Content area
Full Text
buster keaton's most spectacular gag- and surely one of the most dangerous movie stunts ever executed-was staged in 1927 toward the end of production of his last independent feature film, Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). As we see it in the film, Buster is standing in front of a two-story house during a violent windstorm, and the whole front of the house comes loose and falls forward. Buster, who is facing away from the house, does not see it coming, but we do. As it crashes to the ground, we see that a small attic window falls right over the spot where Buster is standing, saving his life. What made this gag so dangerous was that the facade of the house weighed about two tons, having been constructed to fall without bending. It was shot in one take, a long shot, and it appears in the film intact, with no editing. Keaton really stood there, and the front of the house really fell. The clearance around his head and shoulders was about two inches.1
After describing this gag in his book The Theatre and Cinema of Buster Keaton, Robert Knopf considers the perplexing question it raises: "In this shot, Keaton far exceeds any reasonable demands for realism. . . . He easily could have constructed the same scene through editing. . . . Yet Keaton risked his life. . . . Why?" (101).
In addressing Knopf's question, this article draws upon and extends his insightful discussion of Keaton's comedy, especially gags such as this one. Knopf explains the falling facade gag as a continuation of Keaton's practice of doing his own stunts and filming them in such a way-using long, uncut takes-that the viewers have no doubt about their authenticity and about Keaton's bravery in undertaking them. He also notes that a long-running visual motif throughout many of Keaton's films shows Buster passing through windows and doors (Knopf 100-01). He discusses these traits in the context of vaudeville traditions that Keaton adapted to the new possibilities offered by film.
By way of extending Knopf's explanation, this article focuses on a pattern in the structure of certain gags that are characterized by a "near miss." The facade gag is the most striking example, but there are numerous...