thinbeach It's somewhat surprising that Arbuckle and Keaton didn't make more parodies - their style of humour is well suited to it - although we only see snippets of that potential in this two reeler. Fatty, booted off a train, ends up in a small desert town amidst high cliffs. Various bad guys attempt to take the town saloon by gunfight, but Fatty and sidekick Buster are the unlikely heroes turning them away. The early train sequence, including Fatty being chased atop the moving train, is a highlight, and worth watching for those 4 minutes alone, but after that it is forgettable. While somewhat humorous to see a tough villain thwarted by tickling, and a gunfight where no one is harmed by bullet wounds, it is mostly pretty weak.

motta80-2 Out West marks a distinct departure for Arbuckle as a director in that compared to what had come before it had a much stronger, more thought out and developed style and story. It has more genuinely clever and funny ideas than the preceding shorts with Al St John and Buster Keaton put together - the high concept of the western theme clearly releasing the creative genius that Fatty could display.Keaton and St John also have stronger parts than their usual nameless knockabout side characters that had come before. Visually the sepia rounded-corner 19th century photograph look of it is a stylish stylistic directorial choice from Arbuckle, showing the talent he could display (and would again) rather than simply allowing the action to be the film. You feel the story here from the outset. Excellent.

Snow Leopard Much of the material in "Out West" works well, at least as long as you understand its intent. It combines some of the usual Arbuckle/Keaton slapstick with a satirical look at some of the conventions of the Western genre of its time, and it has a decent variety of scenes and settings.The story starts off with some amusing antics by Arbuckle on a train, and then goes on from there as he meets up with the other characters. Keaton gets some good moments, and Arbuckle regular Al St. John has a funny role as a villainous gun-slinger.They take some chances with some of the material, and it's easy to see how today's audiences could misinterpret it. There are a couple of morbid gags that work pretty well, but there are a couple of other things are just not at all funny now, even given that they were parodying the Westerns of the time.Overall, it has some good moments that most fans of Arbuckle and Keaton would enjoy, but there are other parts of it that even their fans will probably find somewhat uncomfortable.

silent-12 The best part of the whole short--Roscoe's routine: the famous one-handed cigarette roll, striking the match on the train, then leaping into the caboose as the train speeds by--in less time than it takes to read this. Worth the price of admission alone!