Buster Keaton

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q103949: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: Sherlock, Jr. (1924); The Navigator (1924); The General (1926). Count them as actor (2 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Houdini: 1 line

  1. unmapped (borrowed magic bits) · through Sherlock, Jr. (1924), which they directed: Houdini ⇒ Sherlock, Jr. (the host's read). The dream sequence let Keaton use vaudeville and Houdini-style magic bits in a movie grounded in reality.
    “there were magic bits that he knew from vaudeville, from Houdini and other magicians”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:53:54 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Merton of the Movies (stage play): 1 line

  1. lineage (possible source) · through Sherlock, Jr. (1924), which they directed: Merton of the Movies (stage play) ⇒ Sherlock, Jr. (the host's read). Keaton had seen a satiric play that may have given him the idea of a story set around a movie theater.
    “there's a satiric play apparently called Merton of the movies.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:53:06 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Rudolph Valentino: 1 line

  1. unmapped (namesake) · through Sherlock, Jr. (1924), which they directed: Rudolph Valentino ⇒ Sherlock, Jr. (the host's read). The villain is called the Sheik after Valentino.
    “the sheik's so named because a la Rudolph Valentino.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:07:31 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Cabin Boy (1994): 1 line

  1. unmapped (same setup) · through The Navigator (1924), which they directed: The Navigator ⇒ Cabin Boy (the host's read). A fancy lad must prove he is a tough man at sea, a setup that Cabin Boy repeats while looking like a Harryhausen movie.
    “Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

Wes Anderson: 1 line

  1. lineage (influence) · them, directly: Buster Keaton ⇒ Wes Anderson (the host's read). A line of rigorous frame control runs from Keaton to the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson.
    “the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:38 · James Urbaniak (0.40 sure it was them)

What's Up, Doc? (1972): 1 line

  1. lineage (homage) · through Sherlock, Jr. (1924), which they directed: Sherlock, Jr. ⇒ What's Up, Doc? (the host's read). The Chinese-dragon bicycle chase in What's Up, Doc? is a complete homage to the stag-party sequence.
    “The bicycled Chinese dragon sequence and what's up dog is complete homage to this sequence.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:38:39 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Directing (3) everyone in directing

Other (4) everyone in other

Acting (2) everyone in acting

What was said about them, by kind

contrast (4)

  1. contrast (sentiment contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin can be accused of sentimentalizing and acting cute, which Keaton's understated style never does.
    “you can accuse Chaplain of sentimentalizing, a chaplain of sort of acting cute.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:39:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (persona contrast): Buster Keaton → Harold Lloyd. Lloyd plays a regular guy; Keaton is an irregular guy.
    “Harold Lloyd is sort of playing a regular guy.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:39:41 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. contrast (temperament contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin is warm with emotions at the surface; Keaton is cool with emotions under the surface.
    “Chaplin is very, very warm.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:22 · James Urbaniak (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (character contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin's tramp would pocket the money or even lift the wallet, while Keaton is not a scoundrel.
    “which once again, Chaplin would not only not hesitate for a moment to pocket the money, he would pull the wallet out of the back pocket of someone.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:52:15 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

craft (3)

  1. craft (joke structure): Buster Keaton → The Simpsons. Keaton is great at the Simpsons-style 'plus joke', a joke with another joke on top.
    “Keaton is great at the Simpsons style plus joke.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:05:02 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): Joe Pesci → Buster Keaton. What if Edward G. Robinson was also Buster Keaton: a scary gangster who is also a physical comedian.
    “what if Edward G. Robinson was also Buster Keaton?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:29:37 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Buster Keaton. An uncle who does not know how to parent makes every scene like a Keaton movie.
    “it's like a Buster Keaton movie all of a sudden, you know?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:04:45 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)

lineage (4)

  1. lineage (lineage): Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade → Buster Keaton. Last Crusade reads as a Buster Keaton movie.
    “It's a very Griffey movie and I feel like is a very Buster Keatney movie in particular.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Raiders of the Lost Ark with Brian Michael Bendis · 1:13:57 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (vaudeville lineage): Buster Keaton → Houdini. Keaton watched Houdini from the wings and the Keaton family were pals with him.
    “I love that he was his family were pals with Houdini.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:46:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (influence): Buster Keaton → Wes Anderson. A line of rigorous frame control runs from Keaton to the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson.
    “the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:38 · James Urbaniak (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Eraserhead → Buster Keaton. Henry is a nightmare version of a Keaton-style put-upon silent comedy hero.
    “He's like a nightmare version of like a Buster Keaton character, whatever.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eraserhead (Ad-Free) · 1:01:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

people (2)

