Train Rides With Buster

Hullo, my darlin’ tumblr peeps!  I’m sooooo very sorry I haven’t been around as much as I’d like to lately, but helping to helm the Damfinos and promote Buster Keaton’s legacy takes a bunch of time, y'know?  As you’ve probably gathered, we’ve made a major find lately - an entire cache of lost photos and negatives taken behind the scenes of the making of The General in 1926.  

Y'know, tumblr, without you - this monumental silent film find would NOT have happened!  Once upon a time, a couple of us got together via tumblr and discovered that we had a shared interest - Buster Keaton. We got together and met in person. That simple post led to a life long friendship and a commitment to bring you all the undiscovered Buster info we could find! 

Hello there anon, thanks for asking!

Generally with new silent film fans I recommend watching shorts first, but seeing as you’re already a fan of silents, you’re probably already used to having to pay more attention to what’s going on than you would with a modern film.

As for Buster’s movies, there really is no order you should watch them in. His earlier works with Roscoe Arbuckle, as well as Buster’s independent shorts, tend to be a lot more focused on pratfalls, etc. There are more “impossible gags”, things that could never happen in real life. Buster’s feature films have more of a focused plot and less “impossible gags”, but still maintaining a lot of the stunts and pratfalls. Really, the order doesn’t matter. If you want to start out by watching his more famous films, then I would suggest The General, Sherlock Jr, The Navigator, and The Cameraman. My personal favourites are Steamboat Bill Jr and Sherlock Jr, but I also really love his films with Roscoe Arbuckle.