The General
No, it’s not the recent release a.k.a. I Once Had A Life starring Jon Voigt, but the Buster Keaton silent classic. Since it’s not in wide re-release, basically this is a “Go rent this movie” kind of review. I was fortunate enough to see it on the biggish screen with Guy Forsythe’s live band playing the score, for $10, and I felt I got every penny’s worth. But on tape it would still be amazing. Sure, it’s got that cornball ’20’s dialogue and plays the underdog Confederacy as the heroes, but it’s a truly fantastic piece of cinema. The print we were watching was in excellent shape, thanks to a film preservation society.
Everyone’s probably seen Charlie Chaplin clips and that famous shot of Buster Keaton standing right in the spot so when the house wall falls on him he is spared by being where the window falls, but who out there has seen an entire Buster Keaton feature? He is the Jackie Chan of the first half of the 20th century, and he totally kicks Chaplin’s butt. In fact, Jackie used that same falling house gag (I am told) in Project A part 2. But The General is not the falling house movie. It’s a Civil War comedy and Keaton is a train engineer trying to save his train and his best girl from the North. In today’s blue screen and CGI special effects-laden world, we forget the simple craft of stunts and skills. Jackie Chan uses no wires, and neither does Buster Keaton. He clambers up and down that train, all over the front and sides while it’s *really charging through the countryside*! It’s really two trains in a chase derailing their loose cars and it’s really Massachusetts trees speeding alongside our hero! He really has to get that railroad tie out of the way or there is going to be an accident!
Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton directed (also Jackie Chan’s style) and Marion Mack is the unusually empowered heroine Annabelle. Sure, at first she looks to be a useless Southern Belle, but ultimately, she helps too. But no one is the man like Buster Keaton is the man. Wordless, deadpan, he evinces more nuance than a whole family tree of Baldwins. His seemingly small frail body performs amazing physical feats, all in long single shots. Hilarious, wordless jokes, both broad and subtle, fill the movie. It felt long because so much happened, but it went quickly. The audience was either rapt in silence or cheering and clapping - it was better than the Star Wars preview!
If you can find it, please rent it. It’s a great movie. I want to own it.
*Side note: Since writing this review, all of Buster Keaton’s movies have come out on DVD. Do yourself a favor and get them.
MPAA Rating Not Rated
Release date 1927
Time in minutes 74
Director Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
Studio United Artists
