- I can easily summarize the plot of The General. In fact, I can probably manage to recount most of the scenes and stunts, even indicating why I found them funny. What I can't adequately describe, however, is the look on Buster Keaton's face when he finally notices whatever odd catastrophe has befallen him. The hero of this film is like all of Keaton's other characters in that he remains oblivious of his situation until the last possible second, and recognition of his predicament only dawns on him after the audience has had plenty of time to notice. Of course, Keaton's version of recognition consists exclusively of blinking eyes or, at most, a tilt of the head. It's quite possibly the best reaction shot in film, and he gets a lot of well-deserved mileage out of it.
- In this particular film, Keaton plays the aptly named Confederate train engineer Johnnie Gray, who becomes an accidental participant in the American Civil War. As the intertitles tell us, he has two loves in his life: the lovely Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) and his train, The General. Although he humorously tries multiple times to enroll in the Confederate Army at the behest of Annabelle, it takes the simultaneous kidnapping of Annabelle and hijacking of his train to finally involve him in the war. Most of the rest of the film consists of a set of extended chase scenes in which Johnnie tries to catch up with the Union soldiers who are in possession of his two loves, but boy are those chase scenes something.
- Without a doubt, The General features the best train stunts ever captured on film. Keaton climbs all over these engines as though it's the most natural activity in the world, but one can only imagine the amount of planning that went into each stunt. I was particularly impressed with the abundant tracking shots that follow the action from car to car as Keaton inevitably goes leaping between them. Although I'm partial to the scene in which Johnnie inadvertently points a cannon at his own train (twice), the film provides such a steady stream of entertaining and impressive scenes that it's tough to select the best one. The final scene in which the bridge collapses is probably the largest in scope, but one can't ignore the multitude of stunts in which Keaton is obviously risking his life. And he does it all without cracking a smile.
- This film was inspired by a real event in the Civil War and based on the book The Great Locomotive Chase.
