Title: Three Ages
Year: 1923
Director: Buster Keaton
Country: US
Language: English
Three Ages was Buster Keaton's first film as producer, director and star. The film is a lighthearted, comedic take on D.W Griffith's landmark epic Intolerance. The structure of Three Ages, three stories revolving around a similar theme, allowed Keaton to cut the picture into three shorts if the feature length version was a flop. It was a hit and remained intact.
Buster tells of love and romance through three historical ages: the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Modern Age.
Three Ages has some pretty good set design. The Roman Age section looks like a Cecil B. Demille production akin to Ben Hur (1925). The stunts, particularly in The Modern Age are innovative and risky. Keaton actually missed a planned jump and injured himself during the making of the picture. The humour in The Stone Age was best; I laughed when Keaton tries to woe a girl that is 3x his size.
Not everything works in Three Ages however. The stop motion is extremely dated. The pacing is rough at times, sometimes crawling to a snail's pace. The humour is sparse; this is clearly not Keaton at his best.
I wouldn't recommend Three Ages until you've seen the majority of Buster Keaton's filmography. The film can be forgiven for being mediocre (for Keaton) because it is his first time directing and producing. From a historical perspective it's very inspiring to see the beginning of his road to success.
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