Sherlock Jr. 1924 (Favorite Scene Movie)

There is an old proverb which says:
“Don’t try to do two things at once and expect to do justice to both”

This is the story of a boy who tried it. While employed as a movie picture operator in a small town theater, he was also studying to be a detective.

Sherlock, Jr. (1924) is an American silent comedy film, directed and starring by Buster Keaton.

In 1991, Sherlock, Jr. was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" (The Washington Post. Film review may 12, 1924.)…

A projectionist is studying to be a detective and he’s in love with a young lady. When he proposes to her, his rival steals the chain watch of the girl’s father and incriminates him. The disappointed young projectionist returns to his job and while projecting a film, he dreamed to be that movie’s detective. Meanwhile, the girl finds the truth and exonerates the guilty of the projectionist to her father.

The projectionist falls asleep as he screens a film called Hearts and Pearls. Then his "double" from his dream state, exits his resting body to watch the film. In the meantime, while he’s dreaming, there’s a scene in which he jumps into the movie theater’s screen and start interacting with the elements on the projected movie at the same time. Exactly at minute 20:35 you can observe him being on a desert grave, where there’s a big hole in which he’s stuck into. He realizes that the scenes are changing and he has to be careful of not getting into an accidental disgrace, forcing himself to adjust to each new environment.

While being in the desert hole, he jumps off and moves backwards to get out of there, but suddenly a train passes by and he almost gets rolled by it. So he jumps again into the hole and observes the train continue its way.

When seeing that specific shot, you can realize how filming got better year by year, because at the same time that you’re watching the young boy almost being killed by a big train, you can also observe people at the movie theater, looking at the screen where the main acting is taking place. This is a big historical cliché of a “movie inside of a movie”. That’s why people don’t really laugh at the funny moments in which he’s stuck into the hole (due to the dream part), or when the train almost kills him, it seems that in fact, that crowd is watching a different story, a love story at that precise moment, but for us (the real audience), it is like if that moment happens for real, and you even forget about the “dreaming part”. You start to feel that everything that he’s going through is real.

The movie framing, in which this specific shot has taken place, is absolutely majestic, because you can see everything in a 3D special way, where the movie audience (us) is watching an audience (actors) inside a movie theater, watching at the same time, a film in which everything seems real and in a “Three-Dimensional Spectrum”.  

The compositions that you can observe in that specific shot are:

-       Lines/contour (every symmetrical aspect from the movie theater composition and the repetitions you can find: the audience).

-       Depth (between the movie theater’s audience and the main character inside the screen).

-       Headroom and leadroom (for all the different scenario changes that are lead to the main actor).

You can actually find this aesthetics composition to be the main touching aspect of the movie, those that makes this film very appreciated and enjoyable.

Even after that specific shot when the young projectionist avoids the train, he seats down at a small mound that was beside him at the dessert, and with a waiting time of three seconds, all the scenario changes and he is then seating on top of a rock in the middle of the ocean.

After a long adventure that this young projectionist passes throughout Keaton’s movie, he finally (at the ending part), wakes up from this exciting dream to see the girl in his projection booth. She apologizes for her accusations, and the projectionist watches the movie to see how to close this deal.

When the actor in the film takes the actress’ hand, the projectionist takes the girls hand. When the actor in the film gives the actress a ring, the projectionist gives the girl a ring. Then the actor kisses the actress on the lips - the film fades to black and fades back to show the actor and actress with two twins. This turn of events leaves the projectionist scratching his head, as he wonders how he can replicate the films end.