| Buster Keaton Rides Again/The Railrodder | 
 enlarge | Actors: Michael Kane (iii), Buster Keaton, Eleanor Keaton, Gerald Potterton
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $17.16
You Save: $7.83 (31%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $16.50
Avg. Customer Rating:   (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 17747
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 80 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 014381024029
EAN: 0014381024029
ASIN: B000056N93
Release Date: February 6, 2001
Theatrical Release Date: October 30, 1965
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
Two Buster Keaton's for the price of one from the National Film Board of Canada. The great comic genius of the silent era still shines in these two programs. "Buster Keaton Rides Again" (55 min.) is a documentary filmed while Keaton was making "The Railrodder." The 1965 documentary provides an absorbing portrait of Keaton relaxing, telling yarns and plotting the next day's action with considerable flair. In "The Railrodder" (25 min.), Keaton travels across Canada aboard an open railway trackspeeder. Perched on his seat, this endearing traveller chugs nonchalantly past some of Canada's most spectacular landmarks. These programs are a memorable and intimate view of one of the most indestructible of slapstick comics.
Amazon.com
In 1965 the National Film Board of Canada lured Buster Keaton north to star in The Railrodder, Gerald Potterton's slapstick travelogue of Canada as seen from the seat of an open railway track speeder. The twilight companion to Keaton's great railroad comedy The General is a modern silent film, accompanied only by a bouncy score, cartoonish sound effects, and the ever-present putt-putt sound of the chugging car. At almost 70 years old, the Great Stone Face lacks the acrobatic agility of the old days, but his timing is impeccable and he executes physical gags with the effortless ease of a master. John Spotton recorded some behind-the-scenes events during the film's shooting in the 55-minute documentary Buster Keaton Rides Again. Spotton supplements the production with perfunctory biographical background (which is better explored in Kevin Brownlow's brilliant documentary Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow), but at heart it's a loving, revealing portrait of the aging master at work. Priceless footage shows Keaton brainstorming comic bits, schooling his young director on the proper staging of gags, relaxing over a hand of bridge, and stewing over a disagreement when Potterton overrules a stunt Keaton has developed. The bit involves Keaton fumbling blindly behind a giant map while the car rides over a trestle, and Potterton worries about the safety of his aging star. "Dangerous?" growls Keaton. "It's kid stuff." The core of Keaton bubbles out in the battle of wills: professionalism, pride, stubbornness, and the primacy of the gag. Keaton wins, and the gag is in. --Sean Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
I have the MK2 Version January 4, 2008
But the movie would be the same and the documentary too. A must have for any DAMFINO or Keaton fan. You see Buster laugh (which is worth the price alone) and he tells you about his career. The Railrodder is great a brilliant final curtain to an amazing career.
Essential candid footage of Keaton at work and at play November 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Railrodder is an interesting and funny silent short Keaton made in 1964 in which he travels - rather accidentally - via a tiny motorized rail car from the East coast to the West coast of Canada as part of a Canadian travelogue. Meant to be just one of the various industrial films Keaton starred in late in his career, it turned out to be much more than that. This is because filmmaker John Spotton decided to "film the filming of" the Railrodder and thus make a documentary - "Buster Keaton Rides Again". As a result, we get rare - maybe the only - footage of Keaton at work as he comes up with gags, fights for his ideas when the director thinks a particular stunt is too dangerous, and as he basically co-directs by placing a group of workmen where he thinks they should be in a particular shot. We also get to see Keaton at rest and at play - his passion for bridge and baseball, his shyness around large crowds when he is honored by a town he is passing through, and the adorable relationship he had with his third wife Eleanor as she insists that he lie down and rest after a busy day and his response is "I should sell her".
The short and documentary were shot in the autumn of 1964, just some 16 or so months before Keaton's death in February 1966 from lung cancer. A few of Keaton's coughing fits captured on the documentary are thus somewhat sadly prophetic of what is soon to come. Thus this travelogue/documentary combo is essential viewing for any Keaton fan because we get to see him as he was at the end of his life - a happy man who still insisted on putting out the best work he could after 65 years in show business.
Buy it for the documentary alone - shows Keaton's genus August 14, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It clearly shows what a master Keaton was, as it was mostly him that came up with best gags of the short through his suggestions on how to improve things.
A documentary of a master at work
A Keaton Gem September 22, 2004
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
"The Railrodder," a 25-minute Canadian film, finds Buster Keaton riding a motorized handcar from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Released in 1965 shortly before Keaton's death, this memorable short proves that the Great Stone Face, at age 69, was a vital artist who instinctively knew comedy. One is grateful that Keaton lived long enough to appear in this mini-masterpiece. The National Film Board of Canada had the foresight to make an hour-long documentary on "The Railrodder" production. The result was "Buster Keaton Rides Again" (1965) - an excellent, revelatory study of a genius at work. Both films now are available in pristine condition on this glorious DVD, which is a must-own for Keaton aficionados.
Long Live Buster! May 22, 2001
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
Really beautiful double-bill, featuring some of Buster's final appearances. The Railrodder comes up sumptuously in DVD colour, with many sound and vision details I have never noticed before. Almost better is the 55-min documentary about the making of the film: a wonderful, all-too brief glimpse of Buster and Eleanor at work and play; very candid, funny - it moved me to tears at times. I love Buster so much, as an artist and as a human being. There's a delightful moment when a bunch of Canadian children talk direct to camera, beside themselves with excitement at the prospect of visiting their hero in his private carriage. Unforgettable.
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