Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. : Best. Film. Ever.
My favorite movie of all time? Glad you asked, It's "Sherlock, Jr." (1924). Lucky for all of us, this masterpiece from Buster Keaton, screens next Sunday on TCM as part of the cable station's month long tribute to film's greatest magician and metaphysician.
Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. : Best. Film. Ever.
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
My favorite movie of all time? Glad you asked, It's Sherlock, Jr. (1924). Lucky for all of us, this masterpiece from Buster Keaton, screens next Sunday on TCM (at 8 pm) as part of the cable station's month long tribute to film's greatest magician and metaphysician.
The tale of a projectionist who dreams of being a sleuth and who literally walks into the movie he's projecting and solves its mystery, Sherlock's subject is the mystery and magic of movies. It is Keaton's most exhaustive -- and hilarious -- investigation into the perils of what happens when someone from the three-dimensional world penetrates the two-dimensional universe of film. Behold the granite-faced guy in his dressing room, primping before the mirror, gamely striding through the looking glass and into the infinite possibilities of motion pictures. Sublime.
It's a film that influenced many filmmakers, including Groucho Marx (see the mirror scene in Duck Soup) and Woody Allen, who wrote and directed The Purple Rose of Cairo under its influence.
Your favorite Keaton? Alternatively, nominate your favorite film ever.
The Godfather.— manzi- Dr. Strangelove. I think it's perfect from beginning to end. Kubrick and his collaborators hit all the marks in their examination of the human condition, showing what we can achieve through diligence and effort and the perils of our flaws and limitations. It never ceases to amaze me and I never ever tire of seeing it.— ccjroberts
- 2001: A Space Odyssey. Layers upon layers to be peeled away. There's nothing quite like it.— jmc
- I really like Sherlock, Jr. also but I think his funniest film was Seven Chances. That final chase scene must last half an hour with Buster running from, successively, hundreds of brides, hundreds of cops and hundreds of boulders (which get bigger and bigger).— winewing
- I like Sherlock Jr. a lot, though my favorite Keaton is The General. However, if I have to pick my favorite film I have to go with Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game.— edwardcopeland
- If not the best ever, pretty close. The sequence where Keaton is on the handlebars of the motorcycle, "unaware" that it has no driver, looking completely nonchalant as he drives through all manner of potential hazards, is unparalleled in chutzpah and acting skill from any comedian, silent or otherwise. And don't get me started on the astonishing jumping through the window stunt.— lehmkuv
- Emotionally and intellectually, Michael Powell's I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING. Intellectually, DAYS OF HEAVEN or SUNRISE or CITIZEN KANE.
But I believe the mirror act is from Max Linder who borrowed it from French theater.— Milefilms - The Shawshank Redemption. Everytime I see it is like the first time, it just touches my heart everytime I watch it!!!— Kimberlyjj
- @Milefilms: You are absolutely right that Max Linder did a mirror act, but if memory serves, Keaton improved on it.— carrierickey
- I'm with winewing on Seven Chances, in terms of naming Keaton's funniest. The brides-and-boulders chase scenes left me gasping for breath, or in today's parlance, LMAO. My favorite movie? I might as well answer the question, "which is my favorite child?" It'd be a multi-way tie between THE QUIET MAN, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, Renoir's A DAY IN THE COUNTRY, THE GOLD RUSH, THE SEARCHERS, and yes, SEVEN CHANCES. Best film ever? I think my head might explode...— Nancy KC
- The Shawshank Redemption-Everytime I see it is like the first time.— Kimberlyjj
- Favorite Keaton? Well, that depends on if we're saying a short subject or a feature. I'd say "One Week" for a short, and probably "The General" for a feature. (Although I love the shipboard scenes from "The Navigator" a lot...) Favorite movie? "The Awful Truth." Whose director, coincidentally, did the mirror scene in "Duck Soup." Welcome to Six Degrees of Buster Keaton.— wwolfe
- Much as I love "Seven Chances" and "One Week," my second favorite Keaton in "Steamboat Bill, Jr.," especially the scene when he's underwater and grabs a swordfish to duel a swordfish.— carrierickey
- Carrie, so great to see your description of Buster's Sherlock Jr.--- Just watched a remastered DVD of it---it truly is spectactular. I also like Steamboat Bill Jr for the famous house facade falling down scene where Buster just barely fits through the little window and isn't crushed. There are so many other scenes that are amazing. Thanks for bringing Buster to the attention of current readers. He was unique in the true sense of the word and deserves to be recognized by current moviegoers as the genius entertainer that he was.— smcurran
- Somehow I managed to not get around to watching Sherlock, Jr when I bought Kino's dvd box set of Keaton's films. Since capsule descriptions of the film have always made it sound like the most appealing of his films, your ranking of it has now moved it to the top of my list of films to watch.
I guess I always have misgivings about picking one single favorite because I have one of those brains that can simultaneously entertain the notions of what is my favorite and what I think is the greatest, but not necessarily my favorite. But of Keaton's films I have to say (reluctantly) that The Navigator is my favorite. I'm not reluctant about putting The General on my top 10 list of the greatest films ever made.
BTW, the swordfish duel is not in Steamboat Bill, Jr. I'm pretty sure it's in The Navigator.— rlsimpson777
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