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Summary
motion picture audiences have seenBuster Keatondo a lot of thing , but few can say they ’ve ever seen Buster Keaton smile . Joseph Frank Keaton , well known as " Buster " , was a genius of the mute film ra . All of Buster Keaton ’s movieshad one thing in common : their incredible , eye - popping , death - defying , and most significantly , game - critical stunts . He has hung onto a train with one paw , swung off a waterfall , and watched as a two - long ton construction frontage nearly crushed him , all in the name of film .
As one of the classic actors of the silent film earned run average , Keaton and his contemporaries could manifestly not use their voice to express themselves . or else , they used animalism to show intention . For many , this meant exaggerated facial look : wriggling eyebrow , elastic smiles , and twitching noses . For Keaton , this meant stunts . Buster Keaton ’s meticulously project stuntswere telling then and have only grow in their estimation . And what makes them so imperishable is that Keaton deadpans through them all , never once smiling to say , " Did you see that ? "
After rough 100 age of cinema , these old silent movies are still so good that even modern audience will be entertained .
Buster Keaton Learned That Vaudeville Audiences Liked Him Better When He Wasn’t Smiling
Smiling Took Away From Keaton’s Comedy And Stunts
Buster Keaton made his ivory in Vaudeville , just like the Marx Brothers , Abbott and Costello , and other fabled performers . In an interview with Stud Terkel , Keaton draw how his Vaudeville backdrop was responsible for his deadpan acting(viaStud Terkel ):
" Well you see , I learned that [ lack of a grinning ] from the stage , that I was the type of comedian that if I laugh at what I did the audience did n’t . So I just automatically got to that stage where the more seriously I take my oeuvre , the better laughs I got … So by the time I go into pictures , not smiling was , was mechanically skillful with me . I just did n’t pay attention to it . "
Keaton perfected his craft over age in front of Vaudeville audiences and found that , like modern interview who relish the comic sensibility of seriousness in the grimace of fatuity , he was funnier when he was " Mr. Stone Face " .
The best use of Keaton ’s signature acting expressive style can be seen inSherlock Jr. ,The General , andOur Hospitality . In these films , Keaton does stunt as always but also makes a fool of himself ( or most does ) time and prison term again , always upping the danger and the laughs as his characters never seem to find their wild predicament , like being stick on the handles of a police bike , as riotously funny as the audience does .
Buster Keaton Vs. Charlie Chaplin — Who Is Really Better?
It’s A Toss-Up Between Two Silent Film Era Legends
It ’s an age - old dubiousness ofwho is the better thespian : Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?The comparability are easy . Both were famous dumb film actors , both dabbled in directing , both made the leap to talking picture , both were smaller - sized men whose slight frames belied an explosive and athletic strength .
For the longest metre , Chaplin was seen as the more successful of the two . His oral communication inThe Great Dictatoris still one of the most moving and germane treatises on fascism . He was perhaps more classically handsome , or at least he smiled more . Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for an Oscar for playing him . There is no denying that Chaplin still has more star power and recognition nearly half a one C after occur away than many live Academy Award winners could ever woolgather of .
However , recent years have seen a resurgence of perceptiveness for Buster Keaton . Adam Gopnik ofThe New Yorkerwrites about Keaton in a book critique ,
" … Keaton was movie house — he moved like the move pic . Chaplin ’s laid pieces could well equip onto a euphony - G. Stanley Hall stage : the terpsichore of the dinner rolls in “ The Gold spate ” and the boxing mates in “ City Lights ” were both born there imaginatively , and could have been transpose there . But Keaton ’s set pieces could be made only with a tv camera . When he use a immense and empty Yankee Stadium as a background for the individual mime of a ball game , in ' The Cameraman , ' or when he play every part in a music hall theatre ( including the testy bon ton married woman , the orchestra fellow member , and the stage technician ) , in ' The Play House , ' these thing could not even be imagined without the movies to imagine them in .
Ty Burr fromEWsays ,
" … Buster Keaton has slowly risen in esteem , to the dot where he ’s now regarded as Chaplin ’s superordinate in filmmaking ( true ) and in comic genius ( endlessly arguable ) . What ’s undeniable is that Charlie ’s sentimental sensibility was rooted in the medicine residence hall and vaudeville of the past , while Buster was a poker - face modernist who pointed to the future . "
Custom Image by Zach Moser
It ’s no sluttish debate . Chaplin ’s visibleness and ubiquity in Hollywood must concede him some head as " the best " , not to cite the many incrediblegenre - define films Charlie Chaplin made . However , as Gopnik and others have pointed out , Buster Keaton and his movies are perhaps the best utilisation of the medium . artist are still trying to utilize all the creature available to creators , butBuster Keatonmay have discharge the kit a 100 ago .
