An Exercise In Nonsense

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Indiana transient Buster Keaton (as Homer Holiday) is unable to make friends or hold a job. Even dogs walk away when he pets them. Trampled and downtrodden, Mr. Keaton decides to "Go West" and start a new life. He hops a train. He hops a horse. Keaton finds the western life more agreeable and begins working as a ranch-hand. His first job is to milk a cow named Brown Eyes. Buster puts the pail in the right place but expects the milk to pour out, unassisted. Despite this beginning, Buster and Brown Eyes bond. Their scenes together are sweet, with the cow allowing us to see a rarer side of Keaton's stock character. As a love interest, she functions better than female co-stars like Kathleen Myers...A memorable scene without Brown Eyes involves Keaton at the typical western card table poking fun at the classic line, "When you call me that, smile" (from 1902's "The Virginian"). The only way a stone-faced Keaton can "smile" is by employing the method used by Lillian Gish in D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" (1919). In a scene wearing that much eye make-up, Keaton is wise not to smile. Also worth catching is Keaton dressed as the Devil leading a herd of cattle through the streets of Los Angeles. "Some people travel through life making friends where ever they go, while others just travel through life," a prelude advises. This isn't the best of Keaton's great 1920s streak of classics, but it may be the friendliest.******* Go West (10/25/1925) Buster Keaton ~ Buster Keaton, Kathleen Myers, Howard Truesdale, Ray Thompson

No, as most critics have said, this isn't one of Buster Keaton's better feature films, but it's not bad and surely it is better than what you might have read in some critic's book. It has its moments and is a bit different in way, if you consider a man and cow falling in love with each other! (This should be a "cult classic!")Buster heeds the advice, "Go West, Young Man, Go West," and winds up out in the middle of nowhere after crawling inside a barrel and then the barrel falling out of a train.He winds up taking discarded cowboy clothes and trying his hand at that profession but, of course, has no clue even how to ride a horse. His only accomplishment is taking a stone out of a cow's hoof. The cow is so grateful, it follows Buster around the rest of the movie and the two become quite attached.After some low-key attempts at several projects, Buster winds up - I am really condensing this - back on a train with the cattle hoping to be sold so that the almost-destitute boss can get enough money to save his ranch. The train is robbed, the cattle derailed and the herd winds up in the middle of a big city!That's the real fun part of the film, as it is in so many silent comedies. The adventures of seeing a herd of cattle going down the main city streets and then into barbershops, Turkish baths, Ladies Department Stores, etc., is very funny. The ending was very clever and final punch-line not what the viewers anticipate. All in all, not a lot of laugh-out-loud scenes but a decent Keaton silent film and definitely worth a watch. I am glad most of the reviewers here appreciated this movie.

I suppose Go West is an uplifting story-a young, goodhearted working man makes a living in the west-and I like the comparison between city and country life, but there is no heart in this film. It is stiff and cold. Even Buster Keaton himself (as the cowboy) lacks his earnestness and lack of confidence. Or maybe he doesn't-it's hard to tell since we rarely get to see clear shots of his face. This is a shame since what makes Keaton so good is not his visual grace so much as his nervous facial expressions while pulling off his stunts. Here we have action but no reaction. Even the action isn't very good; the only scene of real physical mastery is one where Keaton is tumbling around in a boxcar full of barrels; once again, the scene stinks because we never get to see his face. Even the attempt at adding a romance to the film is downright awful because it feels stapled on. One somewhat funny scene involves a crazed gunman trying to get Keaton to smile (you can imagine how reluctant he is) but the scene is a blatantly annoying wink to Keaton's persona and feels like a commercial for Keaton's work rather than a good old-fashion silent comedy riff. Buster Keaton is one my favorite comedians (probably my favorite silent comedian) but he has a handful of incomprehensibly popular trash such as Steamboat Bill Jr., Seven Chances, and-I would hate to have to add it too the list but-Go West.

This really is a hidden gem. For those of you familiar with Buster's technical wizardry in films like "The General" and "Sherlock Jr.", this film will be a revelation. You will be able to witness an entirely different side of Buster Keaton, that of Keaton the actor. His wary calm in this film is perfectly matched to the story of an unlucky drifter who finds himself working on a dude ranch in California. This film features one of Buster's best performances, and a most unusual leading lady. A treat for everyone, but Keaton fans especially.