It's amazing any of the silent era comedians (or action stars) did! Harold Lloyd lost 2 of his fingers because of an onset mishap! Those silent era filmmakers really were fearless!
And here we spot the rare long-haired Buster Keaton in the wild. I agree with you, I really like his face. PLEASE watch more of his movies, he's an amazing physical/comedic actor. He not only did his own stunts, he did stunts for other actors in his movies.
Keaton's physicality and pure strength was amazing. That little stunt at 12:17 where he throws the sleeper and hits the other just to do that I can't even imagine how strong you'd have to be. He's the original Jackie Chan. As far as I know the movie had a score and the cinema would have at least a keyboard player and they'd play along to the visuals
This is my all-time favorite Buster Keaton film. The humor is broad and subtle at the same time. (I recommended it in the comments to another of your reviews before I realized you'd already done it.) Keaton was a superlative storyteller, and I hope you'll cover a few more of his films, such as 'Seven Chances' (the climactic rock-fall is echoed in 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), and 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.', which includes the famous collapsing house-front stunt coped by Jackie Chan and echoed in Disney's animated 'Aladdin'. Just for fun, you might enjoy the three-part 'American Masters' documentary 'Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow'. One detail I especially like is that they explain *why* there's a hole in the tablecloth, so that he can see his girlfriend brought into the room. Buster Keaton was wiry rather than muscular. However, i believe it's in his film 'College' that he tries to pole-vault through a dorm window, and you can see how muscular he actually is. By the way, if you would like a gentle British comedy, I suggest 'Carry On, Sergeant', featuring William Hartnell before he became the First Doctor on 'Doctor Who'. It's much subtler than most of the later 'Carry On' films, and I have a feeling it was one of the influences for the Bill Murray film 'Stripes'.
One point about silent films is most of them don't have official scores, so between the various versions of The General on Blu-ray, I think there's at least 5 different audio options. The status quo would have been a pianist or organist in the theater ad libbing music to the screen.
There is a quick jump cut at 21:30, when he kisses her on the engine. What has been cut? When he sees that she is putting in just small sticks to feed the fire, first Keaton puts his hands around her neck in frustration and chokes her, THEN he kisses her.
You can see the full sequence in this version of "The General" from 56:00 to 56:29:ruclips.net/video/PPjwmp5qqm8/видео.html. Sadly, this version is completely silent.
About the music, this is a new score composed by Joe Hisaishi in 2004. You have probally heard music by Joe Hisaishi before, he is the composer of all the Ghibli movies by Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, ...)
You have now witnessed the genius of Buster Keaton, first-hand. Silent film is a world unto itself. Other treasures are waiting, such as: Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Broken Blossoms (1919), Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror (1922), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Gold Rush (1925), The Kid (1921), Ben-Hur (1925), College (1927), The Ten Commandments (1923), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), Intolerance (1916), Wings (1927), My Wife's Relations (1922) and many others. They didn't need dialogue. They had faces! Even though there are many people today, who would turn up their noses at these films, they should realize that today's cinema wouldn't exist as it does, if the creators of these classics hadn't laid the foundation.
First JustJP reacts to Chaplin's "City Lights" and now "The General." Two silent classics in one day! I love this exploration of older films that's going on.
It is so cool to see someone reacting to old movies! I adore old movies but it seems nearly all the reaction channels are doing mostly 80s on. Not only are you doing older movies but even SILENT MOVIES! I LOVE Keaton. His movies are so fun and this is one of my favorites! I was actually born in Cottage Grove and there is a big mural of Keaton on one of the buildings. My grandpa logged in the area around where the train was still in the river. You should do something from Harold Lloyd! He's such a great silent actor. The Kid Brother and Safety Last are fantastic!
Except - that wrecked locomotive!! SOB!!! Oh my... but then, there were relatively 'dime a dozen' and WWII brought such a huge demand for recycled metals. So...
With silent movies, sometimes the studio would send a suggested music score, or suggestions of known melodies, but it was mostly just up to whatever local musician(s) wanted to play.
Couldn't stop laughing during your commentary, especially, 19:45 , Laughed for three minutes during your comments! "You-You're stepping on her! You're stepping on top of her! She got caught in a bear trap, she got slung over a guy's shoulder, and she got crushed by a barrel, and she's still walking on two feet?! Can we talk about, I mean, the POWER of this woman?! C'mon!..."
He had such an interesting face that elicited sympathy and attention. The stunts are amazing and terrifying! I can’t imagine any studio letting a star do them nowadays. Great reaction, Mia!
That's my favorite Keaton train movie! A minority opinion, I know. I love that daft little train, which is an exact replica of the 1830 "Stephenson Rocket." Buster's train is in a museum today. And in the 2015 PBS tv series Victoria and Albert ride in one. The British public hated trains at first, called them noisy eyesores defacing the countryside. But the queen and Albert knew they were the wave of the future, and wanted to publicly champion their use. They knew once they gave their approval, their people would eagerly climb on board.
100 years ago, every movie theater had musicians on the staff. Each theater would have their own music. I have THE GENERAL on DVD or Blu-ray, all with different musical scores.
. As to your question about the music score, while some features came with full scores to be performed in synch, most features came with cue sheets which listed the significant moments along with the intertitles. My grandmother was a teenage accompanist at the tail end of the "silent" era and she kept all her cue sheets, so when there were revivals in the 1960s & 1970s she could produce a score. Her last appearance as an accompanist was in 2002 at age 91!
I was looking for this comment! I had a neighbor who was slightly younger than your grandmother, 94 when she passed in 2009, and she used to work in movie theater box offices. She told me about the accompanists. Her sister-in-law and BFF was an accompanist. I had no idea, didn't even put it together that if films were silent, they were silent. If you could have had a musical score, you could have had dialogue. So any music was played live.
