This has to be one of the best documentary/biography's around. Narrated by distinguished British director Lindsay Anderson, this is an incredibly detailed portrait of one of the silent screen's, nay, movies greatest and most talented legends. It details his life from cradle to grave in an unflinching manner, from his childhood in vaudeville to his debut in the Arbuckle shorts to the dizzy heights of the 20's to the tragic lows of the 30's and 40's then on to the rediscovery of the master film maker's work in the later years of his life, something we are all grateful that he lived to see. Full of wonderful interviews with the man himself and his wonderful wife, the late Eleanor Keaton, to those who knew him as a young man and the friends he had in his later life, with many examples of the work he did in television after his rediscovery in the 50's and 60's which show that he still had genius. I am fortunate to own it on a single video having seen it many years ago when it was shown on British TV, but, when oh when will it be on DVD? It's shocking that this and many other glorious movies particularly of the silent era are unavailable and some of the most turgid drivel, that is a waste of fresh air, is out there to buy, as if you'd really want to. It took them long enough to bring out "The Cameraman" on DVD, a perfect example of his genius. 10/10
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Damfino189514 April 2005
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This was an amazing documentary. Instead of the usual superficial and boring bio, it's jam-packed full of stories about the film making process and interesting anecdotes you'll hear no where else.
The show was presented in three 1-hour segments--going chronologically through his long career. One of the most memorable aspects was the film discussing his awful "bio-pic" (THE BUSTER KEATON STORY)--how it was mostly untrue and Keaton was not a hard-core drinker. Yes, he did have a drinking problem but it was short-lived and not a defining moment in his career.
Wonderful, thorough and lovingly made--an absolute MUST for fans of silent comedy.
FYI--Another similar project was created by the same writers for Harold Lloyd (AMERICAN MASTERS--HAROLD LLOYD, THE THIRD GENIUS) and Charlie Chaplin (UNKNOWN CHAPLIN). All three are terrific and must-see for fans of silent comedy! -
AlsExGal2 October 2021This takes you from Buster's birth to death in about three hours and three installments with an emphasis on his body of work. It is unusual in that you get quite a bit of interview material from Raymond Rohauer, the man responsible for financially backing the restoration of Buster's films, destined for nitrate decomposition, in the 1950s. And you hear from Keaton himself throughout the documentary, in what looks like interview material that was largely done during the filming of "Buster Keaton Rides Again" made in 1964, two years before his death. Other prominent interviewees are his widow, Eleanor, who comments not only on the time she knew him but on what he had told her about earlier times. What's also insightful are interviews with some of the stuntmen and technicians who worked with him in his silent independent days and during his time at MGM. These aren't film scholars summarizing his work. All of these people actually knew the man.
It gets only a few things wrong. For one, Buster Keaton was not fired by MGM in person by Louis B. Mayer as a result of an argument between the two over his "party mobile" - a luxury motor home parked on the MGM lot. Instead, after "What No Beer?" opened, and was making good money, L. B. Mayer took advantage of the fact that Irving Thalberg was away convalescing due to a heart attack to fire Buster by telegram. And even that could have been patched up by Thalberg when he returned, but Buster demanded Mayer apologize. That was just not going to happen.
I'll also say that the Educational shorts Buster made in the mid 30s get short shrift here too. The documentary mentions "Grand Slam Opera", which in my opinion is brilliant. But some of the others are quite good even if you can tell they were rushed out the door.
Buster's humble but creative spirit comes through the entire documentary. For even as an older man, you can always see that fragile yet rambunctious spirit of his and the intense passion he had for his craft. -
selfhelpradio18 August 2001I use the phrase "America's greatest director" not ironically, not unqualified, & not because I admire or otherwise favor silents over "talkies." I use it because I honestly think it's true. & this biography reenforces that belief more than anything I've seen or heard with the exception of actually seeing Keaton's movies. But sometimes you need something to get people to see these movies, movies which may seem quaint or curious to people used to hearing dialogue & sound effects. This documentary does it.
You see, Keaton UNDERSTOOD. Sometimes his movies are corny, sometimes they aim high & hit low, but mostly they're amazing. Mostly they happily present a very scrappy & sympathetic (but not perfect) protagonist & the many foul-ups & challenges he faces. He doesn't fret or moan but simply takes his beatings & tries again. Unlike Chaplin's main characters, Keaton's hero is very often the least important figure in the shot - because the effect is far more important than some kind of identification with the protagonist. Gags & foibles are fluid; nothing seems contrived or extraneous because so
much thought has been placed into each shot, each moment, to render everything crucial to the story. There's a reason that silent comedies are valued (in general) more than silent dramas: comedies speak more to the human condition, & the outrageous in a comedy is accepted where the theatrics & overemoting of a drama seems downright quaint. Keaton knew this. Keaton thrived within this.
