The movie The General set during the Civil War tells the unlikely story of a train engineer, rejected by the military with no obvious combat skills or training, winning a battle and become an officer in the Confederate Army.
What is the film telling us about the armed forces, about war and about the values of the military? Does the film promote the military or is it a satire -- and if so, how biting is the criticism? What is war good for?
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ReplyDeleteThroughout the film, both the Confederate and Union armies are depicted as relatively incompetent. This is seen on multiple occasions - the Union generals and army men trying to fix the broken rail, the Union train getting stuck in a simple rope trap, the Union train attempting to cross the bridge and falling into the river, etc. I don’t think either military is promoted, as the Union army is thwarted by two Southerners (not soldiers) and the Confederates are completely oblivious to the Union’s entire plan and need to be saved by the aforementioned two people. The film is a satire of the military, but I don’t think it’s biting in any way - it just does so for comedic purposes. It does deal with different political concepts, but I can’t tell whether this is intentional or accidental. The biggest example of this is when Annabelle lays a trap for the Union train, and Johnny tells her to move along. The trap then makes the Union train slow down and stop. This could be symbolic of how women aren’t incompetent or in distress, but it could also be purely satire of the Union army, as in “hey they were so incompetent even a woman could slow them down.” The film also makes fun of the values of war - critiquing how men would just go fight for honor and glory for their country. Given that only 8 years had passed since the end of WWI, the largest conflict the globe had seen at that time, it makes sense that the film would mock the ideals of the 19th century as by that time everyone knew how outdated they were in the new age of war and weapons. An example of this is seen at the start of the movie, where everyone immediately rushes to enlist, along with Johnny but Johnny never gets in as he’s more use to the army as an engineer. He, though not a soldier, ends up saving the day anyway along with many of his comrades’ lives. Finally, the film depicts war as somewhat of a net bad, as it endangers people but also destroys infrastructure such as rails, dams and bridges.
ReplyDeleteWhile Buster Keaton’s 1926 film, The General, seems like a satirical take on war as a whole, it is instead a form of Confederate propaganda since it is a satirical film on the Union. Throughout the course of the film, the Union generals are almost completely incompetent in everything they do. There are three main scenes that epitomize this characterization of Union generals. First, after Keaton breaks one of the rails, the Union generals chasing them need to find a way to get past the obstacle. Shots of Keaton’s train getting farther and farther away are interspersed with scenes of over 15 generals all struggling to fix the broken rail, illustrating how long they spend. Eventually, the conductor leaves his train to help, and he is able to fix the rail in less than five seconds. This scene highlights their incompetence since supposedly experienced Union generals are unable to complete a simple task that a train conductor is able to do almost instantaneously. Another scene that portrays the Union generals as incompetent is when a Union general orders another general to drive the train over a flaming bridge, claiming that the bridge will not break. Instead, the bridge is completely destroyed, ruining the train. This scene depicts that Union generals do not have enough common sense to make an obvious conclusion. The film also mocks the fighting skills of the Union. In one scene, the tip of Keaton’s sword flies off and miraculously hits a Union soldier. This symbolizes the lack of military training that Union soldiers had as a railroad worker with no prior training was able to kill a Union soldier with such ease. All of these scenes capture the theme of the incompetence of Union generals that is spread throughout the entire film. The plot of the movie also directly demonizes the Union as they are depicted as the blatant enemy. The entire plot revolves around the main character, Keaton, attempting to rescue his stolen train, which evolves into an attempt to also save his lover. The whole time, Keaton is either chased by the Union generals or was chased by them. Keaton is the victim and is portrayed as the protagonist, whom the audience wants to recover his stolen train. The Union is portrayed as the villain. The Union generals are also depicted as monsters since they kidnap his love, once again reinforcing the image of them as the villain. These aspects of the plot adds an anti-Union agenda to the entire film. One could argue that the film is not simply anti-Union, but anti-war as a whole. However, this is not the case since the Confederacy is glorified from start to end. At the beginning of the movie, two of Keaton’s lover’s family members head off to enlist in the Confederacy. His love then states that she will never talk to Keaton again if he doesn’t enlist in the Confederacy. This scene portrays the message that fighting in the Confederacy is something that all men need to do since it is manly. At the end of the movie, after Keaton had done a commendable job in helping the Confederate army, his reward was a Confederate general uniform. This implies that becoming a Confederate general should be a goal for all as it is very respectable. These two scenes capture the glorification of the Confederacy that occurs throughout the movie. Overall, the movie has an anti-Union theme as the generals are depicted as incompetent, the soldiers are shown as unskilled, and the Confederacy is glorified.
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton’s standout film, The General, promotes the military, as it acts as a strong piece of Confederate propaganda due to its glorification of service to the Confederate cause, and unique satirizing of Union forces. If Keaton chose to satirize Union and Confederate soldiers, it would challenge the then prevalent notions of celebrating service by trivializing the war. However, since Keaton's character was on the side of the confederates as the of the protagonist, his portrayal of the union antagonists should be brought into question, even though it is a satire. The medium of comedy, or the art of the gag, can be even more effective in spreading propaganda, since comedy is such a powerful device to provoke emotion in the audience. Throughout the chase scene between the Union soldiers and Buster Keaton’s character, Keaton portrays the Union soldiers as clumsy and incompetent. For example, several times throughout the film they fall over at every small movement of the train. These are things that a strong, noble soldier shouldn’t be doing. In addition, throughout the chase scene, the conductor, who supported the Confederate side, was able to easily overcome all of the Union’s obstacles, whether it was re-directing train tracks or pushing large wooden boxes out of the train’s way. Conversely, the Union soldiers were thwarted by several of Keaton’s similar obstacles. During the chase, the dozen or so Union soldiers were even knocked over by a rush of water. Even if you don’t believe that Keaton solely placed the punchline on the Union, in the end, the confederates were depicted as the superior force. In the end, the efforts of the conductor and the Confederacy’s overwhelming victory were widely celebrated, and they were portrayed as the “heroes of the day”. No matter the intent of Keaton, the confederate “heroes” were placed on a pedestal. The message sent to viewers is that military service, specifically confederate service, is one of honor and will bring upon glory and heroic status to all who serve. Keaton showed these ideals through the conductor, who fought to serve the confederacy, and was rewarded, and achieved great success despite never being enlisted. The bottom line is that the reality of the civil war was gory, and violent, and not just something comical. Admittedly, Keaton did a great job incorporating humor into grim subject matter, but the general idea of The General paints a positive picture of a gory era of American history.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the film's opening scenes, we see Buster Keaton practically forced to enlist into the army by his girlfriend and the social norms of the time. This immediate clash between Buster’s perspective and that of his girlfriend depicts war in a negative and skeptical light since we naturally align our perspective with the protagonist of a film. The act of enlisting for the sole purpose of pleasing one's girlfriend or spouse demonstrates criticism of the values and motivations behind fighting a war. Instead of enlisting out of his own free will or desire to serve his country, Buster does it out of fear of rejection. Consequently, the audience views war as a burden rather than a noble act. Furthermore, as the film progresses, it portrays soldiers as humorously foolish. Some clear examples include the scene where a northern soldier burns a hole in the table cloth with his cigarette, where a crowd of soldiers struggles to fix a railroad track (paralleling the famous lightbulb joke), and where a northern commander insists that his forces cross a burnt bridge resulting in the destruction of a train. Moreover, Buster accidentally stumbles into a number of military successes. These unintentional victories make the audience question the integrity of the actions of armed forces. One of the highlights from these victories includes a scene where Buster’s sword is repeatedly detaching from its handle and kills a northern sniper. Buster’s effortless domination over swarms of trained soldiers makes real soldiers appear incompetent and frankly useless since an entire army failed to stop one untrained individual. Overall, the comedic nature of the film in conjunction with the framing of Buster’s motivations serve to portray war in a negative light.
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton's film, The General, is a film that while not necessarily glorifying the south, definitely paints them in a better light than history often does. In this regard, this film could be considered propaganda for the South and the Confederacy. Keaton’s film tends to take the South a lot more seriously than the North, often using the Union as the butt of many jokes throughout his film. A prominent example of this is during the chase sequence where Keaton is able to retreat from the union soldiers, with 15 union soldiers being unable to fix the railway. This is then compared with the train conductor, who does it rather quickly. This shows a clear inability to do the task presented to the soldiers, therefore showing the Union’s incompetence. The second example of this is during the scene in which Keaton and Annabelle are able to fight off several union soldiers, with both of them having no formal training in combat. This further goes to show that Keaton is displaying the Union as incompetent, bumbling fools. A third example of the Union’s inadequacy in the film is that Keaton is able to literally hide under the Union’s noses while they discuss their plan at the table. He hides under the table, and even after having his head be hit through the table, he is still unnoticed. Overall Keaton sends a message of the incompetence of the Union Army throughout this film, which isn’t the message that he sends about the Confederacy. Keaton doesn’t necessarily make the South seem heroic, but he definitely is nicer to them than the Union. Near the end of the film, the work of the Confederacy was celebrated and glorified, branding Keaton’s character as a Confederate hero. They even give him a uniform and sword in recognition of his work for the Confederacy. While the General is a film centered in comedy, its use of the Confederacy as competent heroes and the Union as the bumbling antagonists goes to make the South look better, as a result, meaning it could be considered to be Confederate propaganda.
ReplyDeleteThe film satirizes the stereotypes surrounding the glory of war but does not criticize war itself. It challenges notions such as the honor of serving in war and what it takes to be a successful figure in a war. In the beginning of the film, all the young men rush to enlist in the Confederate army. In fact, the main character, Buster Keaton, does not originally want to enlist but eventually does try to with pressure from his girlfriend. When he is denied enlistment because he is an engineer, his girlfriend stops talking to him. These events show the glory and honor associated with war that is present in American society. The film mocks these characteristics, however. Despite the glory and honor society associates with war, the film depicts the war as unserious and chaotic. There are runaway soldiers who make the normal soldiers look stupid. For example, towards the beginning of the film, when Buster Keaton is the train operator and engineer for the Southern army, some of the men desert the group by simply leaving the rest behind at a rest stop. The fact that it was so easy to desert mocks the competence and organization of the army. Also, a battle in the war is won by Buster Keaton when he alerts the Southern army of the Northern army’s plans. Despite not even being enlisted and being depicted throughout the film as clumsy, he is able to thwart the attempts of the chasers and make it to a Southern army camp after escaping the Northern army. These examples challenge the notion that warriors are supposed to masculine, macho, and athletic men because someone who is not any of those is able to play a large part in winning a battle. However, the film is still not anti-war, as it clearly is pro-Confederacy. The Northern army members are depicted as stupider than the Southern army members. For example, when Buster Keaton changes the directions of the train tracks while escaping the Northern army, it takes the Northern army an extremely long amount of time to fix the tracks, and, in the end, it is actually the train operator, not a military member, who fixes them. The Confederates earn an emphatic victory in the battle as well. Since the film still shows clear support towards one side of the war, it is not against war itself. However, it mocks the glory and honor associated with war as well as the stereotypes associated with what a warrior is.
ReplyDeleteThe General is a satire that exposes and criticizes the ironic aspects of the war and the soldiers. Although the Civil War was fought for the purpose of keeping the nation together while resolving conflicts between the North and the South, most soldiers enlisted simply because of pride. The General is implying that the majority of the soldiers are fighting and killing each other to prove they are manly, which reflects the corrupted values of people during that period of time. Buster Keaton, who is portrayed as an engineer, did not enlist for the purpose of keeping slavery or saving the Confederates. Instead, he tried to enlist for the purpose of impressing his lover. Throughout the movie, most fight scenes are between a group of Union soldiers and a single train engineer. The soldiers’ actions were all clumsy and funny, even the generals were falling over everywhere. Throughout the chase scenes, when barriers like the broken railroad occur, the generals are often dumbfounded while the common railroad engineer was able to fix it in a matter of seconds. These scenes reflect the questionable intelligence of what may have been heroic figures during the Civil War. It is hard not to wonder if the people giving out commands really know what they were doing. Was the war really necessary, or was it just the result of one's pride escalating to an extent where rational thinking no longer exists. The General allows us to rethink the true motives and meaning behind the soldiers, and whether or not if the war was necessary in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe movie The General is satirical as it pokes fun at the supposedly serious and professional soldiers through the main character Johnny Gray. However, this film doesn’t promote either the Confederate or Union military, despite Johnny being from the South. There were definitely more occurrences of the Union military making sill mistakes that seem unbefitting of soldiers, but the films message isn’t to promote either side, but instead to poke fun at both sides. The Confederacy is shown retreating in one scene earlier on in the movie when Johnny is chasing after his train and entering Union captured territory. Then the Union army is shown in all its glory, with the soldiers marching in an organized fashion opposed to the confederate army scrambling to get to safety. There were also instances of the Union portraying their courage and cunning attitude for their cause, as they decided to send a whole group of spies into the South. By looking at the traits of the characters, it seems clear that the movie is actually belittling both sides of the war. The South has its train engineer who can’t seem to do anything right, but ends up victorious, and the North has its captain of the spies who just can’t stop the oblivious train engineer. It was interesting that even though the main character of the story was from the South and was acting for the good of the South, he was a man of many mistakes who accidentally outperforms his enemy through his many failures that turn into success. This translates into criticism of war. The film portrayed an untrained man who bested a professional at his own game. This devalues the honor and discipline that the military was supposed to bring to its soldiers as someone highly regarded within the military was beaten by what most would consider foolish actions.
ReplyDeleteIn Buster Keaton’s groundbreaking film, The General, he depicts both sides of the war in a comical way. The film shows the Confederate and the Union engaging in acts that make them seem less intelligent, and the film also shows both sides being somewhat clumsy. Depicting both sides of the war like this is most likely a political opinion about the war trying to say that both sides were not as great and intelligent as we all thought. The General, launched in theaters in 1926 just a couple years after WWI is an enlightening commentary about the silly and nonsensical part about wars in the past in America. Although the movie somewhat degrades the intelligence and ability of both sides, the film does put the confederate army on a higher pedestal than the union army which is depicted as the more clumsy and less trained and skilled side out of the two. In the film, Buster Keaton is acting as a rogue soldier in the confederate army and ultimately wins the war for them. Personally, I don’t think there is a particular motive behind why in the film it shows the confederates winning because it could just be a nonchalant director’s choice to just have that side of the war win. This film does not necessarily promote the war, in fact it shines light on corruption within it and how it construes unhealthy narratives about what men should be and provide in society. There is a very striking scene in the beginning of the film where the woman Buster Keaton is trying to win over kisses another man who is going to war because he seems braver and has more skills than Buster. In the end of the film where Buster wins the war almost single handedly after getting rejected by the army enlisters, he is given the honor of lieutenant and instantly gains a higher status. It is only then that this love interest of Buster’s wants to be with him and love him unconditionally. I believe this film enacts a biting criticism on unhealthy needs people had for a relationship at the time.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Gray is a Southerner and the protagonist of the film, and the film is told from the perspective of the South, Buster Keaton’s “The General” is far more satire and comedy than it is propaganda. At the start of the film we learn of his two loves, “his engine and his girl,” whereas we soon find out that most men in the town proclaim (whether it be true or not) that their overarching love is for the South and the Confederacy. In the first few minutes of the film, we see droves of men dutifully and enthusiastically going to enlist for the Confederacy. However, our hero is only signing up to win the love of “his girl,” Annabelle, who desperately wants him to fit into the mold of the southern man, like her father and her brother - and perhaps for the sake of her own infatuation with southern machismo. We see Buster Keaton’s Johnny Gray as a self-deprecating, down-on-his-luck underdog, which makes the audience root for him regardless of the audience’s past or present allegiance to either the North or the South.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sense in the film that the Union is worth fighting against, given the countless examples of the Union making Johnny Gray’s life very difficult by stealing the two things he loves - his engine and his girl - but no concrete message about what either side is fighting for is ever conveyed to the viewers. In this sense, the war is more of a plot device in this film. It could be any war, and given that it had been 60 years since the war had ended, but only about a decade since the birth of feature film-making, the U.S. was still very much affected by and interested in the war. The Civil War itself likely served as a backdrop and a means to draw a crowd to the theaters like many films of this time.
The Union soldiers are depicted as incompetent and unreasonable, while the Confederate soldiers are portrayed as heroic, patriotic, and staunchly loyal to their country. But the real satire of the Union is in their portrayed combination of incompetence and confidence. Every time a Union spy is “certain” there is no way for the Confederates to counter their attacks, the attackers are thwarted in their efforts by Johnny Gray, many times by accident. Johnny Gray is obviously not your typical staple hero. In fact, he's quite the opposite. He manages to save the day despite, and in many ways thanks to, his extreme shortsightedness. And in this way, the underlying idea of the whole war is satirized: the Confederate soldiers, depicted as struggling against a much stronger force, the Union (displayed by their battle retreat halfway through the movie), are ironically saved by an improvident railroad engineer who loses his train.
For example, when the Union plans to strip communication and block off the railroad, Gray, in his attempts to get his train back, throws their plans off-track. In one particular scene, when Johnny finds himself accidentally taking shelter in a home where a Union meeting is taking place, he hides under the skirt of a large tablecloth right below the strategy meeting. Anabelle is brought into the home, taken captive by the Northerners, and he learns of this because of a Union soldier’s cigar burning a whole in the table cloth; Gray sees the image of Anabelle’s face through the burn-hole. It is a remarkable example of both comedy and ingenuity in cinematography and editing, just another example of why this film is regarded today as a masterpiece of its time.
Interestingly, around the same time we started watching The General, Adam Gopnik’s article on Buster Keaton entitled “The Silent Treatment,” which discusses two new books about his life and work, was published in the January 31st issue of The New Yorker. (The NPR interview with Dana Stevens was one of the books discussed.)
DeleteGopnik explains that the movie, which cost $750,000, is what got him fired from United Artists. The movie was a flop in the box office, and Joe Schenck of United Artists (brother of Nick Schenck of MGM) traded him to MGM, where he wasn’t allowed any creative control. Keaton, deprived of creative control, spiraled down a staircase of alcoholism, which later got him fired. The article encapsulates what it was to be a filmmaker at the beginning of the art form – an engineer and an artist. One hopes this is still the case with most filmmakers, and that what’s left of Hollywood will fully support the artist in the future.
-Henry