Line #17 Film/ThreeAges


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6	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19230924threeagesj_3823.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:300:Through every age there is the faithful worshipper at Beauty's shrine.]]
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9	->''If you let your mind wander back through History you will find that the only thing that has not changed since the world began is — LOVE. Love is the unchanging axis on which the world revolves.''
10	-->-- '''opening title card'''
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12	''Three Ages'' is a 1923 film directed by and starring Creator/BusterKeaton.
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14	For his first feature film, Keaton made an AffectionateParody of Creator/{{D W Griffith}}'s ''Film/{{Intolerance}}'', in which a LoveTriangle plays out in prehistoric times, during the Roman Empire, and in 1920s America. (The idea was that if the feature-length version flopped, it could be re-edited into three separate shorts.)[[note]]Ironically Griffith did the same thing, releasing the two longer segments of ''Intolerance'' as stand-alone features in an attempt to recoup some of his losses after the film flopped.[[/note]] The film was almost lost to posterity, because by the 1950s the negative was badly damaged. It was eventually salvaged, but some shots are still heavily obscured.
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16	Creator/WallaceBeery plays "The Villain", namely, Buster's antagonist in all three stories.
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19	!!This film provides examples of:
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21	* AffectionateParody: Of ''Film/{{Intolerance}}'', a big EpicMovie that presented four different stories with similar themes at four different points in human history.
22	%%* AllCavemenWereNeanderthals
23	* AnachronismStew: In the stone age and Roman eras. For example, Buster's chariot has a license plate with roman numerals and a spare tire on the back.
24	* AncientRome: The second of the three ages presented.
25	%%* BambooTechnology
26	* BalconyWooingScene: Buster tries to do this in the Roman scene and gets an urn on the head for his trouble.
27	* BigLittleMan: Caveman Buster tries to grab a woman lying on the ground by the hair and drag her away, as cavemen were apt to do back then. The woman stands up and turns out to be a good two feet taller than Buster.
28	%%* DiscreetDrinkDisposal
29	* DraggedByTheCollar: A variation. In the stone age segments, female characters are sometimes dragged by their hair.
30	* LovesMeNot: In the modern era, the boy tries using this method to find out whether the girl likes him. Unfortunately, he didn't notice that the flower had a bee on it.
31	* LoveTriangle: All three stories have Buster going up against a much bigger tough guy (namely, Wallace Beery) for the love of pretty Margaret Leahy.
32	* MotivationOnAStick: During the chariot race, a cat is thrown on to the arena to distract Buster's dogs. He repurposes the feline to get the dogs to chase it.
33	* NubileSavage: Margaret Leahy, who plays the [[LoveInterests love interest]] in all three eras, got her start in films by winning a beauty contest.
34	* TheOner: A caveman throws a rock at Buster, who uses a club to smack the stone back at his attacker, beaning him. Buster made a point of doing this gag in a single, continuous shot.
35	* RoofHopping: Subverted -- even using a plank as a springboard, he doesn't make it. (This was an actual mishap that was [[ThrowItIn worked into the film]].)
36	* ShoutOut: When challenged to a Chariot race and looking over his mismatched horses, Buster's steeds all become cut outs of Spark Plug from ''ComicStrip/BarneyGoogle''.
37	* SpoofAesop: When The Roman-era boy winds up in a lion's cage, he recalls that [[AndroclesLion someone, somewhere, did something to a lion's paw]]...and gives the lion a pedicure.
38	* StopMotion: Used in the first Stone Age section so Buster can ride a dinosaur.
39	* [[TwoLinesNoWaiting Three Lines, No Waiting]]
40	* ThrowItIn: The failed RoofHopping.
41	* UnsuspectinglySoused: A man hides some illegal booze in a pitcher and Buster ends up drinking in during the modern age.

Context Film / ThreeAges