Buster Keaton classic moment

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:54 am

Early days of cinema didn't have the safety margins they do now.
Not only were alot of the stunts increadably dangerous, it was often
the actors that did them. Here Buster Keaton show just how much
actors were willing to do for their art when he has the side of a house
droped on him. It is recognised as one of the great moments of cinema
No trick photography for this one. They really do drop the side of house
on him as he stands there. Don't worry, he is not hurt in this stunt.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &pr=goog-s

Giovani Tifosi · Post by **Giovani Tifosi** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:50 am

Or some of Harold Lloyd stuff even

(he had a 'thing' for hanging off high places)

AFA Mr. Keaton, it may not have been one of his most dangeous stunts, but there was an unrehearsed home movie/interview type clip somwhere in which he was standing next to a slow moving train that was about to stop and reverse and he made it look like he grabbed the train by a handrail, stopped it, then slung it back in the direction it came, all with little or no effort on his part.

Very subtle, sublime, and showed his really exceptional timing skill.

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:16 am

Thanks to that link of out of copyright films you gave fourth, you can see all that and more from him. There was a story about him breaking his neck and not knowing about it until a doctor told him years later, he thought it was just a really bad headache.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:35 am

Thats because Keaton was a mathamatical and mechanical genius. The Stunt with the house was all his own working out. And he could litterally build anything with his hands. So timing the train stopping would not have been a big deal to him, only to the rest of the world.

Yeah Harold Lloyd is another great of this time. In my opinion both Lloyd and Keaton are conciderably better than Chapllen. Chapllan really did just play the bumbeling fool. His timing and expressions were not really in the same league as either keaton or Lloyd.

Gusto · Post by **Gusto** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:14 pm

Keaton was awesome.

I agree Chaplin was mostly the bumbling fool, all except for the movie where he played as Hitler. I'm amazed at how he could easily imitate the phonetics of any language rather accurately (and hilariously).

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:27 pm

Chaplin was not just portraying a simpleton, he was also socially and politically insightful. I rate Modern Times as one of my favourite films, particularly his take on the working class and Fordism.

DarrenM · Post by **DarrenM** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:22 pm

Not all modern actors play it safe

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/iam ... aches.html

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:40 pm

That was a pretty intresting book. Nice segue seeing as Jackie Chan replicated the aforementioned Keaton stunt in Project A II.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:02 pm

That was really cool