There’s no point sitting on the fence on this one. Buster Keaton's The General is a work of genius. Seldom has a film so effortlessly blended so many genres. Action, adventure, comedy, romance and historical war epic are all present in one form or another in this remarkable work, and all are condensed into an impressively brief 75 minutes of screen time.

Reversing the historical roles upon which the story is based, the heroes in this film are from Dixie, and the Yankees are the villains. Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a character straight out of our literary and cultural heritage: an innocent, earnest, passionate, honest man. Johnnie has but two loves in his life, his woman (named after Edgar Allen Poe's heroine, Annabelle Lee) and his work (engineer of the eponymously named steam engine). He will risk everything over the course of this film in order to save them both.

As the film opens, so does the American Civil War, and all the men in Georgia, including the brother and father of his beloved, enlist. As the enlistment officers determine that he would be more valuable as an engineer than a soldier, Johnnie is rejected for service, though never informed of the reason. Mistakenly believing him to be a coward, Annabelle Lee tells Johnnie that she won't speak to him again until he is in uniform – a prediction that will be ironically realised later in the film. Johnnie returns to his railroad duties, but when Union soldiers steal his train and kidnap Annabelle Lee, Johnnie's (and our) real adventure begins. The film is framed around two extended railroad chase scenes, one as Johnnie enters enemy territory to retrieve his two loves, and the other as he returns home with them.

The memorable chase scenes fluidly fuse action/adventure and comedy, with Keaton doing all of his own stunts on a moving locomotive. As he races from stem to stern of the train (as well as leaping on and off the moving vehicle), Keaton engages in a series of stunts that simply must be seen to be believed. Without a word of hyperbole, these are some of the most thrilling and hilarious moments ever caught on film.

In the midst of the mayhem, Keaton also provides some beautiful and delicate touches. He consistently refuses to play up his reaction shots, choosing instead to play Johnnie as an earnest and sincere fellow. Rather than exaggerating his responses in key scenes, he underplays them. When he is shepherding two children out of Annabelle's house or dusting off a prisoner of war before turning him over to the authorities, Keaton maintains a touching and effectively quiet on-screen persona. Johnnie's heroic qualities are amplified by his refusal to draw attention to them. He allows his actions to speak for themselves.

Keaton and Charlie Chaplin remain rivals for the title of the silent screen's greatest film star. After you see The General, you will understand why Keaton still enjoys such an exalted status among cineastes.

Dan Jardine

DVD version:

The DVD is captured in Digital Dolby mono sound, and includes just two special features. Fortunately, they are very exciting additions, in the form of two Keaton short films, The Playhouse (1921) and Cops (1922). Both give ample evidence of the genius he rendered with most immaculate grace a few years later in The General.

Directed by Buster Keaton
Stars Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Charles Smith, Richard Allen, Glen Cavender
Studio/distributor: Image Entertainment