Out West

'Fatty' Arbuckle is such an unfunny and unlikeable character I have no idea how he became so popular. Keaton was a highlight but the drunken horse stole the show.

One of the best movies by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. He uses some filming techniques i havent seen in his earlier movies, like double exposure, lots of cuts, close-up shots and the very long distance shots (which became like a treadmark in later Buster Keaton movies). It's fun, it's adventurous. But why make fun of the black guy's tears?

It has some very good gags, but on the whole isn't anything special. Keaton steals the show as usual.

Fatty's really bad at maintaining a pace. The train stuff is above average for him, and I liked Buster's early stuff but it ends up devolving into a bunch of scenes of people getting shot in the ass and jumping down cliffs.

Ambitious and gag-packed as Arbuckle's pictures go. It's more than a little uneven, but the opening material (especially the whole train sequence) is worth a look. (Ernie Morrison's brief scene really is very awkward, though. Although it's worth noting that Arbuckle hired black actors at all given the climate among directors at the time, scenes like this or the one with a customer near the beginning of His Wedding Night really aren't a kind of humor that sits well.)

A little off the beaten path for the Fatty-Buster-Al gang, both in a good way (I do enjoy a goofy western send-up) and not as good (I didn't find the physical comedy quite as funny). I did really enjoy the train bit. I don't know how much top-of-train chases were done before this, but it definitely became a western mainstay.

The very dated making fun of a scared black boy leaves a very bad aftertaste. But apart from that this overall was better than the previous Fatty shorts.

Hoo boy. Which part aged the worst? The man-eating Indians? The sole black character in fear for his life? The animal cruelty? The older-than-the-hills kidnap the woman to marry her plot? Some of the physical humor can be impressive, but there's too few skilled bits and just a lot of falling down.