Mgm Buster Keaton Feature example essay topic

The Cameraman (Rough Draft) The Cameraman (1928), an MGM Buster Keaton feature, is one of the last truly great feature films of the silent era. From the artistic balance it finds between the simplicity of an all-too-familiar storyline and the complexity of technique and cinematography, to the very-entertaining and captivating performances of its actors, the film that was nearly lost to the annals of motion-picture history is a multi-faceted gem that is joyous to watch. Simplicity is one of the big keys to the success of The Cameraman. The simple plot is of the age-old yet noble type ("hero-sees-girl, is-knocked-off-feet, goes-to-great-lengths-to-be-noticed, getting-in-much-trouble-en-route"). It has Buster trying to get a break as a cameraman into the newsreel department of a famous studio (MGM, and win the affections of the office receptionist, Sally, played by a beautiful Mar celine Day.

His endeavors land him in all sorts of uproarious situations, including several hilarious altercations with the romantic rival, a snooty "made" newsman played by Harry Goodwin. The thematic elements stay simple as well. Pungent with cynicism, irony rears its humorous head on more than one occasion. These bits of the film are delivered with perfect timing, laced with a little seriousness. One such instance is near the latter end of movie when Buster, in a daring stunt, saves Sally from drowning. He leaves her unconscious on the shore momentarily while he rushes into a pharmacy mere yards away to get something to help her.

During those few moments, she awakens, and Buster's rival, who had abandoned her to drown in order to save his own skin, happens upon her just as she opens her eyes. She thinks he has saved her from certain peril and Buster emerges from the drug store with bandages and the like just in time to see them stroll off into the sunset, arm in arm. Another such moment comes when Buster has gone through hell and high water to obtain footage of a gang war going on in the city streets, only to find that he had never loaded film into his camera. Uncomplicated twists such as these lend to the easy, fun watching that The Cameraman is. There is no profoundly deep symbolism to be found, and the lack of any attempt at thought-provoking societal depictions really lend to a successful package. This is supposed to be comedy, and a marvelous one it is.

Though simple, the plot of The Cameraman is perfectly constructed. So much so in fact, that, along with the impeccable timing of its gags, for years it brought this comedy to be used by MGM as a screening tool for incoming comedy unit employees. This may have also been because of the various avant-garde techniques of filming and cinematography that were applied in this feature. The editing was quite impressive for its time, and some of the tricks are believed to be the best of the first of their kind. For instance, panning shots and moving shots had both been seen in features for quite some time before 1928, but none quite as artistically impressive as the split-building shot of Buster running hell-for-leather first up then down the flights of stairs in a building, from basement to roof, in one cut of film. Or of him chasing down a speeding fire truck and hopping on, all while carrying a large tripod and video camera.

There is a shot resulting from one of Buster's mishaps, an accidental double-exposure of film that showed a battleship destroyer sailing down 5th Avenue between the skyscrapers. Another unfortunate mishap left him with a diver on film going through a dive, then backwards. This may be one of the first instances that such tricks were incorporated into a full-length feature. Keaton's creative talent is quite evident in The Cameraman. It is not only one of the last silent greats, but it is the last great films that Keaton himself had creative control over. After 1929, his unique creativity was stifled to fit in with the studio rank and file first at MGM, then later at other studios.

His influence is clearly visible throughout the entire picture, thankfully, from the makeup that accentuated his comic features in the black & white medium, to the breath-taking stunts he performed himself. Unfortunately, the afore-mentioned showing of The Cameraman by MGM to its own incoming employees led to the loss of several key scenes in the film. What we have today is recovered from that original, so some of it appears to be very grainy or overexposed at times. Buster himself mourned the loss of those pieces in a 1958 interview by George Pratt, of the Magazine of the International Museum of Photography. Here is an excerpt from that interview:" Pratt: There's one unfortunate gap in our print. Apparently the negative has deteriorated.

It's the part where you go out for the first day and everything goes wrong. There is just a little bit of that left... Keaton: That's a shame because some of the biggest gags are there. Pratt: Tell me about what was in there.

Keaton: Well, the number one was I think I saw a lot of people around a Park Avenue hotel and I got there and they says, 'It's the Admiral that's coming out!' So I busted through the crowd and I photographed the Admiral going right from the main door into his limousine. Only the mistake I made was, I photographed the doorman. That was my first error. Then I got over to the Hudson River and got a shot of a battleship, and then a parade on 5th Avenue, and I double-exposed it by accident. So I had the battleship comin' down 5th Avenue and the parade comin' down the Hudson River. I went to a launching of some millionaire's new yacht, one of the Vanderbilts, and I make a mistake and set my camera up on part of the cradle that launched the boat.

So I was launched with the boat. In a finish I photographed a disappearing gun - one of those great big things that they had come up and shoot. While I'm photographing one, I didn't know it, but I was right up against another one that nearly took the seat of my pants off (laughs)... [Later in the film] I got mixed up in that Tong War down there and because they saw me photograph in' they came at me.

I didn't seem to have any choice but to just leave my camera and dive out the window into a fire escape and get away from 'em. And then go ahead and round out the story. We previewed it and we thought the last reel was a good reel... and the last reel just died the death of a dog. It dawned on us what that was. I deserted that camera.

So I had to go back and remake that - even with the trouble of try in' to get away from those wild Chinamen in the Tong War. I still kept my camera. Then it was all right (laughs). It was O.K.".