Go West

Most Western-movie heroes are stoic loners, wandering through a desolate desert landscape that threatens to overwhelm them. “Friendless,” Buster Keaton’s stone-faced character in the 1925 Western lampoon Go West, is no different, but this time Friendless’ solitude isn’t exactly by choice. A diminutive but resilient New Yorker who hops a train out West (following Horace Greeley’s aphoristic advice) and becomes an unlikely cowboy on a cattle ranch, Friendless is—like many Keaton heroes—oblivious in the face of danger. He triumphs by sheer luck and determination, taking to the cattle-rustling business in the same unassuming way that Johnnie Gray, Buster’s character in The General, assumes the cavalier role of Confederate spy.

Friendless isn’t completely alone: once he arrives at the cattle ranch, he befriends a sweet-tempered cow named Brown Eyes. He comes to her aid by removing a stone from her hoof; she responds in kind by saving him from the horns of a charging bull. This is the first instance of a repeated visual motif in which an artificial bull’s head is affixed to the front of a rapidly moving camera—a surprisingly convincing effect that demonstrates Keaton’s ingenuity as a director as well as actor and stuntman. 

Friendless and Brown Eyes become inseparable companions, which is fortunate for Friendless as he’s shunned by the rest of the cowboys. He is indeed a sorry sight on the ranch: he can only mount his gargantuan horse by climbing up a rope ladder attached to the saddle, and discovers the fastest way to herd cattle is by waving a red flag at them so they’ll charge into the corral. There's surprising tenderness in Friendless and Brown Eyes' mutual affection; they're both outcasts hiding their loneliness beneath an impassive demeanor, with him isolated by his out-of-placeness and her by her inability to produce milk. There’s also the ranch owner’s pretty daughter (Kathleen Myers), who seems charmed by the shy and sensitive Friendless, though a brilliant punchline at the end of the movie shows that Friendless cares little about her affections—or at least prefers the company of his bovine friend. 

The dizzying climax of Go West arrives when the down-on-his-luck ranch owner sends thousands of cattle to the abattoir to be slaughtered—including Brown Eyes, forcing Friendless to hop aboard the cattle train and attempt a last-minute rescue. Once the train arrives in Los Angeles, though, Friendless recalls the bitter words of his employer—that he’ll be ruined if the cattle shipment doesn’t arrive—so he decides to march the massive herd of cattle (except Brown Eyes) down the city streets to the stockyards, unsure how else he would transport them. The movie ends with a dazzling parade of surreal setpieces, as massive steers and bulls infiltrate the city’s beauty salons, department stores, and saloons, sending the civilized folk scrambling for the exits. 

This absurd finale is pushed into sublime territory when Friendless, looking for something red to wave in front of the cattle so they’ll follow him into the stockyards, settles on a Mephistopheles costume complete with a tail and horns—then ludicrously decides to wear it instead of simply dangling it behind him. The image of hundreds of cattle stampeding after Buster in a red, skintight devil costume is one of the most hilarious sights in all of silent comedy. Keaton always had a touch of surrealism to him, and certain elements of Go West seem to presage scenes in Buñuel’s L’Age d’Or five years later. 

From 1920 to 1929, Keaton had an astonishing run of masterpieces that position him as one of the greatest actor-directors in all of American cinema. Go West might not reach the same heights of brilliance as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), or the short film One Week ​(1920)—it lacks their meticulous puzzle-like construction, groundbreaking visual effects, and jaw-droppingly dangerous stuntwork—but labeling a Buster Keaton comedy as slightly inferior still places it among the era’s finest films. The timing of Keaton's sight gags is hilarious and graceful, revealing his prowess as an editor as well as physical comedian; witness the early scene in which Friendless is trampled by an urban crowd on a city sidewalk, or the perfect buildup to a joke in which Friendless rolls out of a train car in a barrel. Though Keaton’s aesthetic innovation here may not be as astounding as in Sherlock Jr. or The Navigator (1924), there is still ample evidence of his mastery over cinema’s visual elements—not only the aforementioned bull-POV tracking shot, but also a few superimpositions of a Horace Greeley statue and a beautiful high-angle shot through a broken window, the likes of which were incredibly rare in 1925. 

Finally, though Buster’s stunts don’t appear as lethal in Go West as in some other films, that’s part of their brilliance—he makes them look effortless. Friendless rolls down a vast hill in a rickety barrel and strolls over a moving train as though it were a wide boulevard, all while wearing his inimitable "stone face." Keaton was neither better nor worse than Chaplin (comparing the two divergent artists is somewhat pointless), but he was one-of-a-kind—an iconoclastic Looney Tune in human form.

Originally published by Joyless Creatures (July 25, 2014). 

Go West

Grade: A–

Runtime: 68m.
Country: USA
US Release: November 1, 1925

Director: Buster Keaton
Producers: Buster Keaton, Joseph M. Schenck
Writers: Buster Keaton, Lex Neal, Raymond Cannon (scenario)
Cinematography: Bert Haines, Elgin Lessley
Cast: Buster Keaton, Howard Truesdale, Kathleen Myers, Ray Thompson, Brown Eyes