Steamboat Bill Jr.
When you watch a Buster Keaton movie, you’ll surprise yourself at how many times you’ll be laughing. And I mean a full-hearted big old belly laugh. But as each movie goes on, one thing that always begins to dawn on me is how much they demonstrate the human capacity for survival and triumph.
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The silent movies we’ll be looking at were made in the 1920s to the early 1930s, breathing down the neck of reaching a century in age. All humor here is physical. If you’ve not watched silent films before, this can be a bit off-putting. You keep waiting for someone to start talking! But no… Just be patient and accept the world you have entered. Their whole body is acting, not just their mouths.
Read MoreI first encountered Buster Keaton at the Egyptian Theater in Ogden about twelve years ago. It was a performance of his short film One Week (1920) with live organ accompaniment. The film was an unexpected prelude to the feature I had gone to see, but I have no memory of the actual feature. I watched One Week with my mouth open, thinking, “How can this old film be so funny, and why have I never heard of it before?”
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