Go West

USA/1925 — directed by Buster Keaton | 88 min.

Filmed on location in the Arizona desert, Go West stars Keaton as a young Midwestern man named Friendless, who takes the advice of newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and hops a freight train bound for the West.

There he befriends a dairy cow named Brown Eyes, and together they look out for one another while evading wolves, train robbers, and a one-way trip to the stockyards.

The film’s iconic climax is a full-scale cattle stampede through the streets and upscale shops of Los Angeles—led by Keaton in a red devil suit. Released a century ago, Go West remains one of the most strikingly modern works of cinematic art you’ll see this year.

“Keaton's face ranked almost with Lincoln's as an American archetype: it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was irreducibly funny.” — James Agee, Agee on Film