Before Peter Bogdanovich directed The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973) and many, many other films, he was a film critic, film journalist and devoted student of American cinema history. The Great Buster brings the two defining sides of Bogdanovich's career--filmmaker and the film historian--together for the first time since his 1971 documentary Directed by John Ford, this time to tell the story of silent movie master Buster Keaton.

Keaton never enjoyed the popular success of his contemporary Charlie Chaplin, but he directed and starred in dozens of short films and 10 brilliant features in the 1920s, a tremendous run for any filmmaker. "He's one of the great directors of comedy, particularly because of his sense of where to put the camera - he never makes a mistake with that," explained Bogdanovich in an interview with Matt Zoller Seitz. "He's also very, very funny, yet he's not sentimental. Which is a relief - a lot of Chaplin's silent comedy from the same period is sentimental, whereas Keaton still feels modern."

Keaton's amazing run of 1920s films is the highlight of his career but it's still only a part of his story. The Great Buster takes audiences on a whirlwind tour through his entire life, from his beginnings as a child star in his parent's vaudeville act through his late career comeback on TV and guest appearances in such movies as Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966).

Bogdanovich saw his first silent Keaton films at the age of five, when his father took him to see the silent slapstick classics at the Museum of Modern Art, and he drew inspiration from Keaton for his own modern screwball comedy. "[W]hen I made the chase sequence in What's Up, Doc?, I said, 'This is a Buster Keaton chase.' There were only a couple of jokes we stole from Keaton, I think, but the idea was sort of Keaton-esque." But he never had the chance to interview the filmmaker before his death in 1966. "He was one of two people who was alive at the same time I was alive that I would've liked to have met, but never got the chance." So when producer Charles S. Cohen approached Bogdanovich about making a documentary on Keaton, "I said yeah, and it was as simple as that."

Mel Brooks, Bill Irwin, Carl Reiner, Quentin Tarantino, and Dick Van Dyke (who read the eulogy at Keaton's funeral) are among the interviewed filmmakers and performers who pay tribute to the talent and influence of Keaton. Bogdanovich was also able to interview folks who knew Keaton and his widow Eleanor personally, among them actors James Karen and Norman Lloyd and comedian Richard Lewis, to bring more intimate remembrances to the production. Along with the wealth of classic comic sequences from Keaton's great films (all from beautiful new restorations), Bogdanovich includes clips of archival interviews with Keaton and uncovers rare TV appearances and TV commercials that Keaton made in the 1950s and 1960s, many of them unseen by audiences since their initial broadcast. And in addition to directing and writing, Bogdanovich also narrates the film himself. "I felt it was so personal that I could make it more personal by narrating it."

Bogdanovich saves the last act to return to Keaton's 10 independent silent features of the 1920s, a collection that includes such silent comedy landmarks as Our Hospitality (1923), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The General (1926). He explores them in depth with stand-out sequences and behind-the-scenes stories from the production. "I think it was the one good idea I had," he explained in an interview with Chuck Workman. "There's an old show business maxim: always leave them laughing." And he does.

The Great Buster opens on footage of Keaton at the 1965 Venice Film Festival, where he was honored with a retrospective just before his death. The documentary fittingly made its world premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, bringing this tribute to the great Buster Keaton full circle.

Sources:
"Peter Bogdanovich Says It Only Took 'One Good Idea' to Make His Buster Keaton Doc 'The Great Buster'," Steve Pond. The Wrap, October 19, 2018.
"Always Leave 'Em Laughing," Matt Zoller Seitz. RogerEbert.com, October 13, 2018.
"The Great Buster with Peter Bogdanovich and Chuck Workman," Chuck Workman. The Director's Cut, Director's Guild of America/Soundcloud, May 3, 2019.

by Sean Axmaker