Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?

I was sure we'd already had a thread/poll about this, but apparently not. Maybe there was a discussion in one of the Chaplin threads, so forgive me if this is overlapping some older posts. Seems worth giving a thread of its own, though. So, to the question:

Which silent comedic master do you prefer: Buston Keaton, or Charlie Chaplin?

The question was posed in Bertolucci's The Dreamers, with the American character preferring Keaton and the two French characters stereotypically preferring Chaplin.

The poll itself is meant to represent a choice based on their totality of thei work, but I would be particularly interested in each person's thought process on the choice. This is primarily because I suspect some people find Keaton funnier, but find Chaplin to be sweeter, and to be a better storytelling.

So, MoFos: who ya' got?

Very hard choice for me since I am not familiar with much of their film work. Both my great grandpa and grandpa talked about them as pioneers in the film industry. I voted for Chaplin only because I did see one of his films.

I went with Keaton, though I think Chaplin's more 'important' to movies. Chaplin made better movies, Keaton was just way funnier. That face!! And he was better at physical stunts, though I know most people would downright disagree with that statement. But what about the timing and choreography of him on front of the train in The General? The logistics and physical ability needed to pull that off are insane.

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Definitely Keaton because he was a better gag writer and never gave a hoot about pathos and social commentary. The short, Cops, is a brilliant sequence of masterfully timed gags that is nothing like Chaplin's ballet humor.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...76878828492363#

I can't answer the question posted in this thread because The General is the only Keaton film I've seen. But I'd be quite shocked to hear anybody actually disagree with your statement.

I was completely blown away by what Keaton achieved with his stunts in that film.

This is pretty much exactly what I think whenever I try to decide which I like more. I'll go through Chaplin's City Lights and all its sweetness, and I'll think of the teeth brushing in Modern Times...but then I'll think of Buster Keaton and just think "but that face!" The deadpannest of all deadpan expressions. It seems a bit more suited to modern ideas of humor, too, which might be why I like it so much. I'm not sure.

I'll weigh in a bit more later; I'm ridiculously torn about this and might want to rewatch The General before I decide. I think I'm gonna have to force a choice, though, because I always just want to say "well, it depends on my mood."

There never has and never will be someone better. Just too perfect.

If you rewatch The General you will surely pick Keaton.

Just don't look at the General. His best shorts are great and there is Sherlock Jr. with Keaton stepping into a movie screen and keeps falling in and out of various movie scenes. He was much more of a wizard with the camera than Chaplin whose idea of film technique was basically to keep the camera focused on him.

By the way, the picture of Keaton in the first post is from the very beginning of Cops, which I have a link to.

Yeah, that's true. Gah.

Still. I think I'll watch one from each and just ponder it some more. But I feel myself leaning towards...I even wrote Keaton just now and erased it! If I were any more torn I'd be Natalie Imbruglia.

Yeah, I saw Sherlock Jr.. Didn't love it, actually, though like all silent classics it has a few very, very clever bits.

That, my friend, was absolutely hilarious.

Gotta say I laughed at that one, too. By my logic, that makes Yoda a more effective comedian than Chaplin.

Yes, but is the question just who is funnier? Or who was the better silent film master?

My name is tramp, who do you think I picked?

That Keaton pic is not from Cops but from the far-funnier The Goat which I posted a link to elsewhere. That pic was my avatar last week. Here is the link to The Goat.

I'll have to think about this some more. I believe that Harold Lloyd should be included. His films are full of incredible stunts too.

Keaton made a lot more silent features than Chaplin, so some of those (Go West, Battling Butler, The Navigator) are just weaker than Chaplin's weakest. Besides the short The Goat and Sherlock, Jr., I'd watch Our Hospitality, Seven Chances, College and Steamboat Bill, Jr.. I think those are all as good as The General.

Chaplin made some good talkies too. I actually think that Monsieur Verdoux (1947) is better than The Great Dictator, and then you've got Limelight (1952) which is basically a drama but contains the one pairing of Chaplin and Keaton.



As I said, I'll have to think about it and come back. People really need to watch Harold Lloyd though. I'd start with Safety Last, The Kid Brother and Speedy.

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I Picked Charlie because i thought Charlie was very imaginative,poetic and probably a great man to meet.

It was close, very close.

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I am a very big fan of the Theater of the Absurd so i am going to pick Charlie Chaplin, although this is not to say Buster Keaton is inferior but i enjoy the works of Charlie Chaplin a bit more than Keaton's.

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If Mark is going to mention Harold Lloyd, I might as well toss in Harry Langdon whose time at the top was brief and unlike the others needed a strong director and got it with Frank Capra on his best feature, The Strong Man, which Chaplin might have seen with its blind romantic interest several years before City Lights. Langdon's slow moving child like dimwit was a tremendous influence on Stan Laurel and probably was why Laurel hired Langdon as a gag writer when he was down on his luck for four Laurel and Hardy movies.

I've seen several Chaplins but not enough of Keaton to decide fairly.

But I did anyway. Chaplin is the correct answer everybody.

I considered mentioning Langdon, but he doesn't really have the resume of the other three. Besides The Strong Man, I thought Tramp, Tramp, Tramp and Long Pants were watchable, but Harold Lloyd has several bonafide classics which hold up today. I should have added For Heaven's Sake to the "start with" group.

As I said in the other thread, Charlie Chaplin was a genius before and behind the camera... and I love his stuff... but I absolutely adore Buster Keaton... he was a creative genius who engineered and performed all his own stunts... which were, for the most part, pretty dangerous (he even broke his neck during one of them)... but he always delivered and I always laugh when I watch him... and really, how could anyone not love that face....

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