Silent Film Review - Go West 1925

 Go West (1925) is a Buster Keaton film, directed and written by him. It's just as adorable as everything else he's starred in. Here is my review of it. 

Courtesy of cowboysindians.com

Go West from 1925 stars Buster Keaton. It is the story of a man trying to make it out west. He jumps onto some railroad cars, wanders onto a ranch, and proceeds to not know anything about ranching (he still gets hired somehow). He creates a friendship with this heifer (female cow) as he hilariously bumbles many of his tasks, somehow getting a few of them done. 

The main conflict of the story is simply the rancher having one chance to make it - and he'll only make it when the cows reach the slaughterhouse. When the time comes, he insists on taking the heifer. He doesn't give it to Keaton's character to spare her. Keaton hides on the train to free her when the train gets there. The train is held up. After a gunfight he manages to get on the train that is freely going down the track on its own. He stops the train at the station and, through many antics and silly moments, gets the herd to the stockyard. The rancher then lets him have the heifer and they drive back to the ranch. 

My Review

This film is adorable. You have an adorable heifer following Keaton around everywhere, the silly antics of Keaton, and enough of a plot to have some stakes. It could be summed up as a man's friendship with a heifer. The main character bumbled his way into saving the day. Being from farm country makes this even funnier. Keaton's character doesn't know how to milk a cow, doesn't understand branding and why it's done, leaves gates wide open, doesn't know how to herd cattle, and is probably the worst hand there. And yet he's allowed to remain. 

We have a woman involved here, but she doesn't have much to do with the plot. Keaton's character focuses his attention on the heifer he's befriended. They make a joke of this at the end. The rancher offers anything to Keaton and his response is "I want her" (pointing behind him, where the rancher's daughter stands), then clarifies by walking past the daughter to pull the heifer out from behind the fence by a halter and rope. The farmer laughs and allows him to keep the heifer. 

I liked it and found it adorable. I give it 10 out of 10 stars. Anything by Keaton is worth watching. This wasn't actually my favorite one, but it was good. Be aware some YouTube recordings can have sound coming and going (background music - even silents aren't fully silent). I had to go between two recordings to get all the background music. 

Courtesy of IMDB.com - Buster Keaton trying to milk a cow 
by looking at it. 

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