The General

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1927	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	74:56 minutes	Other Extras	Biographies - Cast Short Feature Film - Cops
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Buster Keaton Clyde Bruckman
Studio Distributor	Force Video	Starring	Buster Keaton Marion Mack Glen Cavender Jim Farley Frederick Vroom Joseph Keaton
Case	Transparent Amaray
RRP	$29.95	Music	-

    Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) is an engineer on the Western & Atlantic Rail Road, aboard his beloved #3 The General, during the American Civil War. Whilst visiting his beloved Annabelle (Marion Mack) in Marietta, the news arrives that the Union have attacked Fort Sumter and the rush is on to enlist in the southern forces. Johnnie tries (repeatedly) but is rejected as he is of more worth as an engineer on the railroad than as a soldier. Unfortunately his beloved Annabelle is none too impressed when she finds out and says she will never speak to him until he gets a uniform. Fast forward a year and Annabelle is on the train, with The General leading, heading to see her injured father when the train is hijacked by northern spies - with Annabelle in a freight car. Johnnie heads off in hot pursuit on a variety of vehicles, only to find himself in enemy territory. Lost, lonely and hungry, he breaks into a house, which just so happens to be the bivouac of the Union generals. Whilst gathering food, and hiding under a table, Johnnie hears the north's plans for a raid, as well as finds his beloved Annabelle captured. He rescues Annabelle and heads off south on a riotous chase to warn the southern forces.

    Whilst this is a fairly simple story line, like so many of Buster Keaton's films, there is no denying that this is a very funny film - even 72 years on. You may know what is coming, but Buster Keaton does it all with such style that you still laugh anyway. And there is no doubt that he was a master of visual comedy, for how else would films such as this still raise a laugh? You can even take the fun in the names of the characters in stride. What makes it even more remarkable is that it really is not a pure comedy; this is actually based upon a real story, with a suitably comical bent put to it by Buster Keaton. The General is one of the longer silent films of Buster Keaton but it never lets up from start to finish. It must have had a fairly sizeable budget, for there are no less than three steam locomotives used in the film and the cast must have numbered in the several hundreds. And it features one of the more impressive train crashes committed to film, that still looks damn good today. Whilst there is no doubt who the star of the film is, the supporting cast performed their roles admirably, and the direction was surprisingly tight for its day. All in all, this is a damn fine film that has held its age pretty well and is still enjoyable.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    If the term "sepia toned" means little to you, it will after you have seen this film. Something approaching true black and white is reserved for night scenes, and most of the film is sepia toned. Overall, the general transfer is reasonably bright, and certainly not a murky transfer at all, with more definition than I was expecting. Unfortunately, there was a degree of variability to the transfer but this never descended into anything that I would remotely call shocking. It is however not an especially sharp transfer. Shadow detail is, as to be expected, reasonably poor, and thankfully most of the film is set in bright daylight. This is also far less susceptible to editing jumps than other films I have seen.

    As I said, this black and white transfer is sepia toned which is not too unpleasant a view once you get used to it (I have not seen such a film for quite some time). There is a degree of depth to the transfer that is somewhat better than the previous Force Video efforts that I have seen. The nighttime scenes in definite black and white come up very vibrantly in comparison, although a little depth is lost in doing so.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video artefacts were not a problem either. However, there are, as to be expected, plenty of film artefacts, mainly blotches on the print which I believe (and some one who is more knowledgeable will not doubt correct me if I am incorrect) is the result of mildew. Overall though, I found these blotches less annoying than perhaps I should have. There were no really grotesque scratches, dirt marks or breaks that have been a problem on other black and white transfers of the era.

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack on the DVD, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack.

    Dialogue, what dialogue? It may help if you can lip read though.

    And you are never going to get that music into sync with the lips, no matter what you do!!

    The musical contribution to the film is uncredited, but it is suitably evocative through the use of well know tunes associated, correctly or otherwise, with the civil war.

    This is quite a decent mono soundtrack and the music comes through quite nicely, without being too "present" and distracting from the film.

Menu

Biographies - Crew

Short feature film - Cops

• Short feature film - The Playhouse

    The overall video quality is surprisingly good for a film of this vintage.

    The overall audio quality is good for a film of this vintage.

    Whilst there is still room to improve, this is a good extras package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris
30th November 1999