, public domain copies of The Three Ages have relied on a far from complete, contrasty 16mm print suffering from a lot of neglect and nitrate decomposition. The nicest thing about this DVD is Kino's greatest gift to the cinemaphile--you actually can see the movie. The pairing of Keaton with Beery is ingenious -- they even keep their own names in the "Modern Story."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three Busters for the Price of One, March 25, 2001
This review is from: Three Ages (DVD)
Three Ages is often referred to as a parody of Griffith's Intolerance. However, a gap of seven years between the release of the two films makes this interpretation not as straightforward as it might at first appear. Moreover, Intolerance was something of a financial failure and it is far easier to parody a recent commercial success. There are similarities between the two films, but these should not be overemphasized, for whereas Griffith's film tells four very different stories, what distinguishes Keaton's film is that it tells three stories which in essence are the same. Keaton makes his point regarding the similar problems facing lovers through the ages by having them face the same recurring situations. The three stories resemble each other so closely that much of the humour of the film lies in the comparison between them. Thus Three Ages is not merely three short films spliced together. It is a far better and more unified film than that.
Many people seem to consider that Keaton was somehow merely practicing for his later triumphs when he made Three Ages. Granted it does not reach the heights of The General, but it should not be considered as some sort of minor piece of juvenilia. Keaton may not yet have been at his very best, but he could still make a film with many extremely funny and inventive moments.
Three Ages remains a highly enjoyable film, but it must be admitted that the print used for the DVD is quite poor. After watching near perfect prints on the other Keaton DVDs which Kino have released, one is left with a sense of regret that Three Ages did not survive in better condition. Still perhaps we are fortunate to be able to see the film at all. Keaton, at one point, told an interviewer that he thought the film was lost entirely.
Of the two short films included on the DVD The Goat is the best. Quite why it is called The Goat I'm not sure, but it is very funny and includes some hair-raising stunts which even Harold Lloyd might have balked at performing. It is said that My Wife's Relations reflects Keaton's relationship with his real wife's family, but this is to read back into the film problems which arose later than 1922. Keaton, at this point, was still happy with his wife Natalie Talmadge as is shown by her being given a starring role in the following year's Our Hospitality. My Wife's Relations should not then be viewed as autobiography, but rather as a fairly good comic farce. It has some fine scenes, but lacks the subtlety of Keaton's best films, for the supporting characters are really a series of grotesques.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buster - the best there ever was, February 17, 2005
Keaton's Three Ages is one of his lesser works, but it shows the same attention to detail that would be so praised in his best-known work, The General. Keaton's comedy is so matter-of-fact that whenever he does a gag, it appears to make perfect sense to the viewer. If his Roman character is in a chariot race, and one of the dogs is lame, then of course he will stop, examine the dog, take a spare dog from a box on the back of the chariot, and exchange them!
My Wife's Relations does indeed reflect the tensions occurring in Keaton's married life at that time. He married Natalie Talmadge because she wanted to get married, and Buster seemed a likely prospect (I am quoting from various Keaton biographies here). The fact that he cast Natalie as the leading lady in Our Hospitality does not mean that they were getting along, but that he wanted to placate her. Keaton, who lived uneasily with his wife's relations, made the film as a way of complaining about his in-laws without actually voicing his complaints. The film is a bitingly funny one.
The Goat (in other words, scapegoat) is yet another fantastically funny short in which Keaton is a victim of fate. His sense of comedy was far beyond that of Chaplin or Lloyd, which is why it stands up so well today.
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