What do you think?
Rate this book
Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down
“...the definitive life. I don't think it will ever be superseded ... It is scholarly yet readable, the fullest, most objective and factually detailed book on virtually every aspect of Buster's career and artistic, financial, and pyschological ... full of the most interesting (and surprising) information.” – Dwight MacDonald, The New York Review of Books
“A candid yet compassionate account of Keaton's turbulent personal life...reveals the roots of his humanity ... his pessimism ... âhisã superb spirit of comic gloom ...” – Boston Globe
“A candid yet compassionate account of Keaton's turbulent personal life...reveals the roots of his humanity ... his pessimism ... âhisã superb spirit of comic gloom ...” – Boston Globe
350 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 13, 2007
Buster Keaton, I think, is THE major artist of the 20th Century. He's an artist who was totally intuned with the enviornment, whatever it was a violent storm or a machine of some sort. He sort of placed his feet to the ground and is taken up by whatever is around him.
Keaton's face is extremely beautiful. It's beautiful because it shows indifference to the horrors of the world. I have the complete collection of his major works - including the short films - and every frame of these films are pure in its naked approach to how one sees the world. In many ways he is like a child coming to terms with the world. He's hysterical of course, but there are scenes that also makes me cry.
This is a very good bio on a great artist -PERIOD!
Keaton's face is extremely beautiful. It's beautiful because it shows indifference to the horrors of the world. I have the complete collection of his major works - including the short films - and every frame of these films are pure in its naked approach to how one sees the world. In many ways he is like a child coming to terms with the world. He's hysterical of course, but there are scenes that also makes me cry.
This is a very good bio on a great artist -PERIOD!
April 13, 2011
Buster Keaton's life follows a similar curve to that of Charlie Chaplin, though never in quite the same way. There is trauma and vaudeville in childhood, a few years of excelling in early films, until the artist is recognised and indulged.
There follows a short period of Golden Era: each is completely in charge of their own films, creating every aspect, and making films that are still regarded as masterpieces 80 years on.
This period is exceptional, in both lives. For In Our Hospitality, The Navigator and The General, Buster Keaton has complete control of every shot. He writes as he shoots, directs as he acts, and frequently risks his life. This singularity of vision, unmatched anywhere outside of an author's relationship with a novel (and even then...) is what pushes these films into greatness.
The fall happens to them both in different ways. Chaplin, having cashed in, spends the rest of his life trying to be accepted by critics. Keaton, who always had a more esoteric, less-monied appeal, cannot afford such a luxury, and is forced to become a studio man; then a bit-part man; then a gag-writer.
The fundamental difference between the two, that made Chaplin the more succesful and Keaton by far my preferred choice, is simple. Chaplin was a comedian who wanted to be an artist. Keaton was an artist who wanted to be a comedian.
Chaplin always had popular appeal, but his pretentions could never be truly fulfilled; his story ends, career wise, with him still coming down from that long-ago peak. Keaton always made a unique and timeless product, but his aspirations were harder to fill when he had to compromise on method, for reasons of economy (read: shortsighted studios).
Buster's lifegraph does turn up again at the end, as he is rediscovered and critically hailed. He cannot return to that Golden Era of film-making, but that same Era is now, looking back, eminently justified.
http://learningtoreadten.blogspot.com/
There follows a short period of Golden Era: each is completely in charge of their own films, creating every aspect, and making films that are still regarded as masterpieces 80 years on.
This period is exceptional, in both lives. For In Our Hospitality, The Navigator and The General, Buster Keaton has complete control of every shot. He writes as he shoots, directs as he acts, and frequently risks his life. This singularity of vision, unmatched anywhere outside of an author's relationship with a novel (and even then...) is what pushes these films into greatness.
The fall happens to them both in different ways. Chaplin, having cashed in, spends the rest of his life trying to be accepted by critics. Keaton, who always had a more esoteric, less-monied appeal, cannot afford such a luxury, and is forced to become a studio man; then a bit-part man; then a gag-writer.
The fundamental difference between the two, that made Chaplin the more succesful and Keaton by far my preferred choice, is simple. Chaplin was a comedian who wanted to be an artist. Keaton was an artist who wanted to be a comedian.
Chaplin always had popular appeal, but his pretentions could never be truly fulfilled; his story ends, career wise, with him still coming down from that long-ago peak. Keaton always made a unique and timeless product, but his aspirations were harder to fill when he had to compromise on method, for reasons of economy (read: shortsighted studios).
