The General

I never thought a 90-year old movie could entertain me like "The General" did. I feel sorry for anyone that won't be open to films that are A) old or B) Black and White.

This film is hilarious and astounding. Buster Keaton's humor is so subtle. You must keep your eyes on him because you'll be rewarded with laughter if you do. He is also an incredible athlete. The stunts he does, and he did all his own stunts, are effortless and graceful. There are no special effects. Everything he does is real. But don't you dare say that the effects aren't special.

Buster Keaton is absolutely wild

The pinnacle, I think, of Keaton's stuntman panache as well as the peak of his storytelling abilities and comedic sensibilities. The story is still basic (man wants to join army to win favor with girl), but the implementation is anything but. Centered around a train ride to and fro, behind enemy lines and back, his skill is on full display from start to finish. Wonderful use of on-location shooting and what sure look like real trains, this is a nail-biter and a laugh fest throughout. Docking it one point on rewatch because of the dissonance involved in situating the hero on the confederate side. Odd choice, that.

Buster Keaton just cracked the ultimate joke out of a war.

bro just stumbled his way through the civil war

Great and obviously an amazing technical achievement, but it doesn’t quite have the emotional heart or intellect of a Chaplin film. Not that it necessarily needs to, because it works just fine as an experiential type of film, but the visceral impact of this film by itself is probably not as big as it was 100 years ago (and therefore it’s not quite as compelling when it relies on that). The comedy and wit found throughout are still pretty great, and I do continue to love how silent movies often are able to build character just through the exaggerated acting. It’s cinema in its purest form, still a lot of fun to watch if you can appreciate film as an artistic medium.

8/10

While I'm not a fan of silent movies, I am a fan of Keaton's.

That said, I wonder if it was problematic at the time to have a confederate soldier as the protagonist...

A classic, which did not age well compared with other movies of similar age. A bit repetitive in its development, not necessarily always engaging in the action or in the comedy. But a very nice ending.

Buster Keaton plays a mid-19th century train conductor who desperately wants to join the Confederate army to impress a girl. That determined drive, plus a set of unusual circumstances, sends him deep behind enemy lines amidst of a pair of wild railway chases, said girl on his arm, on an indirect route to finally earning that gray uniform.

Keaton's strength here is in both the delightful quandaries he digs for himself and the vivid reality of his work, often throwing caution to the wind and putting his body in the path of legitimate danger. His style is more grounded than Charlie Chaplin, a contemporary and rival, less flowery and expressive but equally inventive and influential. Where one can see the matte painting at the edge of Chaplin's roller skates in Modern Times, Keaton casually showboats mere inches from the wheels of a three-hundred ton steam engine in motion. He hurls a speeding train off a rickety wooden bridge, leaving much of the cast unaware to capture a more honest reaction. His stunts are more practical, if perhaps less showy.

The plot is sufficiently interesting, but uneven at points. Curious to see a film shot entirely from the southern perspective in this scenario, with the Yankees playing the dastardly saboteurs, though the rebels aren't quite seen as heroes themselves. It's possibly more meaningful as a piece of historical influence than as a standalone film.

I’m still not a fan of silent films, but this one is okay. It feels less silly compared to some of Chaplin’s films and I think I like that a bit more.