Revisiting The General (1926)

A few months ago, 100 Years reviewed Buster Keaton's classic film The General. The verdict at the time was I liked, but did not love the movie. I also worried that my reaction was based on some preconceived notions going in. I was committed to revisiting the film in the future.

The perfect opportunity to give the film a second chance came up this weekend. Moviate out of Harrisburg sponsored a showing at the Ned Smith Center with live musical accompaniment from the Reese Project. So off I went. The verdict?

I love The General.

Obviously, seeing it projected enhanced the experience, but there was more to it. A lot more.

For one, the print shown was 20 minutes shorter than the one I watched before. And the edits were all of the things that bugged me. Gone was the prologue setting up Keaton's love for his train. The idea that Johnny Gray may be choosing between a girl and a locomotive was silly, and not in a good way.

Gone too was the extended explanations of the Union plot. We already know everything we need to know. The Union stole the train and it's up to Keaton to get it back.

The sleeker cut keeps its focus on Buster's athleticism and comedic timing and both deliver. He can make you laugh as he leaps across trains, or he can slay you with a simple look at the right moment.

There were two other aspects of the presentation that sold me. First, The General played to a packed house. Comedy, more than any genre (except maybe horror), benefits from the communal experience a public showing can provide. The crowd was laughing and it was infectious.

The coup d'grace for me was the reaction of my nine-year old son. He was in stitches from the beginning and kept howling throughout. It's amazing to experience a silent film that can be so affecting for every generation.

I loved The General. I could say more, but my son summed it up best. Twenty minutes into the film, he leaned over and simply stated: "Dad, this is awesome!"

Indeed it is.

Revised rating ***** out of *****

Image from Silent Era

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The General (1926)

Directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, Marion Mack and Glen Cavender

Johnny Gray is a man with two loves: his girl Annabelle and his train named The General. When shots are fired at Fort Sumter, Johnny tries to enlist in the Confederacy, but the recruitment office decides he is more valuable as a conductor.   Annabelle assumes he is a coward and refuses to see him until he is wearing a uniform.

A year later, Johnny is still working on his beloved train and still loves Annabelle from a distance.  Union soldiers steal The General to use as a Trojan Horse in a campaign against the confederates.  Johnny is soon in pursuit in another train.  To raise the stakes, Annabelle has been captured on The General by the Union army.
Can Johnny recover both of his loves?  Can he warn the Confederate Army of the coming danger?  And will it all be enough to win back the hand of his girl?

Okay, confession time: I really struggled with this review.

I turned on The General with pretty high expectations. It's generally acknowledged as a classic. I knew of the movie from a slew of "Best Movie Ever" type lists, but I didn't know anything about it.

It took some warming up for me to like this movie. I don't love it, but I like it.

Maybe it's the burden of expectation. Not that it would be the greatest film ever, but that it would be funny. I mean that's what a Buster Keaton film is all about, right?  My expectation was a stitch-busting comedy in the vein of his previous work.

It's not funny, or at least that's not principally the focus. Call it an action film or a chase film, but it's really not a comedy.

Once I accepted the movie on its own terms, I started to really enjoy it.

The General has two big things going for it: an interesting premise creatively executed and the complete fearlessness of its star.

At its core, this is a chase movie between a couple of trains. Think about that for a moment. A chase. Between two trains. On the same track. How interesting could that possibly be?

In the right hands, it turns out it can be enthralling. The film constantly wrings drama and tension out of the situation and it's endlessly inventive in creating new obstacles for the trains.

We see debris thrown onto the track. Rail switches used to dramatic effect. Rail cars set on fire and released. Wood dropped from an overhead rail onto the train passing below. Keaton and his crew understand the world of the train and squeeze out all of the dramatic possibilities.

Of course, to realize the drama and humor of the script, you need a star who is game for anything. And Keaton is audacious.

The danger to the star throughout the film only really hit me during a quieter moment. Keaton is standing on one of the cars chopping a piece of wood. My brain says: " man, he is awfully close to the edge... [pause] ... Oh my God, he is doing all of these stunts himself on a moving train!"

When today's Hollywood actor performs a dangerous stunt, the studio makes damn sure you know it in a "Wow, that really is Tom Cruise climbing the mountain" kind of way. The General never does that. It never underlines the peril the hero is constantly in.

Whether he is absent-mindedly moving up and down on a tender or sitting on the cowcatcher of a moving train, you never feel like it's a stunt. He races across train cars, jumps on and off moving engines and sits next to steel wheels that could crush him, but it's all second nature to Johnny Gray  It simply what the character has to do to clear the next hurdle.

That highlights one of the slight issues I had with the film. That constant danger never feels... well, dangerous. Keaton is so at ease in racing around that train that it undercuts a bit of the tension of his situation. If he had almost fallen or if we'd seen something crushed by the train, it may have amped things up. 




The movie features an ending action sequence that makes you scramble for Google.  Yes, Keaton really crashed a train surrounded by all those extras.  What today would be a moment of CGI trickery involved tons of steel and iron providing real human peril.  Remarkable.

I liked The General. A lot, but I didn't love it. That said, I am anxious to revisit it so I can experience the film without my prior preconceptions. It's a remarkable achievement to create a chase film between two trains, let alone one that has both tension and humor.

**** out of *****

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