Buster Keaton Rides Again

In the fall of 1964, just over a year before his death, Buster Keaton traveled to Canada to make The Railrodder, a short subject that now enjoys a small cult following. Documenting this mobile production in fascinating and unexpected detail, Buster Keaton Rides Again offers a rare glimpse of the comedy legend’s temperament, philosophies, hobbies, marriage (his third), and the occasionally combative creative process behind the scenes. An intimate look at one of cinema’s most enduring legends.

Did you know that it was actually the legendary "Fatty" Arbuckle who gave Keaton his first break in cinema? That was when he was an extra on some "Keystone Cops" sketches and the star saw potential in this former Vaudeville artist. This documentary itself doesn't so much offer us a career retrospective, but follows the man as he looks rather fish-out-of-water like making the Canadian film "The Railrodder" (1965). It's here that he attempts to rekindle some of the magic that he so successfully brought to silent cinema in the 1920s with the likes of "Sherlock Jr" (1924) and, of course, "The General" (1926). What we do see here is a measure of the man's professionalism and of his creative genius in a medium that even though it has largely outgrown his methods, can still appreciate the adeptness of his comedy timing and simple visuals. "The Railrodder" is more of a travelogue designed to bring tourism to the country, so he spends much of this on a train and chatting to locals as he extols the virtues of the locations he visits - all with a tourist board message. Keaton comes across as an hugely authentic individual. Some of the "stunts" he performs - even at almost seventy years old - can border on the eye watering and for all but an hour we can bask in a little nostalgia with a man who, like many of his generation, struggled to reconcile their outward image with their internal demons.