[Lauren Wheeler]

Lauren Wheeler

The General (dir. Capra, 1926) played out almost as a bad infomercial but in a good way since even though Johnnie Gray kept trying hard and things would mess up for him, it all seemed to work out in the end. Johnnie Gray played by Buster Keaton performed wild and outrageous feats just to get back The General, his train that he loved before even knowing that Annabelle Lee, the woman that he loved, was also on the stolen train. Even though the film was silent the music played a great role in the movie to build up tension and suspense between the characters and the scenes. Not only the music but the camera actions as well.

For example when Johnnie first realized that his train was taken the music quickened and then went to a jump cut of his face to show his reaction before he started to chase after the train. During the chase scene most of it seemed to be a long take as Johnnie Gray performed dangerous stunts in an attempt to get his train back. The humor in the scenes, however, took away from the dangerous aspect of the stunts that Buster Keaton was performing. The way the scenes were humorous was that Johnnie would be trying his hardest but nothing ever seemed to go his way the first time, like when he tried to enlist in the war. They rejected him, thinking he would be useful for the south as a conductor but for Annabelle he wanted to join the war and wear the uniform of the solider. So he tried over and over by pretending to be someone else or taking someone else’s slip, until finally giving up and being seen as unpatriotic as a misunderstanding. To only in the end after facing many mishaps being able to gain the right to be a part of the war as a lieutenant and winning Annabelle over.

While the play was humorous and full of action for a silent, black and white film, it also had moments of annoyance in it. The first was when Annabelle said that she refused to talk to Johnnie until he was in uniform. Then even after he rescued her it wasn’t until he was given the uniform of the southern soldiers did Annabelle really seem to accept him and that almost makes it seem like her love is relative to the status that the man has and not to how he actually cares about her. While it was annoying to see her act like that it was understandable for the time that the movie was set in that she could have seen him as a traitor or as unpatriotic for not being a part of the southern army and wearing the uniform.

The title of the also seemed to represent to different aspects of the movie. One being the fact that his train was called the general and two being that he in a loose and mostly unconscious way acted like a general himself by helping to avoid ambush on the south by the north. All in all the movie was very funny and the pace of the action in the movie never seemed to slow down, keeping the audience entertained and wanting to see if Johnnie would get his train and Annabelle back.

 

The General. Dir. Frank Capra. Buster Keaton. Marion Mack. Glen Cavender. Jim Farley. 1926. DVD. Kino International. 2008

• This topic was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Lauren Wheeler.

[Lauren Wheeler]

Just a small mistake, the directors are Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton. I tried to edit the original post but can”t seem to figure out how.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Lauren Wheeler.

[Jo-Ann Wong]

While watching “The General,” I was also intrigued by how certain scenes were shot without Buster Keaton getting hurt. The scene which stands out to me is when he is on the back of the train and somehow, by jumping and running, is able to look as if he is sliding into the first car of the train. I also found it interesting how the love interest’s name was Annabelle Lee and wondered if this was in relation to Edgar Allen Poe.

[Cortney Linnecke]

One of the things that (pleasantly) surprised me about The General is how unimportant words and dialogue became. I had never seen a silent movie before, so I was a bit wary of how well the story would be conveyed, how characters’ personalities would translate, and how well the film would captivate its audience without conversation to establish scenes and propel the story forward. But I thought the film’s plot and characters’ personalities ended up being very clear–through the use of both music and exaggerated actions/facial expressions–and in the end, it proved to be quite entertaining.

[Kristen Druse]

I was personally also surprised at how generally entertaining I found this movie. Obviously the only real outlet for comedy was physical humor, which I thought would become tiring after a while, but somehow this movie managed to remain both funny and poignant.

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