Buster Keaton's 'The General'

The temptation to pretend that I grew up watching all the classics and hence am supposed to be an authority in Hollywood movies was immense, but that would have robbed me the opportunity to write about the Movie like I watched it just yesterday. I choose the second route 'cause that would be simpler to explain.

The General' (1927) has been on my list of '100 Movies to Watch before I Die' and I was sort of lucky to spot it in Walmart's $5.99 DVD section. As a bonus, it came with 'The Kid' double. Like many other Movies, it'd been lying buried under the pile of DVDs that were marked "Later". A black & white with slides to deliver the dialogues stood a very small chance against a 'Shrek 2' or an 'Elf'. Luckily, I did find a night where I could play it w/o being hassled much.

What made ‘The General’ most-wanted on the must watch list was two things I’d just heard until then. First was Buster Keaton’s dare devilry. It did not let me down. Keaton’s matter-of-fact execution of the most dangerous stunts makes Chaplin’s acts look like a cheap trick. The second USP was the much touted symmetric narrative, where the movie’s driving force (the Train) starts off and heads to the central point of the narration and from that point proceeds in the reverse while re-visiting the dots it had made on its onward journey and finally ending where it all started.

In the midst of the Civil war, some Union Army spies try to steal a train ('The General') from behind the Southern lines and try to play havoc on the lines as they retreat North. The Train's engineer, Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) however wants his Train back. His fanatical and audacious chase to get his Train and his Girl back saves the day for the South. The film is all about a Train chase and gimmickry alright, but it puts even the best of today's comedies to shame with its totally unassuming yet tight-packed script and a very clever mixture of patriotism, love and action. 'The General' is worth watching any given day.

Not to mention, Kamal Haasan has many inspired portions/homage from this film, the most noticeable being the log-whacking sequences in ‘Michael Madhana Kamaraj’.