Visual arts have existed since the dawn of time, starting with the wall paintings of the first man. But filmmaking and cinema came into play only towards the end of the nineteenth century. Throughout its existence, cinema has changed in a lot of ways. New genres were created, new techniques were invented, nobodies became famous and are cherished in the community and much more. One of the pinnacles of cinema is silent comedy. It proved that sound is not needed to convey a story or entertain a crowd of people. With the help of slapstick, a sub-genre of comedy which revolves around physical activities that go above the line of normal and over the top performances with many facial expressions, silent comedy managed to become of the most appreciated, well known and most popular parts of film history. This genre in particular hit its peak in the 1920’s with people such as Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. But one man would change its perspective and innovate as much as he could. He goes by the name of Buster Keaton.
Born on October 4th of 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, Joseph Frank Keaton had a fantastic career. Although he did not start out with filmmaking, he used to perform alongside his parents in an array of vaudeville acts. While performing, one day the famous Houdini visited. Upon seeing the act he walked up to young Keaton and gave him the nickname of Buster. However nothing lasts forever and in 1917 the family act broke up. That is when he decided to take a part in the filmmaking industry at Comique Film Corporation. There he had a lot of creative freedom, hence his projects stood out among the rest. He did not go on and make the same things as everybody else. His main goal was always be funny without being ridiculous. Many movies were made there, but one of his creations is regarded as one of his best. The mentioned reasons made Keaton stand out from the rest. But also he was famous for his blank facial expressions. Practically every piece of media that he has been in portrays with a never changing face, hence him receiving another nickname-“The Great Stone Face”. However these reasons alone can not fully describe his comedic and filmmaking prowess. To fully understand that phenomenon, an analysis of his work in film has to be done.
“Sherlock Jr.”-is a silent comedy movie released in 1924. It was distributed by MGM studios. This important to note because MGM was in the big 5 of Hollywood studios along with Warner bros, Fox, Paramount and and RKO. At that time they were the titans of the industry. As stated before the film falls into the silent comedy genre of movies, not a lot more could be said about it. One of the most significant facts of the film is that Buster Keaton did it all. He directed, produced and even acted in it. This was a hard and unheard of feat for that time. The director wanted to prove that nothing is impossible. This is all because he had a lot of creative freedom. It was his vision and he wanted to do movies his way. Thus every movie in which Buster Keaton played some type of role has a special attribute that is only present in his projects.
The story revolves around a cinema projectionist who wants to become a detective. Being accused of theft by the father of his girlfriend, he decides to use the knowledge he received from his handbook and try to figure out who is the exact culprit. The second half of the movie plays out almost the same, but the plot goes on in the dream state of the projectionist. While projecting a movie, the main character falls asleep and enters a dream state in which he is Sherlock Jr. It is an exaggerated version of the first half. This is because he is trying to solve another mystery but everything goes in his favour. Nothing could stop him. Even the antagonists were in shock of how Sherlock `Jr. avoided every single trap set up by them. The movie ends with Keaton waking up and his girlfriend telling him the truth about what actually had happened. The antagonist’s plans were foiled by the up and coming detective. Keaton alongside with his life partner went on to live a peaceful life.
As a result of the time period not much could have been done with the film, but many filmmakers kept innovating and discovering new styles and tricks to make the movies interesting for audiences and also project their vision onto the silver screen. “Sherlock Jr.” has two main stylistic choices. The first one is that the motion picture revolves a lot around slapstick and gags performed by Buster Keaton. The special thing about Keaton’s style of comedy was that he used “trajectory gags”, which involved perfect timing and performing. It had to be done in one take. So when people see the performance they go through a lot emotions, like shock, excitement and happiness. A scene that utilises this gag is where Buster runs on the train but when there are no more wagons to jump onto he lunges himself on a pipe of a water tower. While hanging from it the pipe goes and through water comes out. Everything done in one take. An astonishing sequence to say the least. The second stylistic choice was the use of two pictures in the same frame. The moving part was hollow so that the still picture could be seen. It gave off the impression of two things happening at the same time. The scene where this happens is when Buster soul leaves his body, the beginning of the dream. The filmmaker used a picture he took of the scene, hence the audience sees two Keatons on the screen, one who is sleeping and the other one who is looking at his unconscious body. This was a new technique for the time. It was used in a very clever way so that nobody would notice the difference.
The historical context is important to the movie as a whole. All of this happened during the 1920’s. This was a post World War 1 world where every nation tried to comeback from the madness that had happened. In North America this period was called “Roaring Twenties”. Music and cinema were dominating the industry. Hollywood was controlled by “The Big 6” of studios, which consisted of MGM, Warner Bros, Fox, Paramount, Columbia and Buena Vista. Power and fame were the most important things for them. Because of that reason “United Artists” was founded by Charlie Chaplin, so that filmmakers and actors could have creative freedom. They wanted to convey different messages with the help of visual arts. Economy on the other hand flourished. Modern economy is partially based thanks to that time period. This is when slapstick in movies was starting to become a massive trend. Even though it was in its beginning stages, over the course of decade cartoons, like “Looney Tunes” helped that genre evolve. Scenes like the characters playing pool with an explosive ball from “Sherlock Jr.” perfectly encapsulates that era of comedy. New filmmakers and recent movies try to pay homage to that certain style, just because of how it influenced their perception of comedy. Especially with Buster Keaton’s “trajectory gags”, which to this day are being referenced in modern comedy movies. During the first ever screening, the movie was not received well. Keaton took 3 years to improve it as much as he could. He wanted to make it funnier. On the day of the official release it was received somewhat better, but back then it was considered one of weakest projects. Time passed and with the evolution of film and comedy as a whole “Sherlock Jr.” is regarded as a classic, as a cause of how it changed cinema and comedy.
In conclusion, Buster Keaton was the pioneer of silent comedy. His work showed people that anything is possible. He went against the norm and with his creative freedom helped innovate comedy. The ways in which he presented his stories and told his jokes were breaking new ground. All of this is evident in recent filmmakers. Scenes done by Keaton are still being referenced to this day. Filmmakers are showing their appreciation for his work and how he inspired them. Silent comedy is one of the many genres that general public overlooks. If it was not for personalities like Chaplin and Keaton, the perception of cinema that people have today would have very different from what it is now. With the help of slapstick comedy and “trajectory gags” Keaton rose on top. Remembered for his “one take” scenes, Buster Keaton will be remembered as one of the best filmmakers and innovators of that genre.