'The General' is listed at number 18 on the AFI's (American Film Institute) list of the top 100 films, and it's a dandy. I've seen it more than thirty times and for some reason, have never tired of it. Keaton interwove a dramatic true incident which took place during the American Civil War with his unique brand of Vaudevillian comedy and topped it off with great physical daring-do.
1927 was the very year that the 'Talkies' came into being with Al Jolson's 'The Jazz Singer' and the very first Oscar winner - 'Wings.' But audiences had never seen anything quite like 'The General;' not only is it considered one of the most authentic looking pictures to depict the Civil War (based on Matthew Brady's photographs) but it is essentially one gigantic chase movie with very impressive locomotives and Buster Keaton running all over them as though they were just monster playgrounds. As usual, in his films, the gags are so well-timed and so elaborate, one wonders to what length the cast and crew had to go in order to set up a single shot.
Keaton's stunt work may not have been as death-defying as in some of his other films, but his acrobatics and graceful movement is sheer joy to watch. This is a man who started performing on the stage with his parents at the age of three. (I don't believe he even went to school - if he did, it was for a very short period). Audiences in the early 1900's thought Buster was actually a midget because his father rough-handled him so much during each show, they couldn't believe he was a child. The father was violent, drunken, verbally and physically abusive. The mother was a dull-witted and acquiescent accomplice. The child’s wide eyes stared out from a deathly white, transfixed face which showed no emotional reaction, whatever he was subjected to. Between the child’s shoulder-blades was fastened a suitcase handle, with which the father picked him up, shook him, swung him round, dropped him face down onto the ground, and hurled him repeatedly against furniture and walls. When the father tired of this he would screw a broom handle into a harness on the boy’s back, plunge him into cold water, and use him as a human mop to clean the floor. Finally the father would fling the limp body of his son into the middle of the crowd of people who had paid money to watch the molestation. The child had been treated in this way, every day, since the age of three.
Once there were some hecklers in the front row, and the enraged senior Keaton threw his son directly into their laps - breaking one of the men's ribs. Thousands of shows later, once the public discovered Buster's true age, they angrily demanded the Keaton family to show up in court, citing child abuse. Buster gamefully removed his shirt, miraculously revealing no bruises of any kind. The Keatons continued their show across the United States, and were highly regarded in the industry.
Fast forward two or three decades: Buster Keaton's most famous and dangerous stunt required him to stand motionless. It was during 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' as a hurricane created in typical Hollywood fashion - using giant fans - howled around him. The facade of a house is ripped from its studs and falls on top of Keaton. He is saved only because of a tiny open window that happens to fall exactly on the spot where he is standing - the frame barely missing either shoulder. The wall was a couple of thousand pounds, and was hoisted into place by a crane so that an 'X' could be marked on the ground where Keaton was to stand. Apparently most of the crew left while this sequence was filmed, and even the cameraman covered his eyes at the last second while he was still cranking. Had that wall settled into the ground in an inch or two, Keaton would have been killed. (Didn't they know about balsa wood back then...or stand-ins)?
As an historical footnote, the very first animated film incorporating sound was Walt Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' starring Mickey Mouse (in his first role) in 1928. It was based on Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr.
Getting back to the stage relationship with his father, the brutality of their act laid the foundations not only for the hair-raising veracity of Buster Keaton’s stunts in the hilarious shorts he eventually made for Mack Sennett, but also, contrarily, for the quality of somnambulistic beauty which suffuses the great feature films he was later to both star in and direct. In films such as The General, The Navigator, Sherlock Junior, and Our Hospitality, Keaton attained heights of physical comedy never since equalled, uniquely achieved among silent comedians and clowns with an absolute lack of pathos or sentiment.
This leads naturally to the whole notion of Keaton vs. Chaplin. The debate still rages on as to who was the 'better' of the two. They were both diminutive men from poor backgrounds who became uncompromising as entertainers and filmmakers. Chaplin was much more of a businessman who gained control of his material and later formed the original United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. Keaton was the complete opposite with business; he let others look after it for him, until he lost control of his assets by the end of the '20's. He was much more interested in smoking, drinking and playing poker. Sadly, this spelled the end of his career and his fortunes, while Charlie lived out his days surrounded by extreme wealth.
When all is said and done, even though it really is like comparing apples and oranges (except in black & white) I've always appreciated Buster Keaton more than Chaplin. There is something more primal and melancholic about his character because one never felt he cared whether the audience cheered for him or not the way Chaplin's character does. His stone-faced persona which he learned on the Vaudeville stage also heightened that melancholy, whereas Chaplin's overwrought expressions and movement are to me a little saccharin. In the end, it really does come down to personal taste.
Keaton's influence was especially big on Jacques Tati as M. Hulot, Jackie Chan, Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean, Johnny Depp in 'Benny and Joon,' and all the Warner Brother cartoons. His films made a huge comeback in the 1960's, and he lived just long enough to see it happen.
Please copy and paste the following link for details of Seventeen Voyces' presentation of 'The General.'
http://www.seventeenvoyces.ca/concerts.html
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