One of the things I really respect in a filmmaker is complete dedication to their work, and few filmmakers have exemplified that as much as Buster Keaton. The production behind The General is a story of hardship, as Keaton went well over his budget to make the film. He strived to make the movie as authentic as possible, and so much of what you see in the movie is real, including a famous train crash that went on to become the most expensive stunt of the silent era. Keaton was also famous for doing all of his own stunts in his movies, and this is really impressive when you see some of the dangerous stuff that he does in The General. He’s always hopping train cars, but he even attempted stunts that could have easily killed him if he didn’t do them correctly. In fact, many injuries were had during the production of the movie. Now, I’m not saying it’s good to risk the lives of your crew, but my point is that you rarely see someone so committed to delivering a great product like Buster Keaton was.

The movie was inspired by a book that Buster Keaton read, which was about the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War. Keaton plays a train engineer named Johnnie Gray, who is in charge of a train called The General. Some Union spies end up stealing his train, and so Johnnie single-handedly chases after them to get it back. There are some additional side stories here, such as a romance between Johnnie and a woman named Annabelle, but for the most part this is the main crux of the movie. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been the biggest history buff, so the story itself doesn’t really interest me all that much. It might be more interesting to people that are more well-read on the Civil War, but I was more into the movie for its comedy.

Buster Keaton later went on to say that The General is the film that he’s most proud of, and it’s easy to see why. Like I said, a lot of dedication clearly went into the movie, but I also just feel like he was at the top of his game here. The thing that impresses me the most with his movies are the comedy and stunts, and they’re definitely exceptional here. I always say that it’s impressive when a silent movie can make me laugh, and The General definitely did at quite a few parts. I also winded up feeling a lot of tension during the movie, because there are a lot of moments when Keaton is doing something that could go so wrong. It makes for a really exciting movie at times, and so I definitely think it deserves its biggest praises for that.

The General is one of the many “classic” movies that wasn’t well-received by critics or audiences at the time of release, but has since went on to be considered one of the greatest movies of all time (funny how that happens, isn’t it?). It isn’t one of my personal favorite movies of the silent era, but I still think it’s really good, and definitely still a must-see if you’re into film history at all. The main problem for me is just that I’m not all that interested in the plot, and so I got a bit bored at times when the movie wasn’t being funny or tense. As far as Buster Keaton goes, I definitely still personally prefer Sherlock Jr., even if I seem to be in the minority on that. I recognize that silent movies aren’t for everyone, so this wouldn’t be the first movie I’d recommend to the average viewer, but it’s still a good piece of film history.

4/5