The Goat
1921 · 23m · USA
Directed by Buster Keaton, Malcolm St. Clair
Tones: absurdist, tense, whimsical
A hapless young man is mistaken for an escaped murderer named 'Dead Shot Dan' after his face accidentally appears in a wanted poster photo, leading to a frantic chase through the city where his love interest turns out to be the police chief's daughter.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
That train shot — the cowcatcher reveal — is one of the irreducible images cinema has produced. Proto-surrealist before surrealism had a manifesto. Great.
The locomotive-with-Keaton-on-the-cowcatcher composition is among the indelible images of silent cinema, and the chase's proto-surrealist logic deserves its critical reputation. Essential Keaton.
The shot of the train approaching head-on, stopping to reveal Keaton on the cowcatcher, is one of cinema's most reproduced images and it depended on precise camera-train choreography. 23:27 YouTube runtime.
Reviews
The surprise of The Goat is in its freedom from logic and plausibility. It is an adventure in the absurd, in the realm of dreams, with an acute sense of the nightmare.
A great little short with an unlikely plot that is more than covered up by a hilarious and inspired onslaught of physical comedy delivered with skill, imagination and wit.