@@dianem8544 The Vitaphone process which began at Warner Brothers and was used at MGM used prerecorded music and sound effects. DON JUAN (1926) is a perfectly ordinary silent film & could be shown at unwired houses without any loss of information. CITY LIGHTS uses the concept but is sound on film rather than sound on disk like Vitaphone.
Keaton is a master in his field. He's one of the best stars who did his own stunt work. I enjoyed The General. With many of the silent films, the music is remastered with new orchestral sound. I usually look for silent films with their original scores. I find them to be better. Looking forward to your next reaction!
I wish you could always find them with original scores. Not all of them even had scores and there’s so many with weird ones. There was a contest I saw somewhere where younger composers competed to score a silent film and they usually got the feel completely wrong. Way too modern. Robert Israel does a good score, though. Damien Poupart-Taussat also did an excellent one for The Cameraman but I don’t think it’s available for purchase with the film, sadly.
Buster Keaton was fucking crazy. He could of gotten himself killed. I remember watching him do the stunt where he is standing on a marked spot and a side wall of a house was to fall on him. The only way to get the stunt right was for the out line of the window hit the right mark of the spot he was standing. When the house fell on to him, he stands on the mark, the window outline falls outside where he stands and the stunt goes perfect. At that time he was going through a divorce and he was on the verge of suicide, so all the stunts he was doing in that period, he was self aware of what could happen to him and that he could get killed but his gloom of unhappiness made him sort of emotionless. Steamboat Bill, Jr. was the name of movie.
He broke his neck once, filming Sherlock Jr - and didn't even know it until he got a routine medical years later: the break had healed itself with no physical marks on him. He said he had a headache for a few days. ps: Paul Merton did a series, Silent Clowns, one ep on Keaton: he spoke to the bloke who's Harrison Ford's stunt double for Raiders etc: they showed to falling-wall clip in slow-mo, the bloke said he'd never do that. (Not that he'd be allowed to, these days, but that's beside the point.)
Its brilliantly filmed and fueled with classic physical comedy the silent film the general in 1926 captures Buster Keaton at his timeless best, THE GENERAL (1926) 92/100% Certified Approved ☑️ this remains as Keatons greatest achievement.
I enjoyed that. I had never been a silent film watcher. But that was really good. I need to watch more of them. Thanks for this reaction. You are probably the only reactor to watch a silent film. Kudos to you!! Love your reactions Mia.
Respect to you for reacting to real FILM! While most people our age react to Avengers shit you're reacting to the masters of cinema. Back then Buster Keaton had to do all his stunts in camera because there was no special effects back then.
Keaton did a lot of special effects. In "Backstage" he had multiple Busters on screen at the same time. He did this by building a special shutter for the front of the camera that would expose only part of the film. Then his camerman, Elgin Lesley, would backcrank then film again with another slat of the shutter open. I think he maxed out at nine Busters on screen at one time. And he did some really cool special effects in Sherlock Jr.
@@thesisypheanjournal1271 I know about Sherlock Jr because it's credited as the first film to have a dream sequence but in The General he did do all his own stunts.
It makes me sad to think of the many films of that period now lost forever because studios back then did not think to preserve them for future generations to watch and enjoy.
The saddest part is they whether indirectly or not, correctly anticipated apathy. The average person wouldn't see this as a loss. Makes it sting even more to those of us who do, somehow.
Apathy AND the lack of knowledge of the chemistry. And when they did know, they still didn't care. All of those treasures... it's one of my rags against today's copyright warehousers (Sony, Conde Nast-ee) who buy buy buy and never do a thing - they refuse to allow those arts to see the light of day again. grrr
Mia...the Twilight Zone Ep "Once Upon a Time" starring Keaton, after he was lost, forgotten, and literally broke. He _still_ had it! It's 💯 unique even in the Zone. Written by Richard Matheson (look him up...your mind'll go *plook!*).
The more comedic episodes don't always work but this and the episode A Penny For Your Thoughts really do. This episode has such charm and definitely proves Keaton could still amaze if given the chance.
@@bespectacledheroine7292 Charles Beaumont, writer of TZ. Dig him, and the few movies made from his work. Lots of triggers, but...Brain Dead and 7 Faces are both gold. (Just gotta add: hell yeah, Tina!)
Great reaction to a great movie! Buster Keaton was brilliant, his movies are fantastic, you'll keep wanting more and more of him. Glad to see this. I love Baby Face and Dinner at 8, so whatever it is, i'm happy. haha
I've seen this film numerous times. What blows my mind, besides Keaton doing all his own stunts, is that this film is from the year my dad was born. A completely different era.
When I was a kid my public library had films (actual film) you could check out like books. All silent, but film. Wandering the library, I found them. My dad projected them on our basement concrete wall. There is a certain smell when film and projectors worked properly.
Same in Louisville in the 1970s, but including sound films. Saw my first complete Star Trek episode that way. (The Trouble with Troubles). You could borrow a projector with your library card. (16mm)
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 Dad had a Super8 rig that included a tape recorder that would record sound on one channel and frame synchronization beeps on the other. Plugged into the projector for playback, the projector had an analog comparator that would adjust the voltage on a DC braking motor which rubbed the wrong way against the drive belt, to slow the projector down to just the right frame rate to stay in synch. The whole system was called the Bell & Howell Filmosound, but Canon had an identical system. I hear that Super 8 cameras have re-entered production, largely catering to film schools, although of course a professional filmmaker will reach for Super 8 to achieve a certain look.
