To me Buster Keaton is more unknown compared to his other silent era rivals like Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplain whose work were shown more often on British television. Maybe Chaplain is more appreciated in Britain because he was British.
The General is an epic silent comedy and at the time was an expensive undertaking comprising of many extras, dangerous stunts and a steam engine falling from a burning bridge.
Set during the Civil War Keaton plays a devoted train engineer called Johnny Gray who tries to enlist in the Confederate Army to impress his girl and is turned down because he is more valuable as an engineer but no one tells him that was the reason.
His girl think he is a coward who refused to join and will have nothing to do with him until he shows up in uniform. Some months later his beloved steam engine his stolen by Unionist soldiers and in a serious of escapades he tries to recover it and also rescue his girl.
It is an elaborate chase film with for the time some clever sequences and slapstick. However it does go on too long as a chase film and despite some flourishes it does not showcase Keaton's acrobatic skills as much as I desired.
The film was inspired by a true incident but to a modern viewer you still feel ill at ease that even 90 years ago the Confederate South was somehow being painted as heroic.
The General is an epic silent comedy and at the time was an expensive undertaking comprising of many extras, dangerous stunts and a steam engine falling from a burning bridge.
Set during the Civil War Keaton plays a devoted train engineer called Johnny Gray who tries to enlist in the Confederate Army to impress his girl and is turned down because he is more valuable as an engineer but no one tells him that was the reason.
His girl think he is a coward who refused to join and will have nothing to do with him until he shows up in uniform. Some months later his beloved steam engine his stolen by Unionist soldiers and in a serious of escapades he tries to recover it and also rescue his girl.
It is an elaborate chase film with for the time some clever sequences and slapstick. However it does go on too long as a chase film and despite some flourishes it does not showcase Keaton's acrobatic skills as much as I desired.
The film was inspired by a true incident but to a modern viewer you still feel ill at ease that even 90 years ago the Confederate South was somehow being painted as heroic.