Keaton is the handsome Johnnie, who (the title tells us) has two loves in his life: his train and his girl, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). But with Fort Sumter being fired on and the war beginning, it's time to enlist and impress his girl. However, Annabelle is so pro-war that she doesn't want to speak with Johnnie again until he's in uniform. Johnnie really doesn't want to enlist, but because of his profession as a train engineer, he is denied, as he is considered more valuable to the South as an engineer than as a soldier. He tries again, but fails. "If you lose this war, don't blame me!" he tells them.
Some time passes, and Union spies, led by Captain Anderson (Glen Cavender), steal a train called The General in order to burn the railroad tracks, thus hindering the Confederates from being able to send reinforcements. Annabelle is captured by them. While washing his hands, Johnnie sees what has happened and chases after them, first on foot, then by handcar, then on a large bicycle before finally commanding a train singlehandedly in pursuit. Fearing that they are greatly outnumbered, the Yankees do not stop to fight. It's long into the chase before they realize they're being trailed by just one man.
For better or worse, this movie is all about Keaton's Johnnie and the battle of the dueling trains. Most of the actors aren't given anything to do, including Mack, who retired from acting two years later and started a career in real estate in California. Starting in 1970, however, she started being interviewed about her experience on the film and attended screenings of The General after renewed interest in the film. Buster Keaton died four years earlier in 1966.
As amusing and stirring as The General is, the most unfortunate decision by Keaton and his team is the gentle treatment they gave the Confederates. Why did Keaton create a film that glorifies the Confederates as heroes? This question was explored in Kristin Hunt's fascinating article titled "What Drove Buster Keaton to Try a Civil War Comedy"? Keaton, according to Hunt, had numerous reasons to make the film not extol the very people who betrayed the country in order to preserve slavery: He was the son of two Yankee parents in Kansas (unlike Birth of a Nation director D.W. Griffith, whose father was a Confederate colonel), and the source material was written by a Union veteran (William Pittenger), so the heroes in the event that the film is loosely based on ("The Great Locomotive Chase") were the Yankees. So why did he change the heroes from the Yankees to the Confederates? It's not entirely clear, but it may have been due to the enormous popularity of the racist group called the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which was at its peak of its campaign erecting monuments to the Confederacy and promoting "Lost Cause" mythology around the country.
The General might not be as frightening as The Birth of a Nation or as cringe-worthy as Gone With the Wind in its depictions of slavers, but its message is clear. It is the one palpable discomfort in watching the film nearly one hundred years later, as the country grapples with systemic racism and is in a years-long process of tearing down these statues. Beyond that, The General features a romantic and simplistic view of the Civil War. Fortunately, though, much of the non-political stuff works, even today, and it's usually an exciting feature. Even amateur film fans would be able to recognize its influence on later action-comedy films featuring train chases, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Back to the Future III.
As a performer, Keaton is at the top of his game. He's incredibly agile and energetic in the film, constantly running back and forth and hurling giant logs of wood off and on the train like a clumsy yet resourceful action hero, constantly finding ways to outmaneuver his opponents. The numerous stunts make it seem like it was a miracle Keaton and others weren't injured on set. Many of the practical effects are a marvel to watch, even if it's simply Keaton throwing a giant train-track block of wood onto another just time to before his train collides with it.
Given its exciting nature, it is curious that the film wasn't a bigger hit at the time. Most of the reviews compared it unfavorably to Keaton's previous work, and the film entered the public domain in 1955 after United Artists decided not to renew the copyright. Perhaps the comedy was simply too soon; only about sixty years had passed since the end of the Civil War. (That's a smaller time gap than the time that has passed between now and the end of World War II.) Robert Sherwood put it this way: "Someone should have told Buster that it is difficult to derive laughter from the sight of men being killed in battle." This remains true today, with some of the battle humor coming across as somewhat morbid. Maybe the wounds of the Civil War hadn't healed for many audience members and critics. Today, after sixty years of being rediscovered treasure, its embrace of Confederates may cost it its place in cinematic history yet again.
This review was originally published at the Public Domain Film Review on August 10, 2020.
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