THREE AGES

Abstract

Keaton's first feature‐length comedy, Three Ages (1923), has been interpreted as a parody of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). It has also been identified as having a salvageable three‐part structure that would have allowed it to be re‐edited into three short (two‐reel) films. Both claims, I argue, are questionable. First, Keaton's comic focus is much broader than just a parody of Intolerance. He burlesques a whole genre of films—the ‘mythic ages’ genre—which was developing in the 1910s and early 1920s. I analyze the characteristics of this multi‐narrative generic form and discuss various examples, particularly some films directed by Cecil B. DeMille from 1916 to 1923. Second, the three narrative lines in Three Ages (Stone Age, Roman Age and Modern Age) could not have been successfully re‐edited as three separate films. Instead of presenting them as separate episodes, as Griffith does, Keaton intercuts the narrative lines into gag forms. Thus the film's humor depends upon these intercut gags. If the film were re‐edited as three separate films, that humor would be lost. Seeing the film's structure as salvageable also ignores Keaton's interest in experimenting with comedic forms appropriate for feature‐length comedies.