Safety Last!
I'll admit, the opening shot got me. Ha.
I feel like for silent films especially, if it's not somehow famous, people will never watch it. I haven't seen too many silent movies, just the well known ones here and there and this was kind of a delight to watch. All I knew of it was the famous clock hanging stunt, nothing else. It didn't have the striking imagery of Dr. Caligari or the defying stunts of Keaton. It had charm, it had laughs and it was a quick 1hr15min.
Comedies of late have relied too heavily on the line-o-rama style rapid fire jokes. Hope one hits and choose in the edit. Edgar Wright's comedies are mostly visual, so they are able to get the joke across different language barriers. Dialogue jokes don't always land for everyone. So when a silent film produces laughs, it's purely visual and it's well done.
Yes, the film has problems...every film does when looking at it through a 2022 lens. While I certainly didn't appreciate it, it did not ruin the enjoyment of the film for me. It doesn't reach the heights of Chaplin or Keaton, but it's nice to see someone else in the mix.
Thanks for nominating this piece.
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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews