# I want to see a silent movie. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512 "2016-09-21T16:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/1 "2016-09-21T16:06:09Z")
The silent movie should show a team of workers raising a barn. Now, the iconic image in movies of barn raisings is where all the workers, having constructed the frame of a wall on the ground, gather along the “roofline,” pick it up, and walking forward as a team, push the wall to an upright position. The “classic” slapstick version of this is when, either as a group, or because of the incompetence of one member, they continue past the vertical, and push the entire wall over. That’s not what I want to see. I want to see everyone on the team picking up their section of the roofline, and making sure that they’re positioned with access to a vertical stud, so once the top rail is out of reach of the ground, they can still push forward. Except this one guy. He’s going to grab a section of the rail, and not have anything to transfer his grip to as the section goes higher. So he just hangs on. So he’ll be riding the roofline forty feet into the air, as the team pushes the wall up to vertical. And then the dinner bell is rung, and everyone migrates over to the _other_ iconic barn-raising movie image, the lunch table laden with hundreds of pounds of tasty, tasty food, while our hero hangs forlornly forty feet in the air. Did anyone ever shoot this scene, back in the old days of the silents? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/2 "2016-09-21T16:32:54Z")
Sounds like something Larry Semon would have done. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/3 "2016-09-21T19:58:21Z")
How expensive could it be to film this scene yourself? Jolly good weekend fun! I’ll be one of the extras and charge ya nothin’! (Probably should hire a professional stunt-actor for the guy being hoisted aloft.) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/4 "2016-09-23T15:18:56Z")
If you turn off the sound to the movie _Witness_, you’ll see a scene very much like it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/5 "2016-09-23T18:41:57Z")
If you turn off the sound to Witness, you’ll miss a really great score. But, yes, there is a scene much as described in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/6 "2016-09-23T19:34:43Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If you turn off the sound to Witness, you’ll miss a really great score. But, yes, there is a scene much as described in the OP. With a guy left dangling from the top while everyne goes and eats? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/7 "2016-09-23T19:42:09Z")
Yes, that was in there as well. Most people just aren’t looking closely enough to see him. Also, compare and contrast the meanings of “much as described” and “precisely as described”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/8 "2016-09-23T19:47:53Z")
I just think you’re kind of missing the point of the OP, which isn’t, “Are there any barn raising scenes,” but rather, “Are there any barn raising scenes _with that particular joke_.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-see-a-silent-movie/766512/9 "2016-09-23T21:00:17Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I just think you’re kind of missing the point of the OP, which isn’t, “Are there any barn raising scenes,” but rather, “Are there any barn raising scenes _with that particular joke_.” Pretty much. I mean, I knew it wasn’t in _Kingpin_…