将军号

Allegedly, the deadpan cinema generalist Buster Keaton’s crown achievement in strict terms of the values of its production scale, action set piece arrangements, logistic involvement, THE GENERAL is actually more of a crackerjack adventurer than an outlandish comedy as one might perceive.

As American Civil War breaks out, in Marietta, Georgia, Johnnie Gray (Keaton) is the engineer and conductor of a locomotive called “The General” in , who, unbeknownst to him, is deemed too valuable for his current job, therefore his enlistment request is roundly declined, befuddled, he also forges misunderstanding with his sweetheart Annabelle Lee (Mack), who is under the impression that he is too coward to join the army, and demands an ultimatum that next time they see each other, he must be wearing an army uniform.

One year later, when the General is en route to the north, it is hijacked by Union spies, with Annabelle as an inopportune hostage, Johnnie gives chase solitarily, using many means possible, finally manning another locomotive Texas, fending off all sorts of barriers thrown in front of him, obliviously he crosses the receding enemy line when the Confederate armies are retreating. After a night of chancy caper, he successfully rescues Annabelle and the next morning, exacts a tit-for-tat to steal back the General and rushes back to inform the southern solider of the impending Union attack.

Most astoundingly, THE GENERAL assert itself as an archetypal actioner on the rails, Keaton and his co-director Clyde Bruckman dexterously and innovatively orchestrates a pyrotechnic pageantry of cat-and-mouse chasing games (twice, with directions inverted) that doesn’t give away any loophole or outdatedness almost a century later, that alone can canonize the film among one of the most accomplished achievements in the film history. Plus, Keaton is such a consummate daredevil, embracing those daunting stunts without batting an eyelid and making them look as easy as falling off a log.

Fighting the corner for the Confederate, THE GENERAL is incredibly smart in instilling comic relief into the sclerotic patriotism (Annabelle being a do-gooder on their escape route is pure sexism, but it is too frivolous to quibble), and the final battle, heralded by a sterling barn burner of a train collapsing with a burning bridge, that anticipates David Lean’s THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) three decades earlier, is an epitomic showcase of nimble-handedly extruding levity out of the death-dealing cruelty, a loosen saber-blade knows which direction it should be hurled, that said, Keater’s screen alter ego is often too standoffish to generate enough investment from spectators, although, his trademark expressionlessness tends to be the outcome out of an artistic deliberation other than the limitation of playacting,

Accompanied by Carl Davis’ 1987 score, congruent with every beat and rhythm of THE GENERAL’s thrusting moment and sweeping spectacle, the film makes for a satisfying touchstone for new audience to be in awe of a cinema vanguard operating on the crest of a wave.

referential entries: Charles Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH (1925, 8.2/10), LIMELIGHT (1952, 8.3/10).