I appreciate your enthusiasm and the will to share and present the iconic and Silent Film comic geniuses from the early 20th Century to a new generation. As Buster created his character, authored, and constructed the production was an attraction for audiences to behold and revisit his persona as a longtime friend relationship then and is not outdated today. These movie classics are our culture's backbone of comedic entertainment. Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, all worked in separate lanes within this time but merged in an era that gave voice to the guy on the short end and, by clever wits, plod on through life's impossible situations. And the visual speaks louder than words. Let's not overlook Silent greats, Harry Langdon, Snub Pollard, Charlie Chase, Billy Bevan, Larry Semon, which include the solo and duo Laurel and Hardy Silent films of that generation. These films and stars are an enduring testament for us to appreciate and enjoy time and again.
After his star waned Keaton became an uncredited gag writer for the Marx Brothers, especially for Harpo. Check out "Go West," a Western-themed Marx Brothers comedy which includes a crazy train ride a la Keaton.
A movie theatre in my town occasionally shows old movies, and I had the fortune of seeing The General there, in their large cinema theatre room. I try to see as many of those old movies when they show them, like old Chaplin and Keaton movies, Casablanca, Metropolis etc.
Never clicked so fast in my life…! I LOVE Buster! I have so many favorites… Our Hospitality, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Sherlock Jr, and The Navigator are personal favorites. Lloyd and Chaplin are also delightful. Doctor Jack, The Freshman, and Grandma’s Boy are favorites by Lloyd, and The Gold Rush, City Lights, The Kid and Modern Times are just a few of Chaplin’s greats… But The Great Dictator is a must see. Also, Buster wasn’t just chiseled… he was cut. He could do flips and jumps and stunts and run like anything. Side note… the girl acted stupidly and instead of being taken back once she understood the truth, she basically had to go through some serious nonlethal karma before she got the privilege of being his chick and I appreciate that.
My daughter is probably close to your age and she is an avid Keaton fan. And he is the absolute king of silent film stunt work. He was unbreakable. He appeared on stage with his family when he was a boy and they said no stunt would ever hurt him.
I had a film class at University of New Mexico, about a million years ago, and the music was added much later as it is a silent film. Many theaters didn't have a piano available. One note, at the beginning when he sits on the wheel of the train, it wax very dangerous, and he had a hard time finding someone to do it. The train crash was the most expensive stunt for many years, and sat in the culvert till WW 2
AH okay so here comes a bit of a ramble for you :D This is one of my favorite Buster Keaton movies! I have an entire collection of all his short films and longer films but this one is just so unique and with all the facts behind it. Also with the score, I don't think this is the original score as there are so many versions by different distributors give a different music score. There are at least 2 versions on RUclips that have different scores than this one and I have never heard this version before and I can see you really love it, and it is very nice. But this score feels like it may be a bit more modern compared to 1926 but that may just be me. My particular DVD that I own of this movie has 3 different music tracks you can choose to listen to when watching the movie. And all three are ALSO completely different than the version you are listening to. So it is really interesting. From two orchestra ones (with one sounding much older than the other, that sounds very vintage for sure. And one of them is one of those ones you can find on RUclips, the one that usually comes up first under the movie search with a sepia tone that says its from 1927. My DVD is also in that same sepia tone.) and also piano score version which was common for a lot of old silent films. I personally like the version that you can find on RUclips since it is the first choice on my DVD. (with the music being from the Thames Silents Orchestra according to my DVD) So I am unsure which is the original or which is remasters. If I recall (my memory is a bit hazy on it) sometimes at a theater there would be a live orchestra to play along with the movie. AND LEMME JUST SAY about that famous train crash. That is by far my most favorite scene in the entire movie cause it was REAL. No model set or anything. One wrong take and they would have been screwed on trying to reshoot it cause they destroyed the real bridge. It was the most expensive scene in all of silent film with it being $42,000 (and the entire movie was about $750,000). And if you take that $42,000 and do the inflation to see how it would be about $661,564.07 today for JUST that scene!! So overall that scene is just so amazing still no matter what and the fact they left it there after filming cause there was no reason to really clean it up. Final thing is I love this movie alot but overall love Buster Keaton for doing all his own stunts and doing so much with all of his films. I hope in the future you can check some of them out cause there are some really good short films too!
Also a correction. With the playing in theaters, it was usually just a piano (not a orchestra) playing whatever they wanted to play. Some did have orchestras but it usually it was a bigger theater.
I remember they said that when they filmed the train crash, all the actors just kinda went silent after it fell. It was really shocking to see even though it was planned.
I really enjoyed your reaction. I am a big silent movie buff and appreciate someone reacting to them. Physical comedy and stunts were a big part of all 3 of the most famous silent film comedians (Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd) and they all did their own stunts. Chaplin is my favorite and The Gold Rush is my favorite of his films. If you are interested in silent drama you might consider, from each decade: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928); Tess of the Storm Country (1914); and The Country Doctor (1909). The Country Doctor is a short (14 min.) and is the earliest film I found truly moving (earlier films are interesting, but don't really have a strong emotional impact on me).
Mia if I can recommend an amazing silent movie is *The Passion Of Joan Of Ark* from 1927. Has arguably the greatest on-screen performance of all time by Maria Falconetti👍
Buster had a finely tuned athletic body, he was not a big guy as you can see, but stronger than he looked. He could have been a sports star or a fantastic stuntman. Another great movie he did with a southern theme was Our Hospitality. His character may not have smiled in his movies, but his eyes told volumes. He's my favorite silent star.
