So much average

Best movie ever!

Admirable film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Well, it's fair enough that almost every living soul on Earth knows about Charlie Chaplin, even though they have probably never seing one of his movie, and this is great, Chaplin was indeed a genious, one of (if not the) greatest of all time. But man, it's really sad that few people know about Buster Keaton.I say that because I'm a living example of it, I didn't know the guy until a couple of months ago, when I really started to dig in Silent Movies, so, I really believe 90% of the movie goers don't know who he is, and it's sad, but from know on I will try to "spread his word as much as I can.But ok, let's talk about the movie itself. The General is timeless, and to me this is the greatest complement any art form can receive, the movie is almost 100 years-old, and still holds up, and will continue to hold up 100 years from now. Do you want a pratical example? My most delightful experience in watching this movie was that I've seen it with my sister, who is 11 years-old and isn't that much into movies, I've tried to show her a couple of my favorite ones, but not like this one, this was her first time ever seing a movie this old, and, man! She had a great time watching it. At first she was a little uncertain about it, but with something like 20 minutes within the movie she was already laughing with a bunch of different scenes (I didn't laugh that much, but the movie is still truly fun). And really, this is for me the best way to say how great this movie is.Keaton's performance is irreproachable, he is a comedy genious. One thing that almost impresses me is his style of filming, it's truly impressive to see how well he captures the Train's moviment throught the whole movie. This movie has other amazing sequences, like the battle in the end, there is a big amount of extras, and you buy the side of it. Others scenes, like the train falling into the lake, or all the horses passing throught the lake, are amazing. That shot where he is working above the train, and the war is happening at full potential behind him is geniously, it's at the same time a clever joke, and a stunning scale of filming.In fact, I saw here on IMDb that aparrently the movie's budget wast 750.000 dollars, which back then was a insane budget for a movie, so, that's explains a lot. Overall, I'm just glad that Keaton was able to "assemble" that much money to do the movie.To sum up, The General is a masterpiece, from one of the genious of slient film, Keaton and Chaplin are with no doubt two of the most influential actors in movies (even today). Keaton was a genious, and this movie is a masterpiece. Timeless. C'mon! The guy destroyed A REAL TRAIN! If that's isn't reason enough to see this movie, I don't know what is.

Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray (Keaton) is in Marietta, Georgia to see one of the two loves of his life, his fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack)—the other being his locomotive, The General— when the American Civil War breaks out. He hurries to be first in line to sign up with the Confederate Army, but is rejected because he is too valuable in his present job; unfortunately, Johnnie is not told this reason and is forcibly ejected from the office when he tries to enlist surreptitiously. On leaving, he runs into Annabelle's father and brother, who beckon to him to join them in line, but he sadly walks away, giving them the impression that he does not want to enlist. Annabelle coldly informs Johnnie that she will not speak to him again until he is in uniform.

Outstanding performance by Buster Keaton. What a silent comedy! What a character is this train engineer! Beautiful! This action-adventure-comedy is smooth and light fight with trains. But obviously, those kind of trains of the first ones - those that work with firewood and a flexible 'driver'.Our main character, very tenacious, wants his love. He has his first one, the train, and now he wants Annabelle Lee. He does everything, from the beginning till the end to achieve her attention. An attention obtained because of an uniform. Yes, that is true, but only because those times were like that.But forget about that love - cheap kisses and looks - because in here the story is about these bloody trains and how they chase each other. Interestingly enough, for 1926 this 67 minutes are 'marvelous'! There is more text than The Kid (1921) or City Lights (1931), and even more comedy and captivation. Yes, it is true that is all about those trains, but the story goes on the rails with a linear perspective.

This is the first silent film I've seen, so I'd like to write this review for people who are also new to the silent film genre.Also: this is my only review (so far) without a rating. The General is a film that made me question the relationship between the quality of a film and how much I enjoy it.On one hand, The General is a well made film. The direction is interesting and engaging, the stunts are impressive (what do you expect from Buster Keaton?) and the story was surprisingly well-written.But did I laugh? Yes. I didn't guffaw, but some points made me chuckle. However, that's just what I thought. If YOU love this film, then fair enough. If YOU hate it, I can also understand. I simply didn't like it because I couldn't really get involved and interested with what was happening. I know I said that the direction was "interesting and engaging" but that's purely on an analytical level.DO NOT WATCH THIS WITH OTHER PEOPLE, especially those who will take the psis out of it/you. When you are reminded that this is a film, you realise how cartoony it is and can't really buy into it. If you don't care about what other people think - and we're talking The Big Lebowski levels of care-free here - then give it a shot.I would recommend this to someone getting into silent films for the first time, especially if you don't care give a fcuk about anyone else and you're a real gangsta. Thanks for making me censor myself, IMDb.