Study Hall Member Harris Wheless Wrote About the Making and Legacy of Buster Keaton’s Great Naval Comedy “The Navigator”

For Bright Wall/Dark Room, Harris Wheless wrote about Buster Keaton’s 1924 classic film “The Navigator” and how he adapted his trademark slapstick style to the film’s unique setting. Wheless writes, “In ‘The Navigator’, the titular ship dictates the rhythm and pacing of its gags, the composition of its shots, the dramatic structure of the film itself. The film is less about its surface-level melodrama than the comedy at its heart: that a man, woman, and machine can live together in blissful, domestic harmony.”

In the piece, Wheless analyzes how “Keaton’s genius lies in the universality of his character” and how “he takes us inside the everyman and makes us know him as we know ourselves.”

Wheless’s work has appeared in NPR Music, Caesura, McSweeney’s, The Oxonian Review, and more.