Probably in 1926, movie critics, many of whom were from up North and couldn't get past, that "The General" was done from the perspective of The South. There were still many people alive from the Civil War era. Of course, "Birth of a Nation", from the teens was popular, so maybe my theory isn't correct, although Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner, was President then, and he liked it, so that may have given "Birth of a Nation" a boost. ...Now that I think about it, "Birth of a Nation" which was a big and technically groundbreaking movie, unfortunately wasn't so much about the Civil War but more about celebrating vigilante racism after the war. Although the North wasn't cool with slavery, they still thought of the South as the enemy, when "Birth of a Nation" was released, and along with much of the country including President Woodrow Wilson, a hardcore racist, were still cool with racism. "The General" had no dipiction of racism in it, and it showed "the enemy", Johnny Gray, in a heroic light, so perhaps that explains the discrepancy? Even by the the 1970's, many people up North didn't trust Jimmy Carter, because he was from the South.
😅"It's not like she hasn't posted for 3 days" - You are are hilarious, babe. Iv'e seen The General, and Sunset Boulevard many times before you were born and never saw such wonderful criticism. I love you.
My teenage kids love this movie as much as I do. Mia, I would absolutely love to sit and watch a movie with you. I love your reaction videos, and I have some I'd like to recommend 😊
buster keaton was making movies well into the 60s. i think his last film was "a funny thing happened on the way to forum" (1966) with zero mostel, phil silvers and jack gilford. it was directed by richard lester who directed the first two beatle films. it, too, is a wonderfully funny film with many sight gags and well worth a watch.
There is no other movie quite like 'The General.' And as you mentioned, the soundtrack makes a big difference. If it's a comedic score that points up the jokes, the movie stands out as a comedy; but, if the music is mostly serious, like this version, it plays perfectly well as an adventure/drama. If you haven't done so, you should watch the 3-part Thames mini-series 'Buster keaton: A Hard Act To Follow.' There's a great deal of good background information about Buster's life and career, and it's packaged quite entertainingly. All 3 eps are available on RUclips.
Glad you mentioned the National Film Registry. Howard Hawks has the most films in the NFR: 11, from SCARFACE IN 1932 to RIO BRAVO IN 1959. Hitchcock has 10, Capra has 3. Don't know about John Ford.
It wasn't a novel. It was a true story. Union spies stole The General, a Southern locomotive. The engineer chased it first on foot, then on a handcar, then on a bicycle, and finally on another train, The Texas. And he did it all running the other train in reverse. The Northern spies were captured. Keaton had originally arranged to use The General -- but the owners backed out at the last minute when they found out the film was to be a comedy.
Great reaction. Another great physical actor from that period was Harold Lloyd, you should give his films a view. His most successful was "The Freshman" and that's a really good place to start.
Most of the soundtracks for silent movies have not been preserved, so this is probably written much later... My Aunt Addie used to play piano in the silent movie theaters, and other than main features, she was required to make it up as she played...
Before Buster Keaton gotten into classic silent movies, he started out with his parents as age of 4 in 1899 when his father, Joe Keaton owned a traveling Vaudeville show. Buster's 1st name is also Joseph too. Then Keaton did serve in US Army during WWI. Others commented that Jackie Chan stated Keaton influenced him. There are others stated Keaton them such as Jackass' creator, Johnny Knoxville who re-enacted one of Keaton's famous stunts during Season 2 finale of Jackass.
According to the great film critic, Andrew Sarris, in his seminal book American Cinema, the kiss that Keaton gives his girlfriend on the locomotive is one of the most glorious of all times. I heartily agree, it’s a beautiful moment in a superb film. Keaton was a genius.
Yes, but Sarris is writing about the complete sequence that includes the kiss, which this version does not have. Pauline Kael and James Agee also loved this moment in the film.
For a fun treat find "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum" Buster Keaton has a small role and you appreciate his physical humor ability. PLUS it is a musical by Stephen Sondheim!!
Buster was known as "The Great Stone Face", because he never smiled or showed great emotion in his films ... he did it all with his extraordinary physical skills. The bridge shot was the single most expensive scene filmed up to that time. I think Buster's masterpiece is actually Our Hospitality, with its breathtaking stunts and an even more endearing little train.
one of his best. he was a master at his craft. even in his last movie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum he did an unexpected pratfall that was left in the movie. and since there was no soundtrack in movies until 1927 each theater that played a silent film had at least a piano to play music while the movie played. the music was a personal choice by either the theater owner or the musician. it was only later when remastered or transferred to better quality film that a musical soundtrack was added.
Hi Mia! I’m really enjoying your channel and loving the movies I’m seeing you react to! Because silent films are all visual, no sound except for music, the lengths these comedic actors would go to for stunts is shocking sometimes. During the silent film era there were three comedic actors considered unparalleled. Buster Keaton is one. Charlie Chaplin is another. And the third is my personal favorite, Harold Lloyd. Like Keaton, Lloyd is also a physical comedian. What he does with heights takes years off your life! Check out his film ‘Safety Last’.
Buster is famous for doing his own stunts, believe me, you ain't see nothing yet! I'd recommend you to watch Sherlock Jr and The Cameraman, my two favorite films from him. Sherlock Jr really made me fall in love with his art ❤️
As to scores: most silent films did not have specifically tailored scores written for them; generally a studio would send cue sheets with a film to give accompanists an idea of what to play for each sequence but the music chosen to accompany the film would be selected by the accompanist or, in the larger theaters with an orchestra, the musical director. These days a video company releasing a silent film to home video will commission a score from a musician or group that may or may not be based on original cue sheets.
I once had the pleasure of improvising piano scores for both plays and silent film showings. It was the most fun when I had live actors, who played off of what I was doing at the piano, and vice versa.
