# General, The (1927)

### reviewed by
Cheng-Jih Chen

    The General (1927)

Oh, this was fun. "The General" opened Film Forum's Buster Keaton festival on Sunday. I saw the screening with the live piano accompaniment, the way silent films should be seen. If this wasn't the first full dose of Keaton I've seen, this is certainly the first one I remember. Sure, we've all seen clips, and various modern masters of physical comedy have been compared to Keaton, but seeing one of these old movies is something that really has to be done.

Briefly, "The General" has Keaton playing a railroad engineer in the Civil War. Northern spies hijack his train and abduct his girl. He chases them, saves her, saves the day. On this plot, Keaton hangs wonderful comedy, more elegantly executed and as thought out as anything seen today. We see his puzzled look, as the scenery changes while Keaton is distracted, and his cringe as he realizes his girl is hidden in the boxcar that's being piled high with heavy boxes. We see this wonderfully funny sequence as Keaton has trouble with a cannon his train is pulling. Double-takes are not exclusive to the late 20th Century. Gross-out jokes aren't necessary to make us laugh. And, of course, there's Keaton's physical comedy, his dexterity and charm, all working splendidly.

I'm too used to modern film making ability to deliver visual spectacle. Almost anything that can be imagined can be put on film nowadays: big boats sinking, airplanes crashing, New York City being leveled over and over again. I've perhaps forgotten that spectacle is not a monopoly of the computer graphics age, that good film makers could deliver impressive scenes without the aid of armies of programmers and designers. "The General" is a good cure for this misconception. There are shots of Civil War-style armies on the march, which can't be done anymore without the aid of computer processing because that many warm bodies can't be found to march up and down a field. There's a spectacular -- and funny -- train wreck that puts anything in "Die Hard" or "Speed" to shame.

Anyway, the Keaton series continues on Mondays through November. http://www.filmforum.com/keaton.html

Bloody stupid coincidence: I'm taking swimming classes Monday evenings (so, if I find myself on a sinking ocean liner, I won't drown immediately), so I'm going to miss a lot of these.

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