Year: 1928
Director: Buster Keaton
Country: US
Language: English
Steamboat Bill Jr. and The General (1926) are generally conceived by critic's to be Buster Keaton's last masterpieces. The former was made a year after Warner Brothers' The Jazz Singer made "talkies" all the rage, thus was considerably less popular at the time. It does contain Keaton's most famous stunt, where an actual full weight wall nearly falls on top of him. Interestingly enough, the previous day he was told that his studio was being shut down, and was so devastated that he didn't care if the wall crushed him or not.
Buster Keaton stars as an effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain, who decides to join his father's crew.
Keaton was a seemingly natural director and stuntman; blessed with the gift of knowing precisely where to put his camera at every moment for maximum emotional and comical impact. . Most of the movie is done in long shots so that the audience can see the reality of the stunts and gags without cutting. Close-ups are used sparingly, only to underline a particular emotion. The placement of the actors within the frame is always flawless. If Keaton does a fall, he sets up the shot so that the starting point, fall, and landing are all perfectly composed, going from one end of the frame to the other.
The cyclone sequence, changed from a large flood due to a real Mississippi flood and bickering amongst the producers, is breathtaking. It has a real human element that we don't see in any modern movies, even if they look more "real" (actually the CGI usually shatters the illusion of a "real" storm) Keaton braves the storm with no raincoat, and in full view, striding almost horizontally along the street, making no headway at all. The sequence in the film is clearly done with some kind of crane carrying the uprooted tree, but it's still impressive.
Unfortunately, the failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. It resulted in many poor quality copies of the film. Thankfully Kino Lorber has released a solid transfer of Steamboat Bill Jr on blu-ray. It is a hilarious and powerful film; one of Keaton's best. Praise it! 5/5
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