This is a great movie and not ridiculously exaggerated as a lot of silent movies might be. All the stunts,reactions,and action is very believable in the context of a comedy. Keato does his own stunts, and in other films,does stunts for others as well. If someone was to fall off a motorcycle, it would be buster although it wasn't his character. Love the movie where all the buildings fall and buster is standing just where the window hits. He actually does this stunt which could kill him if he moves a foot in any direction.
This was great! The most dangerous thing Buster does is sitting on the piston of the train as it starts up. Those things move slow at first, and then after about ten seconds they suddenly speed up, and if you sit on it then you'll get mashed to mince. And there's no way of knowing precisely when it's going to happen. Another thing I realised only after seeing the film about five times: when Annabelle Lee tells Johnny Gray she won't speak to him again until she's in uniform, she's true to her word, only he's actually in ENEMY uniform when she next speaks to him.
He was legendary for doing his own stunts. In The General he literally broke his neck and didn’t know it for several years. In Steamboat Bill Jr he set up a stunt that was so dangerous half his crew walked off rather than participate. It worked which was a good thing because if he hadn’t he probably would have been killed.
y'all buster is so adorably precious skjfshf update: loved the video! can't wait for more Buster Keaton & Charlie Chaplin (Harold Lloyd) video reactions x
7:26 It's most likely a modern attempt at creating a period score, though many silent films had either recorded scores, or scores on sheet music to be played by musicians, in the theaters. Much more care has gone into creating good soundtracks for silent films, in recent decades. In my film class days, most silents were blurry, shown at the wrong frame rate, and "featured" generic Ragtime piano scores.
Buster Keaton did so many amazing stunts; the one at the climax of Our Hospitality has to be seen to be believed. But this was not too uncommon in the silent era. The most shocking story I ever heard about it was with reference to D. W. Griffith's movie Way Down East, in which at the movie's climax the hero must rescue the woman he loves from a river on which the ice is breaking apart: she's trapped on one floating piece of ice while he tries to make his way across others that are disintegrating. The horrifying thing (and I'm sure it must have been true of many other movies of the period) is that in this terribly difficult and dangerous stunt everything had to go exactly right the first time, because there was no money in the budget for a second take.
I remember hearing about that, how the actor doing it was so terrified. The woman he was rescuing was telling about it and you could tell she kinda felt bad for him even though she was the one who had to lay there and hope he succeeded!
Buster Keaton always reminds me on Christopher Walken. :-)) What a genius he was! "The General" isn't my favourite, because there are rather boring (while Chaplin never was boring) sequences - but it's still a great example how well Keaton "understood" film.
The movie is classed as "silent" because there was NO sound to it. When shown at cinemas at the time there was usually an organist or at least a piano player, watching the screen from on stage and improvising as he goes... The museic you are hearing now was added as a part of the film restoration...
How silent film music worked... There was no "sound track" for the movie. If technology had supported sending a recording of music, then it would have supported dialogue as well, and we'd have had talkies years earlier. What the studio did was to send a suggested score to the theater along with the print of the movie, and it was up to the theater to supply music. Sometimes they had a little orchestra, sometimes just a local piano player. Sometimes they'd follow the score, sometimes they'd just use whatever music the piano player knew. It was pretty uncontrolled and free form.
I hadn't realised bow much I wanted to see you watch this film until I actually whooped when I saw the link and sprained my finger with how fast I clicked. This is more of a dramatic comedy than most of his films, which are outright comedies or surreal fantasies. There's a 3-part Keaton Bio, A Hard Act To Follow, on one DVD: they give a lot of background info: the story was based on a real event during the Civil War; they based the sets on actual Civil War photographs; the collapsing bridge was the most expensive stunt of the entire silent era; critics reckoned that a lot of his gags were in "poor taste". My favourite version has a sepia overlay to match the look of the Civil War photos, and also has appropriate music "When Johnny comes marching home" etc. All helps in the believability. re "lots of action" - film-makers today forget that they were "movies" long before there were "talkies"! edit: typo
Most silent movies had a score written especially for them but obviously they couldn't record sound with movies back then so this is not the original soundtrack. Some silent movies that came out after the first talkie, such as City Lights contain the original score but it is rare. Even though this movie probably had a score written for it, I think Carl Davis created an entirely new score for the DVD release. FYI, Carl Davis is the best silent movie soundtrack composer of the past 40 years.
He was a renaissance man:he could act,do his own stunts,expert gagman(Charlie Chaplin was like that too)checkout Cops and Seven Chances to see him put his body through the wringer
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned The Artist which is a recent, French silent movie and Oscar winner. Think 'A Star is Born' crossed with 'Singing in the Rain'. Whenever I see pictures of Jean Claude Van Damme I see Keaton, and Tobey Maguire in his recent flick.
Please consider my all-time favorite Chaplin film, "The Kid", and the amazing films of Harold Lloyd, including his most popular, "Safety Last". (In case you didn't know, Lloyd also did incredible stunts, and with the added complication of having only half of his right hand, having lost his thumb and index finger in an accidental explosion in the studio when he was around 20. He hid it so well with gloves or a prosthesis that many people never knew.)
Yes! The more Keaton you see, the more clear it becomes how much of an influence he was on Jackie Chan. I'm amazed Keaton lived past his thirties.
It's amazing any of the silent era comedians (or action stars) did! Harold Lloyd lost 2 of his fingers because of an onset mishap! Those silent era filmmakers really were fearless!
I think Keatons last movie was "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum", but that's mostly a Zero Mostel movie.
@@SwiftFoxProductions The accident posing with a film prop that was a real bomb.
Where the one Union officer burned a hole in the tablecloth -- the guy next to him was Joe Keaton, Buster's dad.
And here we spot the rare long-haired Buster Keaton in the wild. I agree with you, I really like his face. PLEASE watch more of his movies, he's an amazing physical/comedic actor. He not only did his own stunts, he did stunts for other actors in his movies.
