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July 1994

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Subject:
From:
Sandy Dwiggins <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 1 Jul 1994 09:56:03 EDT
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Another Keaton comment:
I have always noticed a pervasive attitude of "you can't win, no matter
how hard you try" in Keaton's films.  The image of him against the whole
New York Police Force in Cops, is one of the most poignant.   The little
man against the big organization and his insignificance, even though he
ends the film as a "sort of" hero...you know what happens after the movie
reel ends.  There is always disillusionment with the dream and the myth at
the end his films.   As for surrealism, there is always Sherlock Jr.
Did you know that he was billed as the "human mop" in his parents' vaudeville
act?  They used to turn him upside down, and mop the stage with his hair, then
throw him around a bit more.  How that for a happy childhood?
Sandy Dwiggins
>
> Recently Donal Larson wrote:
>
> A last thought on COLLEGE:
> This film has the weirdest ending of any comedy I've seen, yet critics seem
> to scant it.  At the end of the film, Keaton rescues the heroine from the
> campus jock and the two walk to the campus chapel to get married.  Normally,
> that's where one would expect the film to end.  But then there's a dissolve
> and we see the two in a kitchen surrounded by children; then another dissolve
> and we see two old people in rocking chairs speaking sharply to each other;
> then a dissolve and we see two gravestones.  Moral: They didn't live happily
> and they sure didn't live ever after!
>
> You are correct:  it is one of the more unusual images found in film during
> that era.  It is an unforgettable one. Keaton was known for his surrealistic
> perspective as well as his unhappy personal life.
>
 
 
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