The General

Again, I am impressed with silent films and their ability to keep me engaged (See post on City Lights). With all the special effects of modern day movies, how could a movie in which no one speaks and the only special effect is the music played by the orchestra compare?

In this movie, Busty Keaton, actor and director, plays Confederate locomotive engineer who attempts to recover his two loves stolen/kidnapped by Union spies. His two loves are his train, The General, and Annabelle Lee. His lonely pursuit of these two across enemy lines is hilarious! Actually Buster Keaton’s sense of humor originally reminded me of Charlie Chaplin. I thought, “Who is this copycat character and what makes him so special?” Quoting from Entertainment Weekly’s website:

Charlie Chaplin was perhaps the most famous person on the planet for the first half of the 20th century; since then, Buster Keaton has slowly risen in esteem, to the point where he's now regarded as Chaplin's superior in filmmaking (true) and in comic genius (endlessly arguable). What's undeniable is that Charlie's sentimental sensibility was rooted in the music hall and vaudeville of the past, while Buster was a poker-faced modernist who pointed to the future.

Watching the movie, I saw that the two are very different and I prefer Buster Keaton. The humor is more developed and sophisticated in nature (not just dropping anvils on people’s heads). The scenes that I thought were funny required some choreography and I think that it's important to a modern day audience that is accustomed to movies with tons of special effects and drama, ie Transformers, Avatar, Titanic. Let me know what you think when you see it.