The General (1926)

 

Genre: Comedy/ Silent

Time: 1h 19mins

Directors: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman

Quick Summary: After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.

This is absolutely hilarious! Buster Keaton is a comedy genius.

One thing I want to say straight away is that this guy has no sense of danger, the sheer amount of stunts that could have gotten him killed is insane. Going from almost derailing a train, almost blowing his head off with a cannon to throwing swords wildly. They are so incredibly impressive though with the stunts and physical jokes that he managed to pull off. This is worth watching just for that.

Moving on to the story, it's actually paced incredibly well with a good handful of romance and action thrown in. Everything is extremely expressionate or absolutely deadpan which to me is hilarious as you watch some extreme moment happen and Buster is just stood there with no expression. Even without a single word, you can follow the story well, it doesn't go off into side plots, it stays on track and everything is relevant to the plot. Though it is subtle, I liked the heroism within this that shows, you didn't need to be a soldier to be brave and help. 

What I also loved about this is it's basically one long chase scene, that swaps a few times with who chasing who. Hilarious antics happen that cause these swaps, but the entire time this is so engaging to watch. You want to see what happens to the poor guy trying to get his train and wife back. With such a short runtime too, it honestly flies by.

This also includes a scene that is considered to be the most expensive scene in silent cinema history. In this scene, the bridge collapses beneath one of the trains, causing it to fall into the river below. To capture this shot, the locomotive was destroyed, and the cost of filming it was reportedly £42,000. It's stunning to watch it all happen. 

Honestly, watch this when you can as this is so purely funny. I was laughing the whole way through. 

10/10