My grandmother played piano for silent films back in the day. My appreciation for these films runs deep!
Keaton's physicality and pure strength was amazing. That little stunt at 12:17 where he throws the sleeper and hits the other just to do that I can't even imagine how strong you'd have to be. He's the original Jackie Chan.
As far as I know the movie had a score and the cinema would have at least a keyboard player and they'd play along to the visuals
This is my all-time favorite Buster Keaton film. The humor is broad and subtle at the same time. (I recommended it in the comments to another of your reviews before I realized you'd already done it.) Keaton was a superlative storyteller, and I hope you'll cover a few more of his films, such as 'Seven Chances' (the climactic rock-fall is echoed in 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), and 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.', which includes the famous collapsing house-front stunt coped by Jackie Chan and echoed in Disney's animated 'Aladdin'. Just for fun, you might enjoy the three-part 'American Masters' documentary 'Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow'.
One detail I especially like is that they explain *why* there's a hole in the tablecloth, so that he can see his girlfriend brought into the room.
Buster Keaton was wiry rather than muscular. However, i believe it's in his film 'College' that he tries to pole-vault through a dorm window, and you can see how muscular he actually is.
By the way, if you would like a gentle British comedy, I suggest 'Carry On, Sergeant', featuring William Hartnell before he became the First Doctor on 'Doctor Who'. It's much subtler than most of the later 'Carry On' films, and I have a feeling it was one of the influences for the Bill Murray film 'Stripes'.
Chiseled is the right word. They used to call him Old Stone Face.
One point about silent films is most of them don't have official scores, so between the various versions of The General on Blu-ray, I think there's at least 5 different audio options. The status quo would have been a pianist or organist in the theater ad libbing music to the screen.
There is a quick jump cut at 21:30, when he kisses her on the engine. What has been cut? When he sees that she is putting in just small sticks to feed the fire, first Keaton puts his hands around her neck in frustration and chokes her, THEN he kisses her.
You can see the full sequence in this version of "The General" from 56:00 to 56:29:ruclips.net/video/PPjwmp5qqm8/видео.html. Sadly, this version is completely silent.
Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd were the 3 great comics who relied on great physicality in the silent era.
About the music, this is a new score composed by Joe Hisaishi in 2004. You have probally heard music by Joe Hisaishi before, he is the composer of all the Ghibli movies by Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, ...)
He killed it.
You have now witnessed the genius of Buster Keaton, first-hand. Silent film is a world unto itself. Other treasures are waiting, such as: Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Broken Blossoms (1919), Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror (1922), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Gold Rush (1925), The Kid (1921), Ben-Hur (1925), College (1927), The Ten Commandments (1923), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), Intolerance (1916), Wings (1927), My Wife's Relations (1922) and many others. They didn't need dialogue. They had faces! Even though there are many people today, who would turn up their noses at these films, they should realize that today's cinema wouldn't exist as it does, if the creators of these classics hadn't laid the foundation.
First JustJP reacts to Chaplin's "City Lights" and now "The General." Two silent classics in one day! I love this exploration of older films that's going on.
They never told Johnnie WHY they didn't let him enlist, he just knew they didn't take him.
It always seemed stupid to me but without that there wouldn’t be the right tension so I can overlook it!
It is so cool to see someone reacting to old movies! I adore old movies but it seems nearly all the reaction channels are doing mostly 80s on. Not only are you doing older movies but even SILENT MOVIES! I LOVE Keaton. His movies are so fun and this is one of my favorites! I was actually born in Cottage Grove and there is a big mural of Keaton on one of the buildings. My grandpa logged in the area around where the train was still in the river.
You should do something from Harold Lloyd! He's such a great silent actor. The Kid Brother and Safety Last are fantastic!
Describing his face as chiseled is very apt. Keaton's nickname was the Great Stone Face.
Back in the day when they did stuff like the bridge scene for real and no CGI. What a masterpiece.
Except - that wrecked locomotive!! SOB!!! Oh my... but then, there were relatively 'dime a dozen' and WWII brought such a huge demand for recycled metals. So...
With silent movies, sometimes the studio would send a suggested music score, or suggestions of known melodies, but it was mostly just up to whatever local musician(s) wanted to play.
Love this movie and Buster Keaton. Also he was one of the old actors playing cards with Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd.
He also starred in an episode
of "The Twilight Zone".
Couldn't stop laughing during your commentary, especially, 19:45 , Laughed for three minutes during your comments!
"You-You're stepping on her! You're stepping on top of her! She got caught in a bear trap, she got slung over a guy's shoulder, and she got crushed by a barrel, and she's still walking on two feet?! Can we talk about, I mean, the POWER of this woman?! C'mon!..."
He had such an interesting face that elicited sympathy and attention. The stunts are amazing and terrifying! I can’t imagine any studio letting a star do them nowadays. Great reaction, Mia!
As a critic noted, "One false move would have left Buster as mangled as a paper jam in an office copier."
He had severe neck pain for decades and a doctor told him his neck was broken, vertebras, and what not were all a bit off center so to speak.
See OUR HOSPITALITY. Buster's stunts are incredible and the historical details are beautiful.
That's my favorite Keaton train movie! A minority opinion, I know. I love that daft little train, which is an exact replica of the 1830 "Stephenson Rocket." Buster's train is in a museum today.
And in the 2015 PBS tv series Victoria and Albert ride in one. The British public hated trains at first, called them noisy eyesores defacing the countryside. But the queen and Albert knew they were the wave of the future, and wanted to publicly champion their use. They knew once they gave their approval, their people would eagerly climb on board.
