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Amazon.co.uk Review
Buster Keaton's career reached its creative apex with this rousing comic adventure. Not merely one of the finest silent films, this remains one of the great film comedies of all time. The Great Stone Face stars as Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray, a man with only two loves: the sweet Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) and his trustworthy engine, the eponymous General. When Fort Sumner is fired upon he is one of the first to enlist, but when the war office rejects him (he's too valuable as a trained engineer) his sweetie rejects him as a coward. Johnny has the opportunity to prove his bravery when Yankee spies steal his engine and inadvertently kidnap Annabelle, and Johnny pursues with all the resources at his disposal: handcar, bicycle and finally railroad engine. Keaton's love/hate relationship with technology and machinery shines as he becomes one with his beloved locomotive and wrestles with a finicky cannon that threatens to blow his engine off the tracks; with tremendous dexterity, he nails the humour with inimitably deadpan takes. Spunky Marion Mack makes a perfect partner for Keaton, not merely a foil but a gifted comedienne in her own right. Other Keaton films contain more laughs and inspired comic stunts, but none combines romance, adventure and comedy into a solid story as seamlessly as this silent masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Product Description
Train engineer Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is turned down when he tries to enlist in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War as his occupation is deemed too important. When his train (The General) is stolen by Union soldiers so that it can be used to attack Confederate forces, only Johnny and his girl Annabelle Lee can save the train and warn the Confederates about an impending attack.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Long acknowledged as `the' Keaton film - and the one that he chose to restart his career at Venice (if I remember correctly) - The General shows Keaton at his subtle, stone-faced best, although I wouldn't recommend it as the place to start discovering Keaton if you haven't done so yet. The shorts provide more of an accessible view of the quintessential Keaton as his death-defying best, performing stunts that these days - and even towards the end of his own career, when Hollywood wanted to protect his valuable name and image - are reserved as the domain of stuntmen.
He still dices with death in The General, notably when he throws one railway sleeper at another to pivot it from a railway line, while leaning backwards on the front of a moving-train (apparently with no way of preventing the train hitting the sleeper if he had missed), but this film is more notable for the way it easily maintains the viewer's attention using what is essentially a one-thread plot for over 100 minutes. Today, we've become accustomed to criss-crossing narratives and films being covered in ridiculous attention-seeking smatterings of special effects - to the detriment of the narrative - but Buster works things entirely the other way. And not just because special effects weren't at his disposal - as he shows in his short `The Cameraman', in which he pushed the moving image to places it had never been before.
Even outside the world of special effects, Keaton is much less the extrovert than his contemporaries Chaplin and Lloyd. Even though the straight-faced way he pulls off his gags is a huge part of his style, the quality of his material means that he really doesn't need to fill his films with the showboating, guff and common Laurel and Hardy style slapstick that others often relied on to pad out a film.
To put it bluntly, the film could be compared to a 80-minute chase with a bit of social history at the beginning a huge fight at the end and Buster getting the girl, but the way Keaton works the chase - the narrative that is woven into it; his wonderful on-screen persona; his marvellous directing (the shots of Buster on the train going in the opposite direction from the troops, and the point-of-view shots when Buster is trapped under a table in the enemy meeting house) - make the film much more than the sum of its parts.
Appreciable on myriad levels, The General deserves it place in the annals of film history.
He still dices with death in The General, notably when he throws one railway sleeper at another to pivot it from a railway line, while leaning backwards on the front of a moving-train (apparently with no way of preventing the train hitting the sleeper if he had missed), but this film is more notable for the way it easily maintains the viewer's attention using what is essentially a one-thread plot for over 100 minutes. Today, we've become accustomed to criss-crossing narratives and films being covered in ridiculous attention-seeking smatterings of special effects - to the detriment of the narrative - but Buster works things entirely the other way. And not just because special effects weren't at his disposal - as he shows in his short `The Cameraman', in which he pushed the moving image to places it had never been before.
