Sherlock Jr.

When I was watching this movie, the first thing that struck me is how well it has withstood the test of time. I have seen movies from the past 15 years that have aged worse than this one. I have never really watched an entire silent film before, but I found it much more tasteful than a lot of contemporary Hollywood comedy blockbusters. Modern comedies seem sometimes like you're just watching beautiful people sit and talk to each other, there's not much action and the bulk of the laughs come from the dialogue. By contrast, this film was much more eloquent. Since they didn't have the technology to record and playback sound at this time, the actors naturally had to be much more emotionally expressive and direct with their actions, in order to convey the plot to the audience in a purely visual way. Due to this, much of the humor of Sherlock Jr. comes from sight gags. There's some very clever editing in this film, such as the scene where it looks as if Keaton is running on top of a train, the scene where he jumps straight through a vaudeville performer, and the scene where he is abandoned atop a set of handlebars. There aren't many directors these days that rely on these practical, non computer generated visual effects. Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson are two that I can think of, they both use practical effects to cultivate their aesthetic and make their shots seem more authentic. I would agree that the effect is definitely worth the extra time, money, and effort that is required to execute filmmaking in this way.