Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Boat (1921)

The Boat holds a lofty place among Keaton’s short films similar to those held by Cops (1922) or One Week (1920). Buster and his family take their home-made boat to sea. It is considered by modern audiences to be one of Buster’s best short films.

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

Currently, this is our recommended home video edition of the film for North American collectors.

This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Supplemental material includes an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; a recently-discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; a video essay by critic David Cairns; a discussion of Keaton’s style by actor Pierre Étaix; an audio recording of Keaton at a 1962 party; and a 184-page booklet with a roundtable discussion with critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt, an essay and with detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance; an essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; an excerpt from Life with Buster Keaton (1951) in cluding a reenactment by Keaton of Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance,” first performed in The Cook and the words of Buster Keaton.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended home video edition of the film for European collectors. North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

This Region B Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

Supplemental material includes 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by a custom music score.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton Collection boxset on home video page.

This is a great way to affordably acquire Buster’s films on Blu-ray Discs.

This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

Supplemental material includes 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The video transfer utilized for this early DVD edition is (like the others in this Buster Keaton DVD series) from The Art of Buster Keaton series originally released on laserdisc and VHS videotape in 1994-1995. Portions of The Boat were nearly lost forever to the print decomposition visible at times in this transfer.

The films on the disc also feature great music scores by Robert Israel and organist Gaylord Carter. While we have been a longtime fan of the late Carter’s work, we are continually impressed by Israel’s orchestral scores. On more than one occasion, the presence of Israel’s work has been a selling point for us.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This film is accompanied by music by Robert Israel, performed by an ensemble.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by music by Robert Israel, performed by an ensemble.

We caution that disc mastering makes a huge difference in the visual quality of DVDs. Since the content has been manufactured onto five double-sided discs, and if proper care has been taken to master the DVDs, the visual quality is comparable to the 2002 Image edition noted above.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.