“The Cook” directed by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was released September 15, 1918. The film was also written by Arbuckle, and he was one of the stars as well. Starring beside Arbuckle was Buster Keaton. Arbuckle portrays a cook in the film, while Keaton plays a waiter. The twenty two minute long movie was filmed in Long Beach, California.
“The Cook,” a slapstick comedy, is considered a classic because of the cast of the film as well as it’s staying power. The cast of “The Cook” is well known, most notably Keaton and Arbuckle. While Keaton and Arbuckle’s lives were not always the cleanest or most upstanding, their jokes made them, and their movies popular. The duo made fifteen two reel films together, before Keaton struck off on his own and created a production company he could call his. These fifteen films made the duo well known.
The staying power of the film also contributes to its status as a classic film. While many silent films watched now, in the time of big, flashy, fast, loud movies, can bore the younger generations, this one did not. Shown in a college classroom, it provoked laughs more than once. The comedy remains funny, nearly one hundred years after the movie’s release. Most of the jokes are situational, people eating spaghetti in ways that are not typically socially acceptable, Arbuckle dips a ladle into a pot several times, but a different type of food appears each time, Arbuckle and Keaton tossing food and drink across the kitchen yet not spilling much, if any of it, the list goes on.
Another reason why “The Cook” is a classic is that it does exactly what it came to do. Be funny. The movie set out with the goal to be entertaining and humorous and it does just that. One of the main purposes of any movie is to be entertaining, and “The Cook” does just that. Audience members are pulled in, wondering what Arbuckle and Keaton will get up to next. They can be delighted watching food be thrown and miraculously not spilling, or be educated in the abundance of methods of spaghetti consumption.
Additionally the film has stood the test of time. While “The Cook” may not be the movie you sit down to rewatch again and again with family, it is still relevant. The movie is a part of the history of film as it is being shown in college classrooms ninety-seven years after release and will most likely continue to be shown for years to come.
