BUSTER KEATON : 'One Week' and 'The Scarecrow' analysis

 The use of editing in One Week and The Scarecrow both present the early stages of filmmaking in the early 1920s, in particular The Scarecrow which employs a heavy use of a chase scene to provide the audience a comic effect. 

In particular, The Scarecrow's dog chase scene is a prolonged scene that's filled with cuts in-between, one example of this would be when the man is on top of the building and falls off, awkwardly cutting off to when he's already at the ground rather than showing the fall. Buster Keaton does a good job at keeping the audience used to his style, as usually he makes characters fall in different ways each time and shows the full fall rather than a cut. This shows us how even in the 1920s when filmmaking was such a new thing, Buster Keaton was already making an autership for himself, making him very well-known in the film industry, and his films being such huge hits back in the 1920s.

Furthermore, The Scarecrow's use of the role of the female is very well balanced. Contextually back in the 1920s women didn't have many rights, however in The Scarecrow, we see the woman take on a much more leading role, whereas the macho bravado style of the man is made look puny in comparison to the way the woman puts herself out there, in particular you can mention how when the man decided to run away with the woman by horse and he couldn't get on the horse normally, not only that but the woman took control of the horse making her more of a leader than the man.  

In addition, the use of body language rather than facial expression is much emphasised in The Scarecrow, rather than seeing facial expressions to employ the emotion and comic effect that Buster Keaton wanted, he used the body language of the characters to display a heavier comedic effect upon the audience, and also provided with emotion, like what the characters may feel, etc. One example that's good to mention from The Scarecrow would be how when on the motorcycle they run over the priest who coincidently was there to marry them both, and the man looks up at the sky and then again at the priest to show the audience what he was thinking and feeling which was "Did he just fall off the sky? Is he an angel?".

One Week is a lot more stunt heavy, providing the audience with a range of stunts and falls whilst the freshly married couple are setting up and building their gifted home. One example of a good stunt would be when the whole house wall rotates and the wife ends up higher up, this is a great example of a stunt in this film because not only is it comic but it's very well played out. The use of size difference something that's displayed constantly throughout Buster Keaton's films, one example of this that's in One Week would be when he can't lift up the piano because of his small stature, and then the big man lifts it up like nothing, this is amazing because even at early stages of filmmaking we're already seeing examples of binary opposites and themes.

Furthermore, in One Week we are shown an example of breaking the 4th wall, where the wife is bathing and drops the soap, she directly looks at the camera showing full acknowledgement of the audience, and then a hand covers it as she stands to pick it up, this is something that is done even in modern films nowadays, which sets the primary example of a blueprint of a great film. Another great example of a different stunt would be when the whole house starts spinning due to the wind, which not only adds a hint of thrill but adds a sense of nature to this comic effect.

In conclusion Buster Keaton is a genius in the film industry, with his first few films setting a great example and a blueprint to many other films made after. He does this using different types of stunts, using body language to make an effect and constant editing that would've been really hard at the time.