Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
If you really need a break from last
week's ghastliness, be it the Brownscapolypse or Cavstastrophe or
Boston or tax deadlines, be at the Cedar Lee for a bigscreen revival
of a comedy that's so good that it's ranked among film historians as
simply one of the greatest comedies ever. Perhaps one of the best
films ever made, simple as that.
It's THE GENERAL. No, not a film
based on that CGI auto-insurance salesman (and by the way, what's the
deal with that General anyway? In what war did he serve? How many
people did he kill? How does that qualify him to sell auto insurance
exactly?), but rather the 1926 Buster Keaton masterwork, co-directed
by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, but, let's face it, Keaton's show all
the way. For those lovers of Hollywood's true Golden Age (yes, hard
to believe there was one) who still debate the question of who was
better, Keaton or Chaplin, THE GENERAL is Exhibit A for Buster
partisans.
THE GENERAL does a comical
takeoff on a well-known, true story of the Civil War (later
dramatized straight by Disney's live-action THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE
CHASE). Johnnie Gray (Keaton) is a young locomotive engineer in
the South at the outbreak of hostilities. Johnnie is devoted to both
his sweetheart Annabelle (Marian Mack) and a mighty engine nicknamed
`the General.' Johnnie tries repeatedly to join the Confederate Army
to fight but is turned down unfairly, which makes him an outcast with
Annabelle and her family.
A year later, though, Union spies
dressed as Confederates steal the General, kidnapping bystander
Annabelle as well. The Yankees intend to tear up strategically
important railroad tracks while supplying a Northern invasion. Using
a hand-cart and any other transportation available, Johnnie chases
after them. With cleverness and some lucky accidents, he gets the
General back, while wreaking one-man havoc on the frustrated Union
enemy.
After the gauzy soft-focus-and-cypress
opening, the film becomes a delightful thrill-a-minute chase
adventure, with the running time of an average kid's-Looney Tune
cartoon feature (and any modern child viewer who can be persuaded to
see this movie on the big screen is to be envied indeed). Keaton's
trademark split-second stunts and grace under pressure are in
standout form as the beleaguered, underdog hero. It's important to
remember that THE GENERAL used no miniature models or CGI.
When a train wrecks in a particularly spectacular gag, it's the real
thing. Buster Keaton's crew had only one chance to get it right, not
like the ones who made UNSTOPPABLE and just had to worry about
their hard drives crashing.
Yet THE GENERAL was not a
tremendous success when first released, and in some territories in
the American South there were public protests that a movie star had
dared make a mockery of something so solemn and sacred as the Civil
War - never mind that the film is nothing but respectful about the
Confederacy and the resolve of Rebel troops. This now-unfashionable
slant was pretty much the standard line from old Hollywood, with
movie vehicles starring Shirley Temple, Gene Autrey, the Little
Rascals and, of course, GONE WITH THE WIND being most generous
towards the South, holding to the Lincoln/Johnson line of treating
Dixie as kindly as possible (and, of course, recognizing that
Southern moviegoers were a major source of box-office income).
Okay, I can imagine Cleveland Heights
pretentious intellectuals condemning THE GENERAL for not
exposing the crime of slavery (these being the same Cleveland Heights
pretentious intellectuals who cry racism whenever anyone suggests
Muslims have been known to do bad things, like, I dunno, blow things
up). Get past that and enjoy one of the best rides that cinema has
ever had to offer. (4 out of 4 stars)
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