The Great Buster: A Celebration

The Great Buster: A Celebration is a documentary about the life and career of Buster Keaton, the American filmmaker and comedian whose work in the silent era shaped the course of screen comedy. Directed and written by Peter Bogdanovich, the film draws on archival material and interviews to trace Keaton's path from his early years in show business through the features that made his reputation, including Sherlock Jr., The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. Friends, family members, collaborators and later performers who drew on his example appear on screen, while Bogdanovich himself narrates.

The film was released in 2018 and runs 102 minutes. It is the eleventh feature Bogdanovich directed, arriving after She's Funny That Way (2015) and following a career that began with Targets in 1968 and included The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc? and Paper Moon. Bogdanovich shares producing duties with Roee Sharon and Louise Stratten, and the credited cast numbers 25, among them Dick Van Dyke, James Karen, Johnny Knoxville and Paul Dooley, alongside archive footage of Keaton.

Audience response has been favorable: on IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.5 from around 2,700 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from a much smaller pool of 72 votes. The narrower sample on TMDB accounts for the slight gap between the two figures; both point to a documentary that has found a receptive viewership.