{"id":1818,"date":"2008-12-30T19:23:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-31T02:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2008-12-31T20:19:48","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T03:19:48","slug":"the-general-buster-keaton-clyde-bruckman-1927-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1818","title":{"rendered":"The General (Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1927): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kevin Tran <\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"If you opened an American Film History textbook, the two big names you\u2019ll find from the silent film era are D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin (and arguably a third with Murnau). But if you skim over too quickly, you\u2019ll miss out on a lot of great films by lesser-known directors. The greatest of these filmmakers is Buster Keaton. Who broke new ground in his exploration with film techniques, often using them as playful gags, but would be more memorable for his death-defying stunts<\/p>\n

In his biggest picture (among silent cinema\u2019s biggest), The General<\/em> <\/a>, Keaton stars as Johnnie Gray, a man who loves two things \u2013 his darling Annabelle Lee and his train \u201cThe General.\u201d When the Civil War breaks out, Johnnie wants to enlist as a southern soldier but is rejected. Not because he\u2019s a bad soldier, although he is, but because he is more valuable as an engineer than a soldier. Annabelle thinks it\u2019s because he is a coward. When Union spies steal The General with Annabelle on board, it is up to Johnnie to rescue the both of them.<\/p>\n

In the same vain as Chaplin\u2019s \u201cTramp\u201d persona, Keaton garners pathos from the crowd by always playing the underdog with the heart of gold. Chaplin, however, was always able to get his audience to laugh with him rather than at him. Keaton doesn\u2019t care and would rather risk life and limb to get a laugh than to jeopardize a scene so that it wasn\u2019t funny. This makes The General\u2019s<\/em> plot action packed with stunts, gags, and chases. With that said, Keaton\u2019s deadpan style of acting is funny in itself.<\/p>\n

What makes the movie so fun is it knack to make you want to root for Johnnie. At times its suspenseful, other times whimsical, but it is always funny. The film\u2019s magnitude is still impressive compared to today\u2019s standard. During a chase scene (via railroad trains) they send an entire steam engine off a cliff. Imagine the expense of just that one scene today, and then think about how they had to do it back in 1927.<\/p>\n

I have yet to see a film do more to try and make its audience laugh. Nor have I have seen any artist who would sacrifice his body like Keaton does just to bring smiles onto people\u2019s face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kevin Tran . Viewed on DVD. If you opened an American Film History textbook, the two big names you\u2019ll find from the silent film era are D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin (and arguably a third with Murnau). But if you skim over too quickly, you\u2019ll miss out on a lot of great films […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films","category-silent-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}