POP FILTER

VS.

THE GENERAL

 

It’s hard to watch silent films. I can’t lie about that. The medium itself has been lampooned so often that it’s hard to take them seriously. The first time I was forced to watch A Trip to the Moon in film school, all I could think about was The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” video and how closely Billy Corrigan’s head resembled said moon. And, since I’m being honest, the true entertainment value just didn’t hold up to the test of time for most silent films. This isn’t true of The General (or most Buster Keaton films, for that matter).
As one could probably guess from the title, this is a war picture — specifically The Civil War. Keaton is a railroad engineer in the South who tries to enlist in order to impress the object of his affection, Annabelle Lee, but is rejected because he is “too valuable to the South as an engineer.” Keaton, playing Johnny Gray, accepts his fate and the loss of his love. That is, until she is unexpectedly kidnapped by Yankee soldiers aboard Gray’s own steam engine. Ladies and gentlemen, let the hilarity ensue.
It took a moment or two to accustom myself to the dialogue cut scenes that are ever present in silent films. However, once I accepted this as a necessary plot device, I found myself giggling my pasty-white ass off. Buster Keaton’s reaction to any given situation is almost always the same — no reaction at all. They didn’t call him The Great Stone Face for nothing. His deadpan counter to every overly ridiculous slap-stick scenario with which he is presented is what keeps the humor in this film timeless. It’s the same type of humor contemporary comedians strive to achieve, the same type of humor that comprises most of NBC’s Thursday night lineup. The only difference is that Buster Keaton did it all at a time when throw away one liners right before the cut weren’t an option for a laugh. And he did it all, at least in The General, on an actual moving steam engine. To this day, his delivery is still funnier than John Krasinski could ever hope to be. – KS

 

I’m not sure what exactly I expected going into The General.  I was familiar with Buster Keaton in name only, and though it’s touted as a comedy, there wasn’t much I thought a silent film could do to make me laugh. After the first five minutes of getting used to the silence of it all, and the slightly sped up feel of it all, I got sucked completely in. I felt for these characters, even though they were dirty southerner’s on the wrong side of the Civil War. Which I feel like it was a bold fucking move for the early 20^th century- I’m no historian but it was only like 35 years earlier yeah?  Throughout this flick I laughed out loud, and I was watching it alone- definitely didn’t expect that. Buster Keaton looks like an old-timey Jude Law with the physical comic style of a Steve Carrel or Jim Carrey, but somehow less cartoonish, even though he only had his animated actions as his tools. If you’re familiar with the character Captain America, this story is pretty similar- Keaton’s Johnny Gray wants to join the war but he’s too scrawny and they laugh at him, until he gets injected with a serum and punches Hitler in the face… or they say he’s too important to the South as an engineer, and his girl leaves him for being a pussy- whatever. He still punches Hitler in the face though. Serious. Through a series of wacky circumstances, Johnny ends up facing down an entire regiment alone, and he fucks shit up (both in badass ways and in silly hijinky ways) while pretending there’s more than just him against the Northerners. I don’t wanna completely summarize the movie, but trust me it’s sweet. And it’s far superior to 98% of modern romantic comedies these days, next time your girl wants to drag you to whatever Katherine Heigl shit that’s out (Or ladies- next time you want to suggest that garbage) suggest The General! You’ll seem sophisticated and she’ll still like it. Only if she’s classy though. It could be a relationship killer. Preemptive sorry if that happens. Fun fact: Keaton did all his own stunts, like jumping from train to train and balancing between train cars, and other crazy train related stunts. No leading man does that these days.-MG