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Shaun Gerbrick

Professor Kate Kirchner

English 240

March 1, 2011

Film Review: Our Hospitality

Our Hospitality is a silent film from 1923. It is also black and white. This film is a

comedy containing many funny moments in the narration. The many aspects of film as an art

can be related to this film. In this paper, general film language will be applied to specific scenes

in order to understand the film as an art and the decisions by production members to create

the film’s form.

The train sequence of the film is one that has great impact on the humorous angle of

this film. This scene starts with a title card that reads “The out-bound limited.” This title sets

up the audience to know that Buster Keaton’s character, Willie McKay will be leaving town on a

train to claim his father’s estate. The visual scene opens with a fade in wide shot of the train,

with its passengers boarding.

After Willie his love interest board the train, the train leaves the station. The camera is

stationary and the train moves toward it in a perpendicular type of way. This creates depth.

We immediately go to a medium shot of Willie and the woman sitting in the same train car.

Then the film cuts to a shot of the train’s rear wheels and the dog that is running alongside
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them. The camera is moving along with the train in this sequence. This shot was most likely

taken from a dolly cart on a track of its own so that it could move along with the train.

The train moves onward and we see some nearby people in a field that become

entranced by seeing the train pass them. The train then goes through a thick of trees and brush

and comes out into a clearing before stopping to remove a man trying to board it illegally. It

seems as though there is too much light in this shot, as everything looks much overexposed and

has no contrast. It is in this moment that leads me to believe that all natural lighting was used

on all shots of the train scene. The indoor shots at the Canfield home later in the film probably

used three point lighting. Three point lighting consists of a key light, a fill light, and a back light.

A key light is a directional light while a fill light and a back light are diffused.

Then, we see a man throwing rocks or sticks at the train. The train moves from left to

right of the visual frame, and the camera pans slowly with it. The man moves along with the

pan to create a long sequence of action. The camera goes back to the train car and the middle

shot of Keaton and the woman. The camera is placed on the opposite side seats and is filming

the two subjects while the train is in motion. The audience can tell that the camera is on the

train because of the bumps and hiccups that occur from motion. It is also possible that the

train car that Keaton and the woman are riding in is being filmed on its own dolly.

Then begins an array of several funny moments of the train riding on tracks that are

raised, and going over obstacles that are impossible. The train rolls over a log on the track and

each car goes up and over it as the train progresses. This is done by taking frames of still

photography and putting them together to achieve apparent motion.

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This use of long shots of the train and then cutting to medium shots of the passengers

continues for most of the train. Most of the long shots resemble the first shot of the sequence

where the train moves towards the stationary camera.

These decisions on camera shots, depth, and mobile framing come from the director of

photography, or cinematographer. The principle cinematographers on this film were Gordon

Jennings and Elgin Lessley. The cinematographer’s job is to photograph the film. Photography

is an art form that uses different elements like depth of field, focal points, lighting, etc. The

camera uses perspective in the ways it is placed. It achieves the illusion that the audience is

right there with the train.

The train scene actually has two stories going on simultaneously. The train and its

journey are a story, and then there’s what’s happening in the car with Keaton’s character

McKay and the woman. Makeup was used on the actors to bring out facial features and make

expressions more visible. These expressions are visible as McKay acts nervous about possibly

interacting with the beautiful woman without making a fool out of himself. The train and Willie

McKay can be compared as similar “characters” because of their goofy and ignorant

characteristics. The audience interacts with these two simultaneous stories with feeling of

humor and awkwardness.

I feel that, although very funny, the train sequence of the film lasts longer than its

welcome. The form is disturbed by this huge chunk of film that doesn’t relate to the plot. The

only way it relates is that it helps to initialize a relationship between McKay and the woman.
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The director is the person who makes decisions on blocking and acting. This film was

directed by John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton. The director oversees the production of the

film. Buster Keaton both directed and starred in this film. Therefore, he was able to get a sense

of what his own character should be like. Buster Keaton ended up making a lot of decisions on

this film.

