- Go West is not one of Buster Keaton's better films. I'd probably rank it somewhere between College and The Cameraman, which is to say below most of his pre-MGM output. It's a movie where most of the gags are predicated upon there being a bunch of cows nearby, which does occasionally prove to be funny, but not nearly as funny as most of Keaton's other, cleverer work. You know Keaton is having an off day when he climbs on top of a train and nothing insane happens.
- The story is basically that Keaton takes Horace Greeley's advice and attempts to become a cowboy. Along the way, he hides in a barrel that falls out of a train, wields the smallest gun in the Old West, rides a donkey like a horse, and makes friends with a fetching cow named "Brown Eyes." Oh, and he starts a stampede in downtown Los Angeles, all while wearing a devil costume. Oddly enough, the funniest scene occurs well away from any cows near the film's beginning when Keaton accidentally sells a picture of his mother to a pawn shop and has to buy it (and his rucksack) back. Another great scene involves him trying to convince a cow to give up its milk, but the rest of the bovine-related humor is pretty predictable and surprisingly safe.