How his career was cut short & reduced to nothing is documented here (I'm giving nothing away; volume 2 is entitled "Star Without A Studio") as well as his own problems with alcohol. I am especially suspectible to people who have a sense of the successes & failings of their lives & come to a grateful, gentle end; Keaton, like Harpo Marx, felt blessed by the chances he was given & modestly rated his own body of work. But listen: if you see this documentary, you'll want to see the movies, even if the documentary does show most of his most spectacular stunts. Because for Keaton, context was important: the star can be shown running at the bottom of the screen while a hundred cops chasing him take up most of it. So too can a single stunt, even the best stunt of a movie, make little sense without the context of the film.
Find this. Buy or rent this. Watch critically, note the precision of every scene, the skill with which they are composed & shot & carried out, & then seek out the originals. You'll compare them with your favorite films, you'll find that somewhere in the silent age of movies someone was actually an artist, someone making *comedy*, & you'll understand why people today mention Keaton in reverent tones.
I adore so much cinema, but I am always, always impressed by the skill of Buster Keaton. -
hte-trasme14 March 2010"A Hard Act to Follow" is probably the best documentary of its kind that could have been made. Three hours isn't long enough to document everything about a man's life but it is long enough to give a touching picture of Buster Keaton as a person, and a thoroughly insightful impression of his peculiar brilliance as a comedian and filmmaker.
The use of old film of Keaton's work is extensive and done in exactly the way it should be. It's not just B-roll thrown randomly behind narration or interview audio. Clips selected for that kind of use illustrate what is being talked about perfectly, and are timed and sped or slowed with great precision, probably just as Keaton would have wanted them. Longer extracts do a marvelous job of illustrating his greatest comedy moments, and -- best of all -- film is slowed or enlarged in ways that really illuminate, sometimes in stunning ways, new things about the comedies that even somebody who had seen them dozens of times would not have known. This is one of this documentary's biggest strengths.
Rare footage of Keaton is very generous and aptly introduced too, including home movies, candid shots of his directing, television kinescopes, commercials he created, and lengthy interview material from the man himself.
Another thing that makes this documentary special, and the thing that makes it really irreplaceable, is that, made a not-astronomical 21 years after his death, it is able to include illuminating interviews with Keaton's third wife and other people who knew and worked with him during his lifetime (and they all seem to have a boundless affection for the man).
I think anyone appreciates Keaton's work should see this documentary, and it would probably be an excellent introduction for those who don't already. It's made with an enormous amount of insight, skill, affection, and apprehension. -
theowinthrop20 May 2005After Hollywood, and THE UNKNOWN CHAPLIN, Kevin Brownlow and David Gill did this documentary on Buster Keaton, and how he developed as the leading rival of Charlie Chaplin as number one comic of the Silent Period (Harold Lloyd is number three, and then - supposedly - Harry Langdon, Raymond Griffith, and Laurel and Hardy). Keaton had begun with his parents in a lively, knockabout vaudeville act (literally his father threw him about the stage). When he entered movies it was with Fatty Arbuckle's company, and as Arbuckle's friend and admirer. Unlike most silent performers, Keaton was interested about how movies were made, and actually took apart a camera to study it's workings. He learned to build jokes into his films to develop character. And he never lost his fascination with the power of what films could do. Look at a film like SHERLOCK JR., where he carefully spends time using cutting to make a series of improbable events occur on screen (such as jumping through the chest of a man standing in front of a wall). Chaplin plucks at the heartstrings, Lloyd takes ordinariness and perks it up with dangers, but Keaton is concerned on how man is at the mercy of nature and science. In one long sequence joke in OUR HOSPITALITY, Keaton is being chased to a waterfall set of cliffs. He ties himself to a rope hoping to climb up. An enemy finds the rope and ties it to himself, planning to surprise Keaton when he climbs up. Keaton sees this and yanks on the rope causing his enemy to fall off the top of the cliff into the waterfall, but as the body of the man fall down in the background, Keaton realizes the rope is still tied securely to his own body. Looking stoically into the camera and waiting, a moment later we see Keaton pulled off the screen by the falling body of his enemy. He can fight human enemies, but not the law of gravity.
