Go West

A silent comedy set in America. A man sells everything he has. With what is left he gets on a train and goes west. He has no name. In the film he is called Friendless. He reaches a ranch. He asks for work and is taken on; it is a large spread where cattle are run. He can do nothing. He cannot ride, cannot throw a rope, cannot milk a cow, and keeps falling over. Then he finds a cow. There is a stone in the animal's hoof, he takes it out, and from that day it will not leave him. He gives her a name. Brown Eyes is now his only friend. The ranch is in trouble. There are debts and the herd has to be sold; the cattle are going to slaughter. The man finds out. From there the film becomes a rescue. They load the herd onto a train, the train reaches the city, and the animals escape from the wagons. The last section takes place in the streets of Los Angeles. Hundreds of cattle run down the road, go into shops, and the city stops. He has to gather them somewhere. He finds a red devil costume and gets in front of the herd. What the narrative is interested in is not comedy but loneliness: Keaton's character cannot make a connection with any person and makes his one connection with an animal. The tone is different from Keaton's other films. The narrative is sadder and the density of jokes lower. The closing scene says the same. The man is made an offer and asks for something else. The herd scenes are real. The production worked with hundreds of animals in city streets, and the sequence is counted among the hardest shoots of its period. Buster Keaton, Howard Truesdale and Kathleen Myers are in the cast. Buster Keaton directed and starred. Who it is for: anyone who likes silent cinema and Keaton's physical comedy. Who it is not for: anyone expecting dense laughs; this is one of Keaton's slowest works and the middle section runs flat.