| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
N/A |
|
|
| Acting: |
N/A |
|
|
| Direction: |
N/A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
N/A |
|
|
Great Movie
by Paul (movies profile)
Mar 26, 2008
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
The following essay is not so much about just The General but all of Buster Keaton's films. Buster Keaton is the best silent clown of the silent era, yes, better than Chaplin. Unfortunately, that's not what people thought back then. Heck, even the third genius of the silent era, Harold Lloyd, was more popular. Now, Chaplin might be more popular and beloved, but not by me.
Why is Buster Keaton better than Charlie Chaplin? Keaton played a character that more people could relate to, an everyday guy trying to get through life. Also, Keaton was a much more risky and brave performer, and always for exciting to watch. Since he was much more risky player, he was the one who earned the least amount of money. He sold his pictures to MGM, while Chaplin and Lloyd controlled their own pictures and made lots of money while Keaton suffered financial problems.
What are we laughing at when you watch a Buster Keaton movie? Well, here is a man who is just trying to get through life, but he one of the most unlucky men in the history of the cinema. Poor Keaton, in The General, he goes to enlist in the army, but is rejected because his they think that he is too important to risk going into the army. He walks out, and the man who is the father of the woman he loves notices him walking out of the building. The father asks him to join the line, but Keaton shakes his head without informing the father that he has been rejected. The father takes him as a coward. Afterward, Keaton goes and sits on the trains connecting-rods. Then, the train starts moving, taking Keaton along with him.
Some other examples: In Our Hospitality, Keaton goes fishing and he decides that he's not going to catch anything, and throws the rod into the pond. He then notices that a fish is tugging at the rod, and then Keaton dives into the pond and grabs the poll. He then sees that it was only a very tiny fish that he was going after. A little bit after that, he sits at the bottom of a cliff-like structure, and at the top is some water and if a dam were to break, it would overflow and cause a waterfall. A dam breaks, with Keaton at the bottom. First a little bit of water spills out, and Keaton pulls out his umbrella, thinking that it is raining. Then, the waterfall beginnins, getting him wetter than he already was.
Keaton did all of his own stunts. The only man who does this now is Jackie Chan, and this is because no insurance company would allow someone do what Keaton did. Keaton did a lot of things that were humorus, but some of his scenes that show off his talent as a stuntman are scary. Take the when Keaton must knock off railroad ties on the tracks in The General. He goes to the front of the train and picks up the first loose railroad tie with his feet, and in order to knock off the second loose one, he takes the one he is holding in his hand, and throws it in way in which would get both of them off the tracks. A pitch-perfect example of the genius of Buster Keaton. Not too many filmmakers put so much into their filmmaking. Take the cannon sequence of this film for example. In order to get the sequence right, he had to count every piece of gunpowder going into the cannon in order for it to go off at the right moment.
The General was the most expensive silent film ever made. The reason? Well, at the end of the film, a train collapses on a burning bridge into a river. This was a real sequence. Keaton actually sent an actual train to be destroyed. The ruins of the train are still in the river today. This scene influenced the climax of Bridge on the River Kwai.
Did Keaton and Chaplin have a good relationship or a bad relationship with eachother? This was his thought on Chaplin's character:
"Charlie's tramp was a bum with a bum's philosophy. Lovable as he was, he would steal if he got the chance. My little fellow was a working man and honest."
But yet, Keaton appeared in Chaplin's Limelight in the 1950's, and it could have been a meaningless part, Chaplin let Keaton steal his scene with him, and Keaton did.
Keaton made a lot of fantastic films, such as The General, Sherlock Jr., Our Hospitality, Steamboad Bill Jr., and several others, and I recommend all of them. But is The General his best? Many people think so, many people don't think so. Many people perfer Sherlock Jr. Well, The General stands out because I think it has the most memorable moments, like the cannon, bridge, and railroad-tie sequences. Though this isn't an essay just for The General, but for all of his early silent films. |
My Public Profile 
