Not putting this one up there with "The General", which is perfect, but "Steamboat Bill, Jr." is lots of fun with some laughs and plenty of amazing stunts. The windstorm at the end of the film is crazy, especially when you consider that this is nearly 100 years old. Buster Keaton is impossible not to love in underdog roles like this.
This is considered to be one of Buster Keaton's greats, but I couldn't understand why until the final ten minutes. Up to that point, it's a very dull, basic formula: steamboat captain reunites with an estranged son, furrows his brow when the boy isn't as manly as he'd like, forbids his courtship of a rival's daughter and is, eventually, shown the error of his ways.
Keaton is the son, of course; a flighty, effeminate young man with a delicate step and an aversion to violence. He conjures up a few lightly amusing set pieces - testing caps in a haberdashery, scuffling with hired muscle, sneaking out for a midnight rendezvous - but none of it feels particularly fruitful. Not until that closing scene, when a cyclone rolls into town and Keaton basically discards the plot to have some fun. Then, suddenly, it's a physical comedy manifesto, replete with the kind of chaotic, disaster-inviting stunts that made his career. Most striking is the famous falling frame bit, where the star (once again) risks life and limb by pulling a full-blown house down around himself, but really, the entire climax is thoroughly astounding. That's where the sizzle lives, Keaton being Keaton without the constraints of an unconvincing romance or a bumbling old man to work around. The wind-swept catastrophe is pure dynamite, but the preceding acts really make us earn it.
This one wore thin for me. The first half is excessively slow and also felt quite dreary: the father character is so mean-spirited it was tough to enjoy the pratfalls. Moreover, the comedy here felt slight--lots of tripping, falling, etc. without much of the wit you see in other Keaton pictures. The last twenty minutes are quite a spectacle, and feature Keaton in full "Jackass stunt double" mode, but the movie doesn't feel like it has the stakes or the heft of some of the previous work I've seen from him. That said, the house-falling shot is truly incredible and is my favorite Keaton stunt. Truly bonkers.
Now having seen most of Buster Keaton’s - surprisingly inconsistent - feature-length filmography, i can say this one is among his true must-watch masterpieces with his boundless imagination on full display while also hitting all the right notes in his visual comedy.
Shout by samtasiaBlockedParent2023-06-05T03:50:33Z
Complete with a fun romance, hilarious father-son antics, a solid plot, and incredible physical comedy — all-time stuff — this was an absolute delight. Up there with Keaton’s best!