Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fantastic!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Written, directed by and staring Buster Keaton, "Go West" is a 1925 silent comedy. One of Keaton's early classics, the film finds our funny-man selling all his possessions and heading off to America's Western frontier. Friendless and broke, he then tries to raise his social standing.Though but a series of slapstick or vaudeville routines, "Go West" also plays well as social satire. Once his character arrives at a cattle ranch in Los Angeles, Keaton's film becomes increasingly glum. Here the Land of Opportunity is presented as a slaughterhouse which seduces and crushes, and Keaton is left with but one friend, a sweet cow whom he must kill if he hopes to assuage hunger.Keaton's films often feature elaborate chase sequences. This one ends with a herd of cattle chasing a herd of police chasing Keaton dressed up in a devil's costume. Would modern audience care? Maybe not. But whilst silent comedies are treated as a dead art form by many, babies seem to love them. Go on, try it. Keaton and Charlie Chaplin flicks are like LSD for toddlers.7.9/10 – See "Duck Soup".

After trading all his belongings for a large sandwich, Keaton's nameless character hops on a train with the intent of leaving his small town for the big city. He quickly realizes that city life is no better for him as he's literally trampled underfoot by a crowd of people and jumps on the train again, this time with the intention of seeking his fortune as so many did in the west. He falls out near a large cattle ranch and manages to secure work there.Of course he's quite unsuited for the ranch lifestyle as well. He befriends a cow that's nearly as unwanted as he is and spends most of his time on the ranch protecting his bovine protégé. All is not well at the ranch, however, as the proprietor must sell his herd right away or risk losing his business. Keaton's character accompanies the cows on their train ride and ends up attempting to drive the whole lot of them to the slaughterhouse all by himself. This is fraught with complication and the cattle run riot through the streets (and buildings!) of Los Angeles in an exciting set piece that includes Keaton dressing up in a red devil costume complete with horns and a tail.The film is interesting in that it focuses on an area of Western life that gets less attention: the day to day lifestyle of ranchers and their hands. The first half of the film is full of humorous scenes that set up the character and the situation and the later half of the film has the most laughs as Keaton navigates his way through a series of wild cow in the city scenarios. The story is a bit on the slight side but the comedy works as well as always. This film is proof that even a minor work from a legend like Keaton is still near great.

Though 'Go West (1925)' does not contain much of the technical wizardry and daredevil stunt-work that makes Busters Keaton's films so amazingly entertaining, it does contain a massive amount of heart, and that's just a different reason to watch it. Written and directed by Keaton himself (with writing assistance from Lex Neal and a scenario by Raymond Cannon), the film focuses on the cowboy exploits of a young, friendless man who finds the hustle-and-bustle of the city too much for him, and so ships out west in search of a new life. Though Keaton knowingly sets up the film to be a story of budding romance between himself and a beautiful girl (Kathleen Myers), it is here that tale takes a unique turn. While on the cattle ranch, Keaton falls in love with an adorable young cow named Brown Eyes, who affectionately follows him around wherever he goes. While human friendships have offered him little, in Brown Eyes Keaton finds a companion for life, and he tries everything in his attempts to stop the cow from being slaughtered.The final twenty minutes of the film contains one of Keaton's most ambitious set-pieces {and this certainly says a lot}, as he releases 1000 cattle to stampede through the streets of Los Angeles. Though some of the gags do go a bit over-the-top, there is an incredible energy in the sequence in which Keaton – dressed in a red devil suit to attract the cows' attention – sprints feverishly down the busy road, hundreds of bovine in tow, and an entire squad of panicked policemen clutching at his costume's dragging tail. The film's final joke is a classic one: the thankful ranch owner (Howard Truesdale) offers Keaton absolutely anything he wants in return for delivering the cattle and averting financial ruin. Keaton meekly declares "I want her," and casts his finger backwards in the direction of the man's pretty daughter. We are momentarily shocked at our hero's unexpected arrogance, but then Keaton plods off behind a wall and returns with Brown Eyes on a leash, and we understand that it had all been an amusing misunderstanding. Thus ends the most unusual love story of the silent era.

No, as most critics have said, this isn't one of Buster Keaton's better feature films, but it's not bad and surely it is better than what you might have read in some critic's book. It has its moments and is a bit different in way, if you consider a man and cow falling in love with each other! (This should be a "cult classic!")Buster heeds the advice, "Go West, Young Man, Go West," and winds up out in the middle of nowhere after crawling inside a barrel and then the barrel falling out of a train.He winds up taking discarded cowboy clothes and trying his hand at that profession but, of course, has no clue even how to ride a horse. His only accomplishment is taking a stone out of a cow's hoof. The cow is so grateful, it follows Buster around the rest of the movie and the two become quite attached.After some low-key attempts at several projects, Buster winds up - I am really condensing this - back on a train with the cattle hoping to be sold so that the almost-destitute boss can get enough money to save his ranch. The train is robbed, the cattle derailed and the herd winds up in the middle of a big city!That's the real fun part of the film, as it is in so many silent comedies. The adventures of seeing a herd of cattle going down the main city streets and then into barbershops, Turkish baths, Ladies Department Stores, etc., is very funny. The ending was very clever and final punch-line not what the viewers anticipate. All in all, not a lot of laugh-out-loud scenes but a decent Keaton silent film and definitely worth a watch. I am glad most of the reviewers here appreciated this movie.