100 years ago, every movie theater had musicians on the staff. Each theater would have their own music. I have THE GENERAL on DVD or Blu-ray, all with different musical scores.
. As to your question about the music score, while some features came with full scores to be performed in synch, most features came with cue sheets which listed the significant moments along with the intertitles. My grandmother was a teenage accompanist at the tail end of the "silent" era and she kept all her cue sheets, so when there were revivals in the 1960s & 1970s she could produce a score. Her last appearance as an accompanist was in 2002 at age 91!
I was looking for this comment! I had a neighbor who was slightly younger than your grandmother, 94 when she passed in 2009, and she used to work in movie theater box offices. She told me about the accompanists. Her sister-in-law and BFF was an accompanist. I had no idea, didn't even put it together that if films were silent, they were silent. If you could have had a musical score, you could have had dialogue. So any music was played live.
@@dianem8544 The Vitaphone process which began at Warner Brothers and was used at MGM used prerecorded music and sound effects. DON JUAN (1926) is a perfectly ordinary silent film & could be shown at unwired houses without any loss of information. CITY LIGHTS uses the concept but is sound on film rather than sound on disk like Vitaphone.
@@patriciaparker2622 Innnnnteresting. I'm going to look more into this process, I didn't know any of this.
You have to wonder what Keaton wold have thought of people still watching (and loving his master work almost 100 years after it was made?
Keaton is a master in his field. He's one of the best stars who did his own stunt work. I enjoyed The General. With many of the silent films, the music is remastered with new orchestral sound. I usually look for silent films with their original scores. I find them to be better. Looking forward to your next reaction!
I wish you could always find them with original scores. Not all of them even had scores and there’s so many with weird ones. There was a contest I saw somewhere where younger composers competed to score a silent film and they usually got the feel completely wrong. Way too modern. Robert Israel does a good score, though. Damien Poupart-Taussat also did an excellent one for The Cameraman but I don’t think it’s available for purchase with the film, sadly.
Buster Keaton was fucking crazy. He could of gotten himself killed.
I remember watching him do the stunt where he is standing on a marked spot and a side wall of a house was to fall on him. The only way to get the stunt right was for the out line of the window hit the right mark of the spot he was standing.
When the house fell on to him, he stands on the mark, the window outline falls outside where he stands and the stunt goes perfect.
At that time he was going through a divorce and he was on the verge of suicide, so all the stunts he was doing in that period, he was self aware of what could happen to him and that he could get killed but his gloom of unhappiness made him sort of emotionless.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. was the name of movie.
He broke his neck once, filming Sherlock Jr - and didn't even know it until he got a routine medical years later: the break had healed itself with no physical marks on him. He said he had a headache for a few days.
ps: Paul Merton did a series, Silent Clowns, one ep on Keaton: he spoke to the bloke who's Harrison Ford's stunt double for Raiders etc: they showed to falling-wall clip in slow-mo, the bloke said he'd never do that. (Not that he'd be allowed to, these days, but that's beside the point.)
Thank God someone who loves classic films as much as I do. I will be watching more often.
The first one i see reacting to a Buster Keaton movie...i hereby declare you to the Queen of the Internet!
Buster Keaton did all his own stuntwork. Really amazing.. Dinner at Eight.
Its brilliantly filmed and fueled with classic physical comedy the silent film the general in 1926 captures Buster Keaton at his timeless best, THE GENERAL (1926) 92/100% Certified Approved ☑️ this remains as Keatons greatest achievement.
I enjoyed that. I had never been a silent film watcher. But that was really good. I need to watch more of them. Thanks for this reaction. You are probably the only reactor to watch a silent film. Kudos to you!! Love your reactions Mia.
Oh yay! I am so glad you enjoyed the video!! Thank you so much for watching!
My favorite silent film star and my favorite silent film comedy (My favorite silent film is “Metropolis” which is also my favorite film).
Respect to you for reacting to real FILM! While most people our age react to Avengers shit you're reacting to the masters of cinema. Back then Buster Keaton had to do all his stunts in camera because there was no special effects back then.
Keaton did a lot of special effects. In "Backstage" he had multiple Busters on screen at the same time. He did this by building a special shutter for the front of the camera that would expose only part of the film. Then his camerman, Elgin Lesley, would backcrank then film again with another slat of the shutter open. I think he maxed out at nine Busters on screen at one time. And he did some really cool special effects in Sherlock Jr.
@@thesisypheanjournal1271 I know about Sherlock Jr because it's credited as the first film to have a dream sequence but in The General he did do all his own stunts.
Yes, I'm so glad you have this one posted! I love this film - what a legend Keaton was!
It makes me sad to think of the many films of that period now lost forever because studios back then did not think to preserve them for future generations to watch and enjoy.
The saddest part is they whether indirectly or not, correctly anticipated apathy. The average person wouldn't see this as a loss. Makes it sting even more to those of us who do, somehow.
Apathy AND the lack of knowledge of the chemistry. And when they did know, they still didn't care. All of those treasures... it's one of my rags against today's copyright warehousers (Sony, Conde Nast-ee) who buy buy buy and never do a thing - they refuse to allow those arts to see the light of day again. grrr
There was an event were Northern spies actually stole a train to do this during the war.. However they were stopped.
Mia...the Twilight Zone Ep "Once Upon a Time" starring Keaton, after he was lost, forgotten, and literally broke. He _still_ had it! It's 💯 unique even in the Zone. Written by Richard Matheson (look him up...your mind'll go *plook!*).
The more comedic episodes don't always work but this and the episode A Penny For Your Thoughts really do. This episode has such charm and definitely proves Keaton could still amaze if given the chance.