Buster Keaton used trains in several films of his. He was quoted as saying “Railroads are

a great prop. You can do some awful wild things with railroads.” The audience loves to laugh

at the absurdity of the railroad and the awkwardness of the interaction of the two characters

going on inside the car at the same time. This is something that this scene in the film does very

well.

The mise-en-scene of the train scene helps develop the film form. The audience begins

to ask itself what the train will do next. So, after the train begins doing strange things, the

audience is left predicting the future of the train. The use of shots and angles help guide the

train along the track. The train goes through a tunnel that is cut out in the exact shape of the

train to get laughs. Then the train moves on to the next obstacle.

There is parallelism that occurs during this film. When the train separates from itself

and some of it ends up on a different track, the engineer is completely unaware that anything

has happened for a while. This seems to be true for the portion of the film dedicated to the

Canfield boys trying to kill McKay. Willie is completely oblivious much of the time that the boys

are trying to rid of him.

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The Canfield home set represents the classic southern plantation-like home. The home

is very elaborate and decorative. Things are very well organized. There is a black servant.

There is a piano. The place is very elegant. The Canfield men take southern hospitality very

seriously and their home represents that. The audience can conclude that the Canfields are

wealthy, organized, and chivalrous people based on their home. The set was brilliantly

designed.

The audience reacts to this film as one long ‘loony tune.’ We are left feeling good that

there is resolve and closure. We are left with a sigh of comfort that Our Hospitality’s humor can

be clean and funny at the same time. The funny moments in the film are universally funny.

They would be funny to any person in any time period. A person of any age can watch this

movie and still be satisfied.

Even though Keaton is the protagonist, the audience itself isn’t necessarily rooting

against the antagonist. The Canfield men create their own comedy. The film can be compared

to the cartoon of Wile E. Coyote and the roadrunner. The coyote consumes his time trying to

kill the roadrunner. However, the roadrunner always gets away. This is true when it comes to

Our Hospitality, except the fact that the roadrunner is smart and McKay is oblivious. A bunch of

elements in the film are cartoonish. Abstract things can become easy. For instance, the train is

halted by a donkey on the tracks. The donkey won’t move, so the engineers move the tracks

around the donkey.

The critical responses to this film are overwhelmingly positive. Many internet movie

sites claim Our Hospitality to be a classic film. Our Hospitality is acclaimed for its mise-en-scene
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and cinematography. They feel that it helps define the silent film era comedies. However, I

have to disagree in that I feel that Buster Keaton’s work was overshadowed by the popularity of

Charlie Chaplin and his “tramp” films. I had never heard of Buster Keaton before watching this

film.

I enjoyed watching this film immensely. After watching Chaplin in Modern Times, I

learned to appreciate this era of filmmaking. Although I do like Chaplin, I am now aware of

Keaton as another competitor from this era. The screen duration at 73 minutes is the perfect

length of the film. Any longer, and the audience would get bored or annoyed with the film.

The plot was simple and it was resolved with a happy ending. At the end, McKay and the

woman, who is a Canfield, become an item.

I enjoyed watching the film with an audience that knew it was appropriate to laugh at

occurrences from almost 100 years ago. I don’t think the film would be as funny if it were being

viewed with maybe only one other person. I enjoyed recognizing the different artistic elements

such as the photography and mise-en-scene.

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Works Cited

Gunning, Tom. "Buster Keaton or the Work of Comedy in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
Cineaste 21.3 (1995): 14. Print.

Our Hospitality. Dir. John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton. Perf. Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge.
Metro Pictures Corporation, 1923. Internet.

Thompson, Kristin. "Narrative Functions of Mise-en-Scene in Our Hospitality." Film Art: An

Introduction. By David Bordwell. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 159-63. Print.

Tibbetts, John C. "Railroad Man." Films in Review 46.5/6 (1995): 2. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 28 Feb. 2011. <http://http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=109&sid=6e4f0884-
77e7-4cd6-ad17-
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mc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=9510093172>.