  1. people (acting contrast within the film): Sherlock, Jr. → Buster Keaton. The rival and his crew do stereotypical heavy silent-film acting, which makes Keaton's modern performance stand out.
    “those 2 guys are absolutely doing what most people think of as silent film acting.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:45:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Buster Keaton → Dana Stevens. Keaton was expected to win his region because of support from past March Madnesses and Dana Stevens's book and visit.
    “Buster Keaton was going to win that region”
    Blank Check — Patreon · 2022 MARCH MADNESS UPDATE 2 PRESENTED BY THE CHIP REPORT · 0:15:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

programming (1)

  1. programming (programming): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Keaton/Chaplin, Kubrick, Spielberg and Welles were assumed to be the four titans of the bracket.
    “I think we like the 4 obvious frontrunners in each quadrant felt like, uh, perhaps going in Keaton slash chaplain.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · 2022 MARCH MADNESS UPDATE 2 PRESENTED BY THE CHIP REPORT · 0:25:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

theme (3)

  1. theme (analogy): Buster Keaton → Typeface: Helvetica. Keaton's clean, streamlined, unaffected style is like the Helvetica font.
    “It's like Helvetica font.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:40:35 · James Urbaniak (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. theme (parallel (inscrutable artists)): Buster Keaton → Janet Frame. Dana says Keaton, like Frame in the film, remains mysterious even after years of research.
    “a little bit like the Janet Frame character that we're going to talk about in this episode, he also has this ineffable, mysterious quality”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:11:08 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. theme (comparison (Fincher's commentary)): Edward Norton → Buster Keaton. On the commentary Fincher keeps comparing Norton's funny-to-watch-get-punched quality to Keaton.
    “He kept saying he's like Buster Keaton.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Fight Club with Alex Ross Perry (Ad-Free) · 1:18:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

unmapped (7)

  1. unmapped (critic's description): Walter Kerr → Buster Keaton. Kerr's book The Silent Clowns describes Keaton's serenity as resignation to catastrophe, not happiness.
    “he actually has a great description where he talks about Keaton's serenity.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:41:42 · James Urbaniak (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (ahead of his time): Buster Keaton → New Hollywood acting. Keaton acts like a talkie actor decades early, exploiting that nobody can hear the dialogue.
    “he's acting like a talkie actor, but he's using the fact that you can't hear what he's saying.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:45:30 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. unmapped (practical vs showy): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin will make potatoes dance but Keaton's character is practical and just tries to solve the problem.
    “But Keith wouldn't do that because it's not practical.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:49:40 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. unmapped (technical rigor): Buster Keaton → Stanley Kubrick. Keaton is highly technical, mechanical and formal in framing, which makes him a little Kubrickian.
    “if you'll allow me, please, I think he's a little Kubrickian.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:07 · James Urbaniak (0.70 sure it was them)
  5. unmapped (action direction): Buster Keaton → James Cameron. As an action director Keaton is likened to James Cameron.
    “he's also like fucking James Cameron as an action director.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  6. unmapped (Keaton-esque): One A.M. → Buster Keaton. Chaplin's non-tramp drunk short plays more like a Keaton picture in its directing style.
    “it's more Keatney”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:59:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. unmapped (physical comedy): The Wolf of Wall Street → Buster Keaton. The quaalude sequence is called Buster Keaton-esque.
    “That whole sequence is a wild, Buster Keaton-esque, misremembered genius moment.”
    The Big Picture · The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 11 - 'The Wolf of Wall Street’ · 0:24:59 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Buster Keaton: James: Keaton is the ultimate non-indicator; Helvetica was a reaction to ornate German type and is the New York subway font, so 'modern' also means clean.
    “It's basically Helvetica is an anti-Nazi font.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:40:46 · James Urbaniak (0.70 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Buster Keaton: The average silent had about 250 intertitles; Keaton never went above 55 in any movie.
    “the average silent film had about 250 in her titles, and he never went above 55 in any movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:02:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Buster Keaton: The silent-era box-office game: the 1924 chart has a movie simply titled America, and Feet of Clay about a shark attack.
    “I'm just gonna make a movie called America.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:48:26 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)