The General
Directed by	Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Produced by	Joseph M. Schenck
Written by	Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Starring	Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
Music by
Cinematography by	{{{cinematography}}}
Editing by	{{{editing}}}
Distributed by	United Artists
Released	February 5, 1927
Running time	75 min.
Language	English
Budget
Preceded by	{{{preceded_by}}}
Followed by	{{{followed_by}}}
IMDb profile

The General is a 1927 silent comedy about a bumbling Confederate engineer (train driver) who pursues Union spies who steal his beloved locomotive, The General, which incidentally also carries his estranged girlfriend as well. Buster Keaton starred in the film and co-directed it with Clyde Bruckman. It was adapted by Al Boasberg, Bruckman, Keaton, Charles Henry Smith (uncredited) and Paul Girard Smith (uncredited) from the memoir The Great Locomotive Chase by William Pittenger. Image File history File links The_General_poster. ... Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ... Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ... Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ... The current United Artists logo. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... Comedy is the use of humor in the form of theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. ... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans February 4, 1861 until captured... Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. ...

The story

Buster Keaton in the locomotive cab.

The plot turns on a chase between two locomotives and a railroad worker, played by Keaton, initially on a handcart and later on another locomotive. Although played for laughs in the film, many of the events actually occurred in a chase through Georgia and Tennessee between trains pulled by locomotives named General and Texas (see Great Locomotive Chase for more details on the actual event). The event was also the subject of the film The Great Locomotive Chase. Image File history File links Gen5. ... Image File history File links Gen5. ... Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. ... State nickname: Volunteer State Official languages English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Governor Phil Bredesen (D) Senators Bill Frist (R) Lamar Alexander (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 36th 109,247 km² 2. ... A locomotive (from lat. ... Built in 1855 in Paterson, New Jersey, the General provided frieght and passenger service between Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee before the Civil War. ... The Great Locomotive Chase occurred during the American Civil War. ...

Keaton performs lots of dangerous physical stunts on and around the moving train, which include jumping from the engine to a boxcar, sitting on the cow-catcher, and running along the roof. A locomotive (from lat. ... A boxcar (the American term; the British call this kind of car a goods van) is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to hold freight. ...

The climax of the film includes a spectacular moment where a bridge (sabotaged by Keaton's character) collapses as a railroad train crosses it (compare The Bridge on the River Kwai). This scene was one of the single most expensive shots in motion picture history at the time, though Keaton felt it was worth it. The production company could not afford to remove the wreckage after the scene was filmed, so they left it there, where it became a minor tourist attraction for nearly twenty years. The metal of the train was salvaged for scrap during World War II. The Bridge over the River Kwai (French:Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai) is a novel by Pierre Boulle, published in 1952, that won Frances Prix Ste Beuve. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ...

Critics and audience responses

Buster Keaton did his own stunts for the movie. Here he stands atop the cab of a moving locomotive trying to see farther ahead down the track.

The General received only mediocre reviews upon its release. It was not one of Keaton's biggest box office successes, which disappointed him as he considered it to be the best of all his movies. Audiences and critics would later agree with him after re-considering the film, and it is now considered a classic. Image File history File links Gen3. ... Image File history File links Gen3. ...

The film is consistently in the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was #18 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), owned by Amazon. ... The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

External links

• The Raid Lives On
• Ranjit Sandhu's notes
• The General entry at IMDB