Keaton did well until 1928, but then family and health problems hit him, especially his growing alcoholism. Stripped of his dignity by a studio boss (Louis B. Mayer) who had no time for has-beens, he became a gag writer. But he still occasionally made films in the sound period. The film shows how Keaton's rise occurred in the 1950s, spurred on by the rediscovery of many of his films. It is a remarkable story of a gifted genius who lived long enough to know he was not a drunken failure but universally admired. -
This is simply a perfect documentary. I cannot find any fault in it or room for improvement, unless it would be to make it an even longer sampling of Keaton's skills. Buster Keaton was a unique master of physical comedy on film and this documentary is a worthy examination of Keaton's life. The music is wonderful. When I see Keaton's films now I wish the music from this documentary was playing with it. Everyone should see this documentary. Many would be surprised at what silent films had to offer.
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Great subject; perfect execution. Brownlow (author of the wonderful THE PARADE'S GONE BY) has done his work here, and this is one of the best documentaries made so far. Keaton's genius is on full display here, and this history is so thoroughly stunning, fascinating, funny, and watchable that I've just run out of adjectives. Bears up tremendously under repeated viewings. One of two movies which I've noticed brings conversation to a halt in public and private, mesmerizing its audience (the other, funny enough, is THE KING OF COMEDY). Beautiful work.
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I don't believe I've ever rented a biography before, but did so upon the suggestion of my boyfriend...he also watches "Jackass" on MTV and said that not only was Buster Keaton the first one to try all these silly, rediculous, AMAZING stunts, but that he is Jackie Chan's #1 influence. Well, this I had to see.
I was mesmerized by his early silent films. Not *just* because of the action scenes themselves, which I still can't believe he could've directed in the 20's(the train and the dummy conductor falling off railroad tracks, the woodland wildfire, whose smoke didn't go out for another 6 weeks!), but also because Buster had no precedent. There was really noone for him to look up to as far as PURELY physical humour. He was blessed with a stamina and idea that was so new and fragile that it seemed he was fervently trying to display it on-screen, before he lost the guts to do so.
That's why he was so miserable when he couldn't expel his ideas and do what he wanted later on. What a shame to have seen Buster in later movies looking sadly in an alcoholic haze...but could you blame him? How stupid and inane dialogue actually sounded in a film, more than ever before to me, when I heard Buster Keaton or his costars speaking in them. For once, I understood the beauty and mystique of silent film. Buster Keaton must've hated to see this era end.
But although sound had been added, Keaton always argued physical over lyrical humour. He is so commendable in my eyes to have impressed his fans by saying less and doing more.
This biography was not only a joy to watch and a great memorial to The Master of Physical Comedy, but it also reminded me to seize the day. That if I have an idea, no matter how funny, or crazy it is, to just DO IT. Something about Buster Keaton only having those FEW years in the 20's to shine makes you think of how little you've shined in life. At least it did for me! -
janarrah114 August 2008It's a major crime that this series is not available on DVD! Chaplin's PBS series by Brownlee is now available. Harold Lloyd has plenty of DVDs. Laurel and Hardy are getting their due....and yet Keaton, one of the all-time greats of comedy cinema is largely ignored. I wish someone with some power would correct this glaring omission! Then we can start working on an encyclopedic analysis of The Three Stooges!
How many of you have seen the original of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and noticed the cameo by Buster? Even with just a few seconds of screen time, it's one of the most memorable scenes in a largely memorable film.
Does anyone know how we can petition the powers-that-be to give Buster his due by releasing this Keaton documentary? -
NellsFlickers14 February 2020When I saw the date of this documentary, I realized I was about 11 years old when I first watched it on PBS. I remember also watching the Charlie Chaplin one as well, but it was Keaton who made an impression on me. I taped the show on VHS and it remained one of my most prized recordings. Eventually AMC aired it on cable and I made a new copy. To my knowledge, it has never been released in the US on DVD.
If you want to learn about Keaton, THIS is the documentary to watch. Forget about any modern rehash with celebrities who think they sound knowledgeable because they read a book on the man. This show has interviews with the people who really worked with and knew him, who were part of the film industry at the time. Mrs. Eleanor Keaton herself also appears. The music soundtrack is still in my brain after 3 decades, and the narrator's voice is synonymous with the many great film-history documentaries of the 1980s.
