Walt S
Amazing, especially the dangerous stunts. No miniatures or CGI special effects here, when it came time for a steam locomotive to crash into the river, they got a real steam locomotive and crashed it into a river.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/25/24
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Ben W
No option to delete. Put the stars in the middle. sorry. Today was a Wednesday, 22.05.2024ce.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
05/22/24
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Logan J
Some of the best stunts that you will ever witness in a movie. Along with the great story, you are sure to have a great watching experience! Highly recommend to anybody with a great appreciation of cinema
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
12/01/23
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Lars N
Movie magic, pure and simple. Not only is it fun and thrilling but there is also a grandiosity to it, that I did not expect.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
11/07/23
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Matthew B
Buster Keaton's movies have always been viewed in the same league as those of Charlie Chaplin, but the man himself has made less impression. Chaplin knew how to exaggerate his physical traits to draw attention to himself. Even his physical appearance is more distinct – the tramp's outfit and the comic moustache.
By contrast, Keaton was more impassive. He avoided pulling faces, and his reactions to events were more understated. He was a small man with a grave face. In The General, he sports long, curly hair. Keaton did not portray his characters as figures of fun. They were not absurd in themselves, even though absurd things happened to them.
Plenty of absurd things happen to Johnnie Gray, the hero of The General (played of course by Keaton). He engages in pratfalls, and tools are not his friend. If he is cutting wood, he will lose his axe head. If he is brandishing a sword, the blade will fall off. In an early scene, he is followed to the house of his sweetheart by a couple of children, whom he fails to notice them until they get inside the house.
This humour was necessary in silent comedy where there was a greater emphasis on slapstick drollery, since this was the most visual expression of a joke. Nonetheless what marks the Keaton hero is not foolishness, but an astonishing amount of resourcefulness and inventiveness.
The General is about the two loves of Johnnie Gray's life, and the lengths that he goes through to rescue them. The first is his fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), and the second is The General. The General is a large locomotive, and Johnnie is the engineer who drives the train. When he goes to visit Annabelle, he gives her a photograph of himself and The General. This seems rather apt, given his close affection for both loves are tied together.
His life is changed by the outbreak of the American Civil War. Annabelle's family are instantly keen to sign up and fight for the Confederates. As a comic character, Johnnie is less enthusiastic, but he is anxious to please Annabelle so he ensures that he is first in the line to enlist.
Unfortunately the recruiters reject his application because they decide that he would be more use to them as a train engineer. They do not explain the reason to Johnnie, leading to a comic scene as the little man compares himself to other men who were accepted, and who are neither taller nor muscular than he, and he makes several more failed attempts to sneakily join up. "If you lose the war, don't blame me!" the exasperated engineer proclaims.
Johnnie is unable to explain how he was rejected by the army, so his fiancée's family think that he is a shirker, and regard him as a disgrace to the South. Annabelle tells him that she will refuse to speak to him until he is in uniform.
This changes when Unionist soldiers steal The General, and accidentally abduct Annabelle too. What follows is a great chase in which Johnnie single-handedly pursues the runaway train, overcoming a number of obstacles that the soldiers put in his way. After he rescues both train and lover, the action takes place in reverse with the Unionist soldiers pursuing The General, and Johnnie seeking to obstruct their path.
The Keaton hero is not a loser like the Chaplin hero. He is not a vagrant, but a worker. He is not an unusual man, but an ordinary one. As armies advance and retreat, we see the solitary figure of Johnnie chopping wood, oblivious to what is going on around him. Wars may come and go, but figures such as Johnnie will still be around when the rifles are put away.
Nonetheless an ordinary man can be heroic too. This is not a movie that makes any point concerning the nature of war, either for or against fighting. It takes the side of the Confederates by way of plot convenience, but does not seek to promote the values that Confederates stood for. It is merely a celebration of individual courage and ingenuity.
There was an audacity in Keaton's thinking too. A fan of train history, Keaton was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true event that happened during the American Civil War. Keaton studied photographs taken during the Civil War, and tried to recreate the look for the movie. He also bought the trains used in the film, and purchased a wide range of Civil War paraphernalia.
With a cast of 3,000 paid people and a running cost of $400 an hour, The General proved, alas, to be the undoing of Buster Keaton. The film studio was unhappy with the cost of the film, and their anxiety was not helped when the making of the movie led to a few accidents and forest fires. The movie was made on a large budget, but it failed to make a significant profit. This was Keaton's greatest financial failure, and he lost his independence as a moviemaker as a result.
Nonetheless many years later Keaton said that he was prouder of The General than of any other film that he had made. Time has proven him right. The General is now regarded with high esteem, and is thought to be one of the best silent movies ever made. I can only agree. The movie is better than I can describe, because its brilliance can only be appreciated when you see it.
I wrote a blog expressing a longer appreciation of the film if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/the-general-1926/
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/24/23
Full Review
Jeffrey M
The General was a okay movie. It was very hard to understand, but this film was made in the 1920's, so I'll cut it slack. From what I understand of it, The General was a interesting movie. Also surprisingly, The General was a really funny movie, and guess what? I LOVE comedy! The General is very overrated though. People say it's a masterpiece, but for me it's not. I don't understand what's so good about this movie, speaking of understand I could barely understand the movie. I give this a 70%.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/24
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