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Buster Keaton works at a small town movie theater, but secretly hopes to become a detective. Unfortunately, he is framed for the theft of a gold watch belonging to his girlfriend's father and is told he can never see her again. Feeling rejected and depressed, Keaton falls asleep while projecting a movie and begins to dream that he is transported into the film being shown. As the star of the film, he becomes Sherlock Jr., the world's greatest crime-fighting sleuth.

Not only does this film feature some incredible daredevil stunts by Keaton, but it showcases Keaton's amazing abilities as a director. This film was profoundly influenced by the French avant-garde and surrealist artists of the time. Keaton twists the film medium and plays with multiple levels of reality in a manner that was WAY ahead of its time. Very post-modern. And even though this makes it sound like it's an "art film," it's actually highly entertaining to boot.

This film holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons. When I first watched it in my film history course, I was absolutely blown away. And later when I showed the film to my high school film students, I hoped it would do the same for them. It was the first film of the year I showed and I hoped it would completely shatter any misconceptions they had about silent films.

I required them to write response papers about it and their overwhelmingly positive responses made tears of joy well up in my eyes. Here's some highlights:

10th grade student:
"Before I watched Sherlock Jr., I thought black and white and silent films were dull and boring. But see, that was an ignorant opinion because I had never seen a silent film before. I just assumed from what I heard from other people that they were stupid and boring. That was my first mistake, I judged before I saw. So when I heard that Sherlock Jr. was a silent film and black and white, I already had a bad attitude. But while I was watching the movie I found myself smiling and laughing. I loved how the actors had to rely on body language to do the acting for them. Now I know what the saying 'actions speak louder than words' means! My favorite part of Sherlock Jr. was when he was on the motorcycle; it was so funny and exciting. I think that silent films are more imaginative and more sophisticated than films today. I'm glad that Sherlock Jr. could change my opinion."

12th grade student:
"In the beginning, I thought that the movie would be very boring. Like it had no imagination in it or anything like that. I personally felt that it would be difficult to watch because it didn't have sound. I thought that I would not be able to keep my attention on the film. I was definitely proved wrong. I absolutely loved the film Sherlock Jr. I thought it was humorous, yet classic at the same time. It kind of taught me to use my own imagination."

12th grade student:
"Now, if right after class I heard someone say that silent films are poorly made because they don't have the same technology we have now, I would ignore him and go about my business. If I really wanted to change his mind, I'd make him watch the movie. It changed a lot of opinions or at least had an impact on the class. I could feel it."

11th grade student:
"Sherlock Jr. was an excellent show. After watching it, I found that silent films could be quite entertaining.... Anyone who would say that silent films are poorly made certainly has never seen this film.... It defies the modern day prejudice of silent or black and white films."

10th grade student:
"I thought that the movie would be somewhat primitive, because of the lack of technology at that period of time. Again I was proven wrong.... I enjoyed watching it. It's good sometimes to watch something different than what you are used to."

12th grade student:
"From watching Sherlock Jr. today I would sure watch more silent movies!"

11th grade student:
"I never watched many black and white films, because if I was flipping channels and passed one, I would figure it was old, boring, and would have bad actors. In this film, the acting was very good, and changed my previous idea of old actors. It was interesting, and though there wasn't any color, I still got into it. Old films aren't quite as boring, or proper as I thought they were.... Though it's just one film and I know I won't like all black and white or silent films as much as this one, this film has made me more open to this kind of film."