The Boat

The Boat (1921) : Brief Review -

The Boat of Buster Keaton's Comedy sails on adventurous voyage. Looking at this film from contemporary point of view one must have enjoyed it a lot, that includes me. But Keaton's raising graph wasn't affected by it. That's good and bad both. Good because it didn't fall and bad because it didn't rise when people were expecting him to deliver sensational stuff with every film. Practically it wasn't possible because all the innovative ideas were used and anyhow some of films were meant to be hurt by it. From this point of view, The Boat is one of those hurt films but keeping Keaton's high standard aside, this one is as good as any other good comedy of that time. His 'One Week' was such an astonishing experience that the impact has stayed with me and will stay with me forever. The Boat is nothing like that but a fair, actually very good one. It has different adventures, different proportions so it shouldn't be judged by comparison with One Week. If one has to compare it then compare it with 'The Playhouse' which released in the same year and to me this comparison looks fine. Buster and his family go on a voyage on his homemade boat that proves to be one disaster after another. This has some great shots, i mean some real great. That boat flipping scene is shot so brilliantly. An impressive piece of cinematic genius. One must know how to shoot it, how to flip camera and how to make movements according to that and Keaton as a director (along with Edward F. Cline) and as an actor knew exactly what to. That one scene takes this film so High even though it doesn't have too many gags. It's more like an adventurous and genuinely funny ride than a hysterical, out-an-out comedy. Keaton and Cline make sure that they don't produce an underwhelming product. Yes, this one is Nice and extremely watchable.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Buster continues to think big in his comedy, foreshadowing what he would do with that train in The General five years later. Here he demolishes a house towing his new boat out of a garage, has a Model T fall off the pier into the harbor, and has a boat launch end up with the craft going straight under the water, never floating, with him standing stoically as is sinks. That was as impressive a stunt to pull off so seamlessly as it was hilarious. Somehow he get the "Damfino" afloat, and then while motoring away from the dock, pulls the pier posts it is still tied to over, sending a couple of fishermen into the drink.

Forget needing drawbridges though. In a rare bit of his character's competence, his boat has a mechanism to pull its rigging down horizontal to allow it to pass under a bridge. Of course when he's distracted a second time, things don't end well. Later Buster pokes a hole in the craft while trying to hang a picture and the boat springs a leak, so he fixes it with one of his wife's hard-as-a-rock pancakes, which was amusing. That's not the end of getting wet of course, as a squall sets in while the family tries to go to sleep. Buster goes to the deck with an umbrella and it's instantly ripped out of his hands and lost. He pulls out a long telescope to search for land, but it arcs downward like a limp noodle. We then get this emergency radio signal:

"S. O. S." "Who is it?" "Damfino." "Neither do I."

That's before the craft rolls over and over in the water, causing Buster to run around like a hamster in a wheel. As his boat continues to be battered this way and that the laughs aren't quite as strong, but the film ends cleverly, with Buster hopelessly trying save his family in a teeny bathtub he's brought along for a life raft, but finding out they weren't as imperiled as he feared.

Lots of lighthearted jokes here but as James Curtis relates in his biography of Keaton, filming for The Boat was interrupted in September when Buster heard that his friend and mentor Roscoe Arbuckle has been jailed in San Francisco, charged with the manslaughter of Virginia Rappe. Distraught, he called a halt to production and didn't shoot the following day either. Tearfully, he said "What right has anybody to condemn a man before he is heard?" It's a poignant backdrop to a funny film.

Buster Keaton just wants to take his family out on a pleasant boat trip to enjoy some sea breezes and sunshine. A simple enough request, no? Well if you've ever seen a Buster Keaton movie, you already know the answer to that question....

A pretty funny short that involves many of the pratfalls you would expect in a slapstick comedy about a doomed boating expedition -- people falling in the water (a lot), a dinner preparation gone all wrong when nothing is tied down, a storm and its predictable outcome on our beleaguered hero. A cute twist at the end reveals that our protagonist family was never in any danger to begin with.

The name of Keaton's boat is the Damfino, which provides a running joke and gives the film its final punchline.

This one might not be the best one of Keaton, but the adventures of one family on the self made boat is entertaining enough that it is worth your time. To understand the joke where Buster sends out S.O.S signal is good to know that the name of of the boat 'Damfino' means damned is I know. Also, International Buster Keaton Society (yes, there is such a cool organization) is called 'The Damfinos'.

Films starts with the scene, where Buster tries to get the boat out of the house and from there, one thing after another goes hilariously wrong that you finally start feel for the heroes. Fantastic scene is where the boat capsizes repeatedly and Buster runs like a hamster in a wheel while trying to send S.O.S. message.

This was a short that had no long term goals. If not from dumb luck, this movie could have been lost forever. This was found among a series of other shorts that Keaton had kept at home. In many ways, this is a rip off of Chaplin. Nothing seems to go right for this little "Tramp" as he is pushed around and put into one situation after another. Not as funny as many other Keaton classics, it is worth keeping on tape for future generations to enjoy. In many ways, this and The Love Nest are often found with Keaton's classic the Navigator. Both have to do with Keaton on the Ocean. This alone keep them together in a category. If you like Keaton, you'll enjoy this one. If not, you'll agree that this is a dime a dozen for Keaton.