The best you can watch. -
For many years, film comedian Buster Keaton had been denied full credit for being an exceptional filmmaker as well as for being a brilliant comedian. He was known as an intuitive artist. Unlike Charlie Chaplin, Keaton always relied upon the contribution of his own production staff. Even so, Keaton was the guiding light and the vision was his. If any of Keaton's fans or critics became either worried or conscious of his legacy becoming overshadowed by Chaplin, their concerns were all in vain. Thanks to this excellent and insightful documentary, Buster Keaton can take his place amongst the big names of comedy greats of the 1920s and 1930s. In my opinion, they are: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, W.C Fields, Charley Chase and Harry Langdon. Made in 1987, "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow," is a thoroughly researched and impeccably made tribute to this comic clown who is responsible for some of the most creative and original comedy ever put on film. The documentary also presents a look at Keaton the man, from his childhood where he was part of his parents vaudeville act, how he was taught everything he knew about comedy by fellow comedian and friend, Roscoe Arbuckle. We follow Keaton's career after leaving vaudeville, about how he blossomed as both a filmmaker as well as a comedian, Keaton's first short films and much more besides. There are stories about the various injuries Buster sustained whilst performing his dangerous stunts. Some of them make me shudder. Once he was established in his own films, he was determined to put his own stamp upon American film comedy for all time. He certainly succeeded. Buster's character on- screen has become an icon. His blank, almost impassive face, the pork pie hat, the waistcoat etc. With regards to Keaton as a person, he comes across as being fairly affable but also a bit put upon, courtesy of his unpleasant first wife and her snooty family. He has my sympathy! For a Hollywood star, Keaton seemed more capable of controlling his ego. I think that certainly applied when it came to acknowledging the hard efforts of his team of gag writers, cameramen and his other staff. Keaton seemed to be more at ease and more accepting about functioning as part of a creative team. Chaplin certainly wasn't. The documentary doesn't shy away from detailing the temporary decline that Keaton experienced throughout the 1930s and his bouts of heavy drinking. This all came about due to "M.G.M" not allowing Keaton to make films his way (as usual) and that his first marriage was nearing the end. Louis B. Mayer had made the mistake of taking Buster's creative control away from him. He was compromised as a result. The quality of his films declined, apart from three very good ones. However, Buster had developed a considerable following in parts of Europe by about the late 1940s. Thanks to this following, the comedian's work was being shown again and being enjoyed once more. He made personal appearances to discuss his work and found work in television and film. The resurgence of interest in Buster Keaton lasted until his passing in 1966. For the latter period, we are given a generous look at how are couple of film shorts were made. These film shorts show Buster and Mrs. Eleanor Keaton on board a train as they were on a tour of America whilst he was making his personal appearances. It makes for fascinating viewing. In addition, there is footage of the man himself being interviewed outside his home. Buster doesn't look very well but his contribution to this documentary is absolutely essential. I observed that at one point as he is talking about how "M.G.M" treated him, Buster lowers his eyes and shrugs his shoulders - as if erasing a bad memory. Then eventually, Buster Keaton was acknowledged for his contribution to the art of film comedy by being presented with "A Lifetime Achievement" award. It is well deserved. The documentary is spread over three different episodes and runs for just over two and half hours. The accompanying music was composed in the style of the 1920s and this suits the documentary ideally. Lindsay Anderson does a fine job of the narration. "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow" is without equal and any fan of Buster Keaton should see this and enjoy it.
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loserbeth16 June 2002I have to agree that this is the most thorough and well made documentary on Keaton I have seen. Of course it could be longer, but then you might as well just buy all of Keaton's movies and watch those instead and form your own opinion on his life (which this three part series will inspire you to do anyway). If you are looking for something to show a "newcomer" to the Keaton flock, this is it. If you are looking for a complete visual biography, this is it. A must see for anyone who wants to call themself a Buster Keaton fanatic.
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aimeed872 November 2000I fully concur with all the above. A wonderful film about a wonderfully talented and undersung human being we are lucky enough to have record of in his extraordinary movie clips. The first video is just plain fun and the third video is as satisfying and joyful as the second is painful. Truly a great documentary for anyone who enjoys biography. 10/10
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Cineanalyst31 May 2006"Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow" is a good overview and examination of the life and films of Buster Keaton. It covers the height of his career during the silent film era as well as his later work in movies and television--including some interesting movies that recalled the silent cinema, but also commercials and lousy roles he did just for the money. The makers of this three-part documentary, Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, also made "Unknown Chaplin", which had as its most interesting aspect cut footage from Chaplin's films. "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow" doesn't have that benefit, but it's still an interesting, albeit more traditional, documentary series.
I think they did rather well in connecting the filmmaker's films with his life--that Keaton's films are supposedly a reflection of his life, at least in part. For example, Keaton's "My Wife's Relations" reflects his own marital troubles at the time, or how his drunkenness visibly appeared in some of his early talkies. This documentary series is itself Keaton's life on film, or at least one version of it.
Overall, it's a good glimpse at Keaton's life, with some insightful interviews from the people who knew him. Additionally, there are some nice observations on Keaton's films, including examination of some of the dangerous stunts (such as in "Our Hospitality") and visual marvels (such as in "The Playhouse"), as well as Keaton's improvisational talents and comic intuition perfected over a lifetime of being funny.