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4.0étoiles sur 5
Boating With Buster, Fév 2 2004
The Navigator -- a luxury liner set adrift with no crew apart from Buster Keaton and his would-be fiancé. After eventually finding each other aboard the giant craft, they must work together to survive. Totally cut off from civilization their needs are the most basic: they must use all their wits to survive hunger, thirst, and ghosts. Falling under the "not so basic necessities" category, they must also repel an invasion from a group of unfortunately characterized islanders.This film clocks in at just about an hour. And like many the Keaton films of this length, this is very much a collection of related set pieces, only loosely connected by plot. Fortunately, the sequences here are very funny. The breakfast scene is quite amusing, with the two trying to prepare food in a kitchen that is well stocked in some things, but lacking in other, necessary items (i.e. lots of cans, no can-opener in sight). Naturally, as with any Buster Keaton movie, confusions abound; the hapless pair mistakes fireworks for candles, and a photograph for a poltergeist. As with most of Keaton's better films, several elements all come together to create something worthy. The slapstick comedy is present, of course. But the action sequences are epic and give the store a real feeling of adventure. In addition to the main feature, included on this disc are two of Buster's short films that also deal with nautical adventures. First up is THE BOAT, in which Buster Keaton, devoted father and husband has a dream of building and captaining a sailing ship of his own. He ultimately realizes his goal, but the opening scene shows us the first of what will become many miscalculations; he's constructed a boat in a basement, and doesn't realize that he has no way of fitting it through the door. But sacrificing everything that he has, up to (and almost including) members of his family, he eventually finds himself, his loved ones, and, indeed, his homemade boat happily floating on the ocean surface. The little scenes and short gags that make up this film are really well done. The props they built are impressive; from the outside of the boat, to its interior which rotates on its horizontal axis a full 360 degrees, making the ceiling quickly become the floor (Keaton dealing with an barrel-rolling boat is simply hilarious). THE LOVE NEST is another of those films where a standard Silent Movie Heavy throws little guys around like rag dolls. In this case, it's Joe Roberts as the gruff captain of a whaling ship who throws his minions overboard when they displease him in the slightest (he's not totally without heart; he throws wreaths to mark his underling's watery graves). Even though all three of the films on this disc involve seafaring, there is no real repetition. No jokes are recycled. A lot of Buster's gags involved water in some way; he was constantly falling into it, or having it dumped on him, or dropping it on his adversaries. It just goes to show you how creative Keaton was when he can take what are essentially cheap laughs and turn them into something so ticklish. Give him one simple premise (himself on a boat), and he can spin off a hundred different jokes. This disc definitely shows Buster Keaton at his comic best. (Some of these prints are showing their age, but since that age is about eighty, that is only to be expected. I hope I'm as well preserved when I'm that old.)
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