Even outside the world of special effects, Keaton is much less the extrovert than his contemporaries Chaplin and Lloyd. Even though the straight-faced way he pulls off his gags is a huge part of his style, the quality of his material means that he really doesn't need to fill his films with the showboating, guff and common Laurel and Hardy style slapstick that others often relied on to pad out a film.
To put it bluntly, the film could be compared to a 80-minute chase with a bit of social history at the beginning a huge fight at the end and Buster getting the girl, but the way Keaton works the chase - the narrative that is woven into it; his wonderful on-screen persona; his marvellous directing (the shots of Buster on the train going in the opposite direction from the troops, and the point-of-view shots when Buster is trapped under a table in the enemy meeting house) - make the film much more than the sum of its parts.
Appreciable on myriad levels, The General deserves it place in the annals of film history.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
While the General is a great film I have serious doubts about the quality of this print which lack the sharpness of many of the carefully restored masterpieces of the silent screen we have seen in recent years. I am also convinced that the speed of this particular print is too slow (and to be fair prints are usually too fast) which you can see when people are walking.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This silent film is a joy for all lovers of the silent era and for railway fans. The escapades of Johnny (Buster) as he rescues the two loves of his life, his engine 'The General' and Miss Annabelle Lee, are comic masterpieces. The humour may be from the 20s, but it doesn't date. I have recently seen this film at a special viewing at the Alexandra Palace, and can honestly say that there was not one member of the audience who didn't leave with a smile on their face.
Buster continues to do all his own stunts, and in this film one of the simplest looking is also one of the scariest - how many of us would calmly sit on a steam locomotive's connecting rod as the train moves into the engine shed?
I would recommend this film unreservedly; a good laugh is a tonic to the system, and the NHS couldn't prescribe anything with a better guarantee to lift the spirits.
Buster continues to do all his own stunts, and in this film one of the simplest looking is also one of the scariest - how many of us would calmly sit on a steam locomotive's connecting rod as the train moves into the engine shed?
I would recommend this film unreservedly; a good laugh is a tonic to the system, and the NHS couldn't prescribe anything with a better guarantee to lift the spirits.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
unplayable dvd
Was disappointed to find that the dvd wouldn't play in my dvd player. This is the 2nd dvd from Elstree which wouldn't play - the other one played but kept breaking up and pausing. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lou
Cinema superstars finest!
In the pantheon of cinema greats Buster Keaton has to be in one of the top spots. I have to first qualify my review. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Bc V. Price
Spoilt By Poor Print Quality
Keaton fans will enjoy this "package" but it has to be said that the quality of the print is poor. I have seen better copies on television and was disappointed with this. Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2010 by Terry
Keaton's classic
Buster Keaton was perhaps the greatest of of the silent comedians. He was remarkably deadpan, and you were often left wondering if there were any emotions beneath that stoney face. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2009 by Bob Salter
The General
I have watched this film many times. It is without doubt possibly the greatest masterpiece of the cinema illustrating Keatons total control of film making - as writer, actor,... Read more
Published on 29 July 2004 by Mr. D. E. Sotheran
Tough to review!
I know of at least two revered guides which rate 'The General' as the best silent comedy of all time. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2004 by Gavin Wilson
Black And White?? So what!
OK, its older than ure great grandfather, and its in black and white, but who cares, this little movie had me in stitches for ages. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2002
Wonderful!!
Buster Keaton was a film maker years ahead of his time, this film proves it. It is, in my opinion, in the top five films ever made, if you don't believe me then watch it... Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2001
Just about perfect. And makes you cheer for the South, oddly
Tragically, this version doesn't have the score rewritten by Carl Davies for the UK's Channel 4 in 1987. The rest is unimprovable. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2000 by jimwhalley@hotmail.com
The funniest, most incredible movie ever made!
To think this didn't rate very well during it's original release and is now considered one of the best movie ever from the silent era and the BEST civil war movie ever. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2000
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