Narrative analysis of Seven Chances Chase Buster Keaton

Seven chances was a silent-comedy directed by Buster Keaton in 1925.

 ( Chase scene )
I'm only analysing the one 3 minute scene from this film as it is an hour long and would take too long to analysis, where as this short chase scene shows an example of narration that is involved in the film.  The film is about a man who learns that he will inherit a fortune if he marries by 7pm that day. So he searches for a woman who would accept him. He is a financial broker called Jimmie Shannon who is near bankruptcy when an attorney presents the grandfathers will leaving him with 7 million dollars. But he must marry on his 27th birthday which just so happens to be that day.

Problems with the clip however;>In the scene with the rolling rocks, the knees of Jimmie's trousers are out in some shots and intact in others.
>The boulders are clearly fake - one boulder hits Buster and bounces off of him but this is needed as they would have clearly done bad damage to him, and could have even crushed him. They just need to hide it more.
>Even though this is a black and white film a few sequences have a 2-strip Technicolor which means that they have some form of colour on them that isn't the bright colours we see with our cameras now.

Starting Off:
The clip starts by showing a long shot of a black suited man running on dirt that has been sped up. The use of the speeding up can help to not only make the film run on quicker and get to the point but to also add the hint of comedy in terms of the way they run. For example, in this film we can tell that this man is in a hurry because of the speed he is running at. With this speed he also seems to manage to get over anything that gets in his way.  The narrative of this shows the audience he is either running from something which can make the audience then question what since the camera isn't close enough to see his facial expression. Or that he is running to something, in which then the audience get excited by what he is running towards. Where ever the protagonist is going he is determined to get there. The music playing in the background also helps to make the main character seem as though he is running even faster than what he actually is.  The use of music in this scenerio is really effective as it can keep the audience intrigued to whats happening as well as at 3:42 where we see him over come any obstacle.
Extreme long shots and pans of the camera allow us to see the setting of the story and show us that it isn't where you would expect a man in a black suit to be considering it seems almost desertly.

Then the plot:Seeing him fall, trip over the boulders, and stumble allows the audience the first sneak peak at what type of comedy to expect. This is another example of slaptsick comedy or also known as physical comedy, where the actors mock violence for the comic effect.
It is only Jimmie, the buisness partner, and the lawyer who are aware of his grandfathers will and so Jimmie quickly proposes to his longtime girlfriend as well as poping the question to several other females but ends up with predictably embarrassing results. They being the buisness parter and lawyer then decide to place an advertisement in the newpaper.  Once this hits the streets the chase is on.  Keaton is persued through Los Angeles by dozens of willing brides, some with their dresses already on. It is these willing brides that then become each others obstacles as they try overcoming each others attempts of marriage to a man they know little about.
Keaton's comic genius allows Seven Chances to become a wildly entertaining film. The first half of the hour long film is good minor the slight imperfections. But the second half, is the better half for creativity and humour.

The scene i've selected from the film is after the newspaper advertisement has been sent out, and Jimmie Shannon is escaping from the wanting brides. Although we do not see the brides chasing him at first, we do get to see his reliefed expression when he manages to escape up a tree and his horrified expressing when he looks behind him after the tree falls over at 1:50. This scene gives comic effect to the audience by the main character not seeming to get any luck from escaping the horde of brides or the tumbling bolders around him.  At 2:50 we see Jimmie stuck between being crushed by the bolders as they tumble down or going into the horde of women waiting for him at the bottem as he starts to run out of time. Here, though the clip is only a few seconds long we see the clock and bell tower which indicates that he is almost out of time, and allows the audience to then question the verdict of the story, will he be able to marry in time or wont he?  This gives the narrative a double barrel ending as the audience has to wait until the end of the film to find out. Even though is it restricted, it is still restricted as the film doesn't give out everything of what is going to happen to the audience straight away. The audience and characters learn the information at the same time.