Read the discussion of this film in our textbook (Bordwell and Thompson, 199-205). As you watch the film, try to notice as many as possible of the devices that the textbook describes. To what extent do these devices of mise-en-scene merely allow the film to deliver a coherent, linear storyline? To what extent to they enrich the meanings of the film? And to what extent do they underlie the film's comedy?
Consider how Keaton's comedy works. How does he set up the various gags which make up most of the content of the film? Consider in particular how he uses his body to generate and exploit comic situations: how his body moves, how it interacts with other actors and with inanimate objects (both machines and natural objects), and how it relates to the surrounding space. Also consider more generally how Keaton's comedy depends on an adroit use of space (by this I mean both the cinematic space within the frame of the film, and natural spaces such as the cliffs, the river, the waterfall).
Keaton was known, among other things for his complete impassivity of facial expression: he was sometimes called 'The Great Stone Face.' What do you make of this deliberate withholding of facial expression, in contrast with the great agility of his body?