Buster's lifegraph does turn up again at the end, as he is rediscovered and critically hailed. He cannot return to that Golden Era of film-making, but that same Era is now, looking back, eminently justified.
http://learningtoreadten.blogspot.com/
June 19, 2009
This was everything I wanted to know and feel about BK. I read it in the summer of '83. And then read it again after I finished it! First and last time I have ever done that. Since then I have watched Buster's films over and over with the same passion.
January 8, 2008
The one book to read if you want to know more about Buster Keaton.
October 11, 2011
OK, I have finished reading every Buster Keaton bio. And it turns out this is probably the best one. Also, way to link up the fatalistic philosophies of Keaton and Werner Herzog. Wheeeeeee!
February 16, 2018
This book sold me on the genius of Buser Keaton, which I had missed until then.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
June 12, 2018
I love Buster Keaton. I enjoy Keaton more than Chaplin. Not that I have anything against Charlie, but Keaton makes me laugh more. This book is funny in the beginning, depressing in the middle, and inspiring at the end. Buster had a hard life--beaten by his dad, taken advantage of by numerous women and hangers-on, and addicted to alcohol. Through it all, he kept trying to work--and once he beat the alcohol (mostly), his final act was filled with work which brought him joy, if not the same level of fame he enjoyed in his earlier life.
"In response to an interviewer's question about how he felt about his smashed career and all the bad things that had gone with it, Buster's answer was unhesitating: 'I've had a very interesting career. I have no complaints!' I think he meant it."--Chapter 11, page 266.
"In response to an interviewer's question about how he felt about his smashed career and all the bad things that had gone with it, Buster's answer was unhesitating: 'I've had a very interesting career. I have no complaints!' I think he meant it."--Chapter 11, page 266.
April 19, 2009
My favorite comedian, but definitely not my favorite book. Poorly written!
January 22, 2023
Serviceable, relatively compact biography that touches most of the bases and interviews people in his circle still around in the '70s. Curiously scant on Buster's '50s-'60s comeback, with no mention of his Twilight Zone episode, likely the only role many modern audiences know him for. Speculates with some persuasiveness about how the rough treatment from his father onstage as a boy in their vaudeville act may have made Buster curiously passive the rest of his life, and how the alcoholism that wrecked his career was not understood as a disease in Buster's day.
October 28, 2017
Fascinating biography of my favorite film comedian. Keaton's private life takes center stage, so if the reader doesn't like anecdotal gossip, they probably won't like this. But it reads better than most Keaton books...and, of course, I love biographies with footnotes.
July 13, 2022
Very interesting read, tragic and uplifting - I always like Keaton as the best of the old silent movie comedians. I think he was better than Chaplin. I am going to get copies of his best and watch them again.
November 21, 2020
Great bio.
February 22, 2024
⭐4.5 - the end dragged a little bit in chapter 10 but then picked up after that. Keaton is the definitive silent film artist of the 20th century imo
October 3, 2019
"At the zoo, lions and tigers would take one look at Buster's smiling face and come to him immediately."
I'd heard a lot of good about this, but sadly the Dardis bio has a few too many odd untrustworthy opinions and outright mistakes. Most glaringly, Dardis doesn't even convey a sense of what Keaton's talents actually were. There is very little celebration (nevermind analysis) of what made Buster great in here. He doesn't include the names of many of his brilliant early shorts. It's mostly repetition of known anecdotes, but lacking wit or warmth, particularly toward his father Joe Keaton whose questionable shenanigans are memorably characterized in Buster's own autobiography.
I'd heard a lot of good about this, but sadly the Dardis bio has a few too many odd untrustworthy opinions and outright mistakes. Most glaringly, Dardis doesn't even convey a sense of what Keaton's talents actually were. There is very little celebration (nevermind analysis) of what made Buster great in here. He doesn't include the names of many of his brilliant early shorts. It's mostly repetition of known anecdotes, but lacking wit or warmth, particularly toward his father Joe Keaton whose questionable shenanigans are memorably characterized in Buster's own autobiography.
June 12, 2010
really good book. i gave it to my dad to read, because it was very intresting, and im sure he'll like it.
October 7, 2010
Fascinating but depressing bio. Not a lot of shockers here, but it does make one want to re-watch everything the man ever put on film.
September 18, 2013
Good bio, love Buster Keaton and it's really interesting to know he likes the laydees, but I always want MORE about his inspirations and methods.
July 3, 2016
First Buster book I read ,I enjoyed it but it's not the best on Keaton .
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews