i think The General is the best comedy filem ever made...For silly modern comedy movies..it is the real comedy...this film cam make laught even a wall!!!Thnak you very much Buster Keaton
share[deleted]
It is ecspecially a tragedy because silent film was at its best when the talkies took over in 1928-1929. The General is the film that proves Keaton's greatness!
Comedy all depends on your taste.
I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long
-Mitch Hedburg
BOB,
Perhaps to an extent. But it is hard to argue that The General is not funny or effective even if the style isn't your "cup of tea". For what it is, it is pretty much perfection.
Likewise, although many may find the Deuce Bigalow movies "funny", it would be similarly difficult (if not impossible) to demonstrate that THOSE films were perfect or effective in ANY way. They are lazy, derivative, and shallow in their humor, and while they are good for a cheap laugh, so is someone ******** their pants publicly...but that isn't something you'd want to strive for in terms of an "ideal" when you think of "what I'd like to see to make me laugh".
Basically, if you can train yourself to look at things objectively (some feel this is impossible and that it is innately elitist and hypocritical to do so, i don't), you will begin to see (simply because you can appreciate the artisty) the humor in things that AREN'T things you would typically laugh at. As a result, your personal "standards" of what is funny will slowly expand and/or change. It is a somewhat wonderful and affirming process to undergo. I find myself laughing at things now that I shunned, didn't get, or felt were "beneath me" 10 years ago. However, I rarely find myself turning my back on things I "used" to find funny as a result of broadening my perspective. Rather, I only GAIN sources of amusement from this approach.
I generally feel that the whole "art is subjective" line is an excuse people use to avoid TRYING new things, but I admit that the line is much truer of comedy than of drama. I just don't think its really all that true period.
Generally, if someone I admire or trust w/regard to film tells me something is funny and I watch it and don't see the humor, I immediately assume the problem is with me...unless the problem is that nothing in the film is original and I'm bored by the repetition of conventions...THOSE are really the only films I dislike...and the reason I hate Deuce Bigelow...nothing in it breaks any new ground for comedy...its all stuff we've seen before.
This film, on the other hand, felt fresh as anything I had seen, and I've seen nearly every "recent" comedy of any reputation. Therefore, it seems LOGICAL that this film is a classic, because its humor is every bit as funny as it once was, and it was made in 1927!! Even if you find the slapstick uninvolving, the WAY in which that slapstick occurs is inspired, brillaint, and completely unique.
Thus, I feel The General is a comedy that is impossible for one to "hate" or argue is "unfunny" without revealing and indicting that person's own shallow, overly restricted taste in comedy in the process. In other words, if you hate The General, there's a good chance you will hate every other silent film comedy. And from my perspective at least, that isn't a good thing.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=29663098
Bravo JimLoneWolf. I completely agree with you. I take it you have seen other Buster Keaton movies too. Which other ones do you like. One of my favorites is Seven Chances, after the General of course.
Have you seen any of his realy early stuff with Rosco Arbuckle?
As you may presently yourself be fully made aware of, my grammar sucks
I agree with you entirely, JimLoneWolf. Sure, we all have our own unique senses of humor as a part of our personality, but I have found the more I learn about comedy, the more things I find funny. Jokes or gags which wouldn't ordinarily strike me as funny make me laugh simply because I appreciate the artistry so much that it is the only natural response. It's really quite wonderful.
I don't know that you can rule out subjectivity entirely (as I mentioned above, I think we have predispositions for certain things, aesthetic or otherwise) but I think what you say about broadening and expanding our own mental universe is completely legitimate. We lose nothing, we only gain.
I'd also like to add that, even if you don't find "The General" funny (which I'm not sure is possible), I can't think of any other film ever made which is so beautifully, subtly, playfully, and ingeniously constructed. It's absolutely awe-inspiring. I've always felt like great silent comedies are like a wonderful piece of music--even when the gags aren't laugh-out-loud funny, it doesn't really matter, because the whole is like this wonderful, fluid, devastatingly lovely piece of music. And "The General" is, if not the greatest, certainly one of them.
I can't, as of today, agree that this is the best comedy of all time, but I can certainly see why some would be of that opinion. I saw it for the first time yesterday, in less than ideal circumstance. They were so bad, in fact, it had been my intention just to watch a little of my newly purchased DVD to see if it was okay--but I was almost immediately entranced or enchanted by the film--and in spite of the fact that I was tired and had a headache, and was watching it on a 6 inch screen, I couldn't turn it off. Compared to many silents I've seen, the plot here was first rate, as was the editing, and most of the gags were organic, growing right out of the story and the characters rather than being shoe-horned in. And it was exciting as well!
I'm still rather a beginner as far as my exposure to silent films, but of the ones I've seen, only City Lights stands above it, imo, though Harold Lloyd's, The Freshman was great as well.
I'm looking forward to seeing this cinematic icon again in more favorable circumstances!
Fighting for Truth, Justice, and making it the American way.
I saw The General. I didn't think it was funny. It had a good plot, but it bored me. I might rewatch it some time in the future to see if my opinion can be changed, but I was really, really disappointed.
But I'm giving Keaton a chance since I saw College (and some shorts with Fatty) and I thought that was pretty good. :)
I didn't notice anything special about it, it wasn't funny, dramatic or even really interesting. It had a few moments, but it came of as just stupid and dated to me (and I love many silents).
Last film seen: The General 7/10
You must not have seen a lot of comedies, I didn't laugh once in this whole movie, i think it was a well made film for that time but now, 7/10 at best.
shareif you believe this movie isn't a brilliant comedy or a brilliant silent film...you must have terrible taste in movies...and you must have no seen alot of movies either...either that or...you don't closely observe movies you view...I'll give you one hint...Don't watch 8 1/2 then...even though it's rated as 8th best movie by critics in the british sights and sounds polls.
shareInteresting the varied opinions on "The General". I truly don't know if I would place the movie as "The Best Comedy", but certainly up there with them. There were moments that I laughed out loud, but there were moments of sheer amazement over what it was being filmed.
A side note on my perspective. I have spent a fair amount of time with steam locomotives and railroads, so some of what was done has a special appreciation. Either above in this forum or elsewhere on the imdb page, someone refers to the effects or stunts that now would be done using CGI. No kidding. When Keaton puts himself on the pilot/cowcatcher to clear the planted railroad ties, AT ANY MOMENT his feet could have slipped under the pilot at least crushing a leg if not taking his whole body under the train. Or his his "riding" the connecting rod into the engine stall, one bad move and Keaton would have been toast. There is no shortage of scenes aboard the train(s) where Keaton (or Anabelle or one of the raiders) could have had real problems filming aboard a moving locomotive.
Again, in the age of CGI, the Keaton stunts don't necessarily look as impressive. And frankly, for a younger generation, who was raised on spectacular crashes and big shoot-em-ups, The General might be indeed a bit staid. (And I don't fault that opinion, it is a result of the times.) But the film never ceases to amaze me from the perspective I stated above.
One constant frustration, however. Had Johnie Gray told Anabelle's father and brother that the draft board "wouldn't take him", perhaps Anabelle wouldn't have seen Johnie as a coward... but then again, we wouldn't have a major motivation in the film now, would we? <G>
"Best Film"? Maybe up there, but certainly one of my "favorites"