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Three Ages – 1923 Buster Keaton and Edward Cline
- Buster’s
debut feature film—my first time catching it and I’m very happy I finally
did. It doesn’t have the polish of his second feature, 1923’s Our Hospitality, but it is
certainly funny, and ambitious, here Buster is spoofing DW Griffith’s
masterpiece Intolerance (1916)
telling the story in three separate intersecting (and parallel) stories of
love through the ages (Stone Age, Roman, Modern day).
- It’s tough
for those that haven’t seen Griffith’s masterwork (shame on you if you
haven’t) but instead of Gish as eternal mother who rocks the cradle we
have a hilarious father time here with a scythe
- So apparently
Keaton decided to construct the three stories this way not only to parody
Griffith’s masterwork, but to use as comic shorts (roughly 20 mins a
piece) in case they didn’t work as a feature- but the main part of the
comedy is in the cross-cutting and parallels through ages (riding a
dinosaur, riding a chariot, riding a car, etc)
- Wallace
Beery here as Keaton’s adversary and competition—perfect size juxtaposition
(wit vs. brawn). He’s a cave man. Oddly he’s sort of playing himself in
the contemporary setting with “Beery” on the screen
- It is not
quite what we’d get later in the decade in terms of Keaton’s acrobatics
but it’s great to see him walking back and forth on a miniature dinosaur
like he would in the train in The
General
- Highlight may
be a moment when Keaton (50-60 years before Jackie Chan and 80 before Tom
Cruise) tumbles off a cliff and blows a big kiss to the camera on his way
down
- Impressive Roman-era
sets
- Great gags
like the sundial watch and “no parking” sign for the chariot in the Roman
era
- Recommend/Highly
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Drake2020-03-10T14:48:33+00:00
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