The General (1927) - film review

America, 1861.  Train driver Johnnie Gray has two loves in his life – his locomotive, named The General, and his sweetheart, Annabelle Lee.   At the outbreak of the Civil War, Annabelle’s father and brother enlist in the Confederate Army, but Johnnie is turned down because he is more valuable as a railway man.  Annabelle refuses to have anything to do with Johnnie until she sees him in uniform.  A year later, Johnnie’s train is stolen by a Union spy – with Annabelle Lee on board.  After a spectacular railway chase, Johnny manages to rescue Annabelle, but learns that the Union soldiers are planning to use the stolen train to attack the Confederates…

Buster Keaton, possibly the funniest man in history, was at the height of his powers as both a comedian and a director when he made The General , his greatest film, and arguably one of the best war films of the silent era.  With some of the most spectacular visual gags ever recorded on film, it’s an icon of American cinema which continues to delight film enthusiasts of all generations – such is the unique, timeless appeal of an unparalleled comic genius.

What is most amazing about The General, and what sets it apart from Keaton’s other great films, is its scale.  It is truly epic.  Not only do we get an extraordinary, hilarious steam-train chase across the wild plains of America, but we also get a stunning, realistic recreation of battle scenes from the American Civil War.   But that isn’t all.  Keaton is a stickler for detail, and for every large-scale action stunt there are at least a thirty smaller jokes which maintain the film’s hectic pace and keep his audience in stitches.

The film is sophisticated in other ways.  It tells a very human story – a man seeking to redeem himself in the eyes of the woman he loves – in a direct and rather touching way.  Keaton’s idea of pathos is quite different to that of his contemporary and rival Chaplin.  Despite his "stone face", Keaton’s portrayal is more naturalistic, more poignant, more expressive, and it’s perhaps easier to sympathise with his characters than with Chaplin’s tramp.

Of course, the area when Keaton is unrivalled is in his comic stunts, and this film includes plenty of those, with the comedian literally risking life and limb for our entertainment.  The film’s most memorable sequence is also one of Keaton’s best-known stunts – the scene where he loads a canon on a trailer on a rapidly speeding train and ends up with the canon pointing straight at his train.  Realising his train is about to be blown up, Keaton clambers his way towards the front of the train and shelters on the cowcatcher.  This is classic Keaton and just one of numerous hilarious comic exploits the film has to offer, a film which proves beyond any doubt that slapstick deserves to be recognised as a form of art.

© James Travers 2006

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