So is it a drama? A high-octane action thriller? A historical epic? In fact, the entire pulse-pounding storyline above is merely the premise of The General, one of the greatest of all silent films and the tent pole that holds up the current regard cineastes have for its creator, co-director, writer, producer and star, Buster Keaton.
Once one of the world’s leading screen stars, Buster Keaton today stands overshadowed by the high regard for his contemporary and friend, Charlie Chaplin. While it’s ridiculous to downgrade the Little Tramp (who was, after all, the first true global entertainment superstar) anyone who has come across a Keaton silent does have ammunition to say that, despite the lack of Chaplinesque flowery biographies, scholarly analyses and blockbuster movies about Keaton, his movies stand up better now than Chaplin’s ever will. The best of Keaton’s poised, dryly witty films not only advanced the art and craft of moviemaking through ambitious shots, a painstaking eye for detail, creative special effects, and sensational sight gags, but also remain pretty damn funny.
Nowhere is Keaton’s freshness more evident than in The General, which is as close as one can get to a whimsical purchase in these days of the falling peso. Basically, I needed another purchase to qualify for Super Saver Shipping. But before you say "penny wise, pound foolish," let me just say that being exposed to my very first full-length Buster Keaton film is well worth braving international shipping rules.
In The General, which is based on a true incident during the American Civil War, Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a young railroad engineer in 1861. Johnnie, we are informed, "has only two loves in his life": the titular train, "The General", which he drives for the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack, and yes, her character is named after the Edgar Allan Poe poem) a young Southern Belle. The film opens as the attack on Georgia’s fort Sumter commences, and Johnnie is prevailed upon by his darling Annabelle to enlist for the Confederate cause. Unfortunately for Johnnie, the folks in charge decide to deny him conscription, reasoning that the South needs him more in his current line of work than as a mere soldier. Nobody tells him the reason behind his rejection, of course. Annabelle assumes the worst and tells Johnnie never to speak to her again until he is in uniform. This sparks one of the most famous single scenes in silent film, as a dejected Johnnie sits perfectly still on one of the bars that hold The General’s wheels together. Heartbroken, and completely unaware of his surrounding, he goes around and around in large, graceful loops – a perfect visual metaphor for the blind despair Johnnie probably felt at the moment.
Forward to half a year later. The Civil War is well underway as Annabelle prepares to take a train to see her father, now in an army hospital after being injured in the war. The train she takes is, coincidentally, The General, and Johnnie, still a civilian, is driving the engine. On a routine rest stop, a band of Union spies, riding the train incognito as passengers, steal The General. An indignant Johnnie takes swift action to get his beloved train back, not knowing that Annabelle is in fact a hostage within the train.
So begins one of film history’s most glorious – not to mention earliest – chase films, as Johnnie begins his dogged pursuit of his train using everything at his disposal, from a rail car to a unicycle to, finally, The Texas, a military train that Johnnie steals by mistake (he thought he had a battalion of soldiers behind him on one of the pallet cars). While the idea of a chase film involving trains sounds a little bit strange – after all, one can’t exactly carom off to different directions to lose one’s pursuer while tied to a rail route – the sheer inventiveness of Keaton’s work astounds, and never gets in the way of the funny gags. And after the hero captures the train and saves the girl, his getaway involves taking pretty much the same route in order to get back to Confederate territory. Providing a terrific mirror image of the first half with Johnnie Gray as the pursued and the angry Union spies as the pursuer. The film is perfectly linear, perfectly symmetrical, and perfectly wonderful emotional and visual treat, with nearly every single shot looking like one of those documentary Civil War photographs you see in books. Except funny.
What humanizes the film and sets it apart from your average chase movie is Keaton himself. Known always and forever as "The Great Stone Face," one realizes while watching The General that the name is a gigantically unfair misnomer. Keaton wasn’t impassive at all. Deadpan, yes. Graceful in middle of chaos, yes. But stony? Chilly? Heck, no. Looking a bit like our own Dolphy in his younger Sampaguita Pictures days, Keaton could get more laughs out of merely blinking his eyes than most other comedians, then and now. A marvel of composure as he is embroiled in situations both befuddling and panic-filled, Keaton can perform the most hair-raising stunts – like sitting on a train’s grill and whacking a giant wooden beam off another, just inches away from his face – in a way that would make the moment both funny and touching, making you root for him without saying a single word.
I’ve spent the intervening days since acquiring The General watching and rewatching the film, and the more I do, the more I develop a sense of camaraderie with little Buster Keaton. No, I have never needed to commandeer a runaway train (yet). And running a car alone would be a gigantic challenge for me at this point. But like Buster, it’s not unheard of for life to throw a metaphorical train at me, dwarfing and threatening to engulf me as I try to battle it, unprepared. In times like these – under siege by an office bully, or annoyed beyond belief at family – I try to keep Buster in mind as he tries to keep ahead, alive, and honorable through incredible odds. And with little flashes of grace sprinkled throughout, reminding me that despite the pressure, his courage comes from his essential humanity. And he is all the more precious for it.
I’ve love other movies longer. There are others that I’ve forced on people with far more vigor. But in the end, there is nothing I cherish more than this one. For my favorite movie, I will always stand behind my General.