Buster Keaton Still Rules.
This morning I watched a Buster Keaton short called "The Goat" on a DVD I got from the library. The gags are amazing.
Gag#1: Buster is at the end of a very long bread line. As the line moves forward, the two men in front of him remain where they are and you realize that they are mannequins (placed outside a clothing store to attract customers). Buster, of course, doesn't realize this; he thinks that the men in front of him are real and the line is standing still. At one point he pricks the mannequin with a pin to make him move. When this doesn't work, he tries the pin out on himself with predictable results. I like the way the second gag builds carefully on the first (this pin doesn't work!)
Gag#2: Buster is trapped in a kitchen by a tough guy with a dangerous-looking moustache. The tough guy has locked the door and is advancing on Buster in a menacing way. At this point Buster is on the other side of the kitchen table. With exquisite timing, he jumps on the table, from there jumps on the back of the tough (who is leaning forward) and from there vaults through the open transom which is above the locked door.
Those are the two I remember.
The first gag would not work in the context of an animated cartoon because it depends on the mannequins being so realistic that the audience cannot tell at first that they are mannequins. In a cartoon you can't really convey something like that; the difference between mannequins and living people would have to be exaggerated in order to read well.
The second gag, in contrast, would not be as effective in a cartoon because we take it for granted that cartoon characters can perform all kinds of acrobatic stunts with ease. In live action you can play with people's expectations, while in a cartoon you can't – the viewer already expects that anything can happen.
There is something sublime about those silent movie gags, at least the ones from the holy trinity of Keaton/Chaplin/Lloyd. It makes me wonder how physical comedy could have fallen so low nowadays, when it has such solid foundations.
Gag#1: Buster is at the end of a very long bread line. As the line moves forward, the two men in front of him remain where they are and you realize that they are mannequins (placed outside a clothing store to attract customers). Buster, of course, doesn't realize this; he thinks that the men in front of him are real and the line is standing still. At one point he pricks the mannequin with a pin to make him move. When this doesn't work, he tries the pin out on himself with predictable results. I like the way the second gag builds carefully on the first (this pin doesn't work!)
Gag#2: Buster is trapped in a kitchen by a tough guy with a dangerous-looking moustache. The tough guy has locked the door and is advancing on Buster in a menacing way. At this point Buster is on the other side of the kitchen table. With exquisite timing, he jumps on the table, from there jumps on the back of the tough (who is leaning forward) and from there vaults through the open transom which is above the locked door.
Those are the two I remember.
The first gag would not work in the context of an animated cartoon because it depends on the mannequins being so realistic that the audience cannot tell at first that they are mannequins. In a cartoon you can't really convey something like that; the difference between mannequins and living people would have to be exaggerated in order to read well.
The second gag, in contrast, would not be as effective in a cartoon because we take it for granted that cartoon characters can perform all kinds of acrobatic stunts with ease. In live action you can play with people's expectations, while in a cartoon you can't – the viewer already expects that anything can happen.
There is something sublime about those silent movie gags, at least the ones from the holy trinity of Keaton/Chaplin/Lloyd. It makes me wonder how physical comedy could have fallen so low nowadays, when it has such solid foundations.
posted by Mark Borok at
10:56 AM
2 Comments:
Mark, I can't remember - but did you ever see the Charlie Chase movies at the Silent Movie Theatre? Wondering what you thought of him. Not much dazzle to the physical comedy, but he played a heel pretty well.
By
Mark Tapio Kines, at 19/12/05 7:15 PM
The name is familiar, but I don't recall seeing him.
I should add that the scene with the dummies outside the clothing store also contained a great bit of misdirection to fool you into thinking they were real; the two dummies were interspersed with two real actors so they didn't stand out.
By
Mark Borok, at 20/12/05 6:35 AM
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