@@bespectacledheroine7292 Charles Beaumont, writer of TZ. Dig him, and the few movies made from his work. Lots of triggers, but...Brain Dead and 7 Faces are both gold.
(Just gotta add: hell yeah, Tina!)
I had a Junior High teacher who would show us old silent movies every Friday. Buster Keaton was one of our faves we also loved Harold Loyd.
The antics of Buster Keaton was a great inspiration to Jackie Chan. All his stunts are real.. no special effects and no Stuntmen. Great Stuff !!
Great reaction to a great movie! Buster Keaton was brilliant, his movies are fantastic, you'll keep wanting more and more of him. Glad to see this. I love Baby Face and Dinner at 8, so whatever it is, i'm happy. haha
I've seen this film numerous times. What blows my mind, besides Keaton doing all his own stunts, is that this film is from the year my dad was born. A completely different era.
When I was a kid my public library had films (actual film) you could check out like books. All silent, but film. Wandering the library, I found them. My dad projected them on our basement concrete wall. There is a certain smell when film and projectors worked properly.
Same in Louisville in the 1970s, but including sound films. Saw my first complete Star Trek episode that way. (The Trouble with Troubles). You could borrow a projector with your library card. (16mm)
@@AlanCanon2222 Man o man and I thought I was lucky. I grew up in Fargo, ND. The projector my Dad had was...not Super8, no sound.
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 Dad had a Super8 rig that included a tape recorder that would record sound on one channel and frame synchronization beeps on the other. Plugged into the projector for playback, the projector had an analog comparator that would adjust the voltage on a DC braking motor which rubbed the wrong way against the drive belt, to slow the projector down to just the right frame rate to stay in synch. The whole system was called the Bell & Howell Filmosound, but Canon had an identical system.
I hear that Super 8 cameras have re-entered production, largely catering to film schools, although of course a professional filmmaker will reach for Super 8 to achieve a certain look.
@@AlanCanon2222 You inspired a memory for me. My dad was not a mechanic, but he had some very good qualities.
@@AlanCanon2222 Actually you inspired a few memories.
To make money in his old age, he had to do the silly teenager "Beach Blanket" movies in the early 1960s to survive. His comic genius was still there!
I appreciate your enthusiasm and the will to share and present the iconic and Silent Film comic geniuses from the early 20th Century to a new generation. As Buster created his character, authored, and constructed the production was an attraction for audiences to behold and revisit his persona as a longtime friend relationship then and is not outdated today. These movie classics are our culture's backbone of comedic entertainment. Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, all worked in separate lanes within this time but merged in an era that gave voice to the guy on the short end and, by clever wits, plod on through life's impossible situations. And the visual speaks louder than words. Let's not overlook Silent greats, Harry Langdon, Snub Pollard, Charlie Chase, Billy Bevan, Larry Semon, which include the solo and duo Laurel and Hardy Silent films of that generation.
These films and stars are an enduring testament for us to appreciate and enjoy time and again.
Buster Keaton had a small role in sunset Blvd 🙂
After his star waned Keaton became an uncredited gag writer for the Marx Brothers, especially for Harpo. Check out "Go West," a Western-themed Marx Brothers comedy which includes a crazy train ride a la Keaton.
A movie theatre in my town occasionally shows old movies, and I had the fortune of seeing The General there, in their large cinema theatre room. I try to see as many of those old movies when they show them, like old Chaplin and Keaton movies, Casablanca, Metropolis etc.
Never clicked so fast in my life…! I LOVE Buster! I have so many favorites… Our Hospitality, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Sherlock Jr, and The Navigator are personal favorites. Lloyd and Chaplin are also delightful. Doctor Jack, The Freshman, and Grandma’s Boy are favorites by Lloyd, and The Gold Rush, City Lights, The Kid and Modern Times are just a few of Chaplin’s greats… But The Great Dictator is a must see.
Also, Buster wasn’t just chiseled… he was cut. He could do flips and jumps and stunts and run like anything.
Side note… the girl acted stupidly and instead of being taken back once she understood the truth, she basically had to go through some serious nonlethal karma before she got the privilege of being his chick and I appreciate that.
My daughter is probably close to your age and she is an avid Keaton fan. And he is the absolute king of silent film stunt work. He was unbreakable. He appeared on stage with his family when he was a boy and they said no stunt would ever hurt him.
I had a film class at University of New Mexico, about a million years ago, and the music was added much later as it is a silent film. Many theaters didn't have a piano available.
One note, at the beginning when he sits on the wheel of the train, it wax very dangerous, and he had a hard time finding someone to do it.
The train crash was the most expensive stunt for many years, and sat in the culvert till WW 2
Great reaction as usual, i would love to see you reacting to more Buster films!
A brilliant physical actor. His last movie is Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Also features my favorite, Zero Mostel.
AH okay so here comes a bit of a ramble for you :D
This is one of my favorite Buster Keaton movies! I have an entire collection of all his short films and longer films but this one is just so unique and with all the facts behind it.
Also with the score, I don't think this is the original score as there are so many versions by different distributors give a different music score. There are at least 2 versions on RUclips that have different scores than this one and I have never heard this version before and I can see you really love it, and it is very nice. But this score feels like it may be a bit more modern compared to 1926 but that may just be me.
My particular DVD that I own of this movie has 3 different music tracks you can choose to listen to when watching the movie. And all three are ALSO completely different than the version you are listening to. So it is really interesting. From two orchestra ones (with one sounding much older than the other, that sounds very vintage for sure. And one of them is one of those ones you can find on RUclips, the one that usually comes up first under the movie search with a sepia tone that says its from 1927. My DVD is also in that same sepia tone.) and also piano score version which was common for a lot of old silent films. I personally like the version that you can find on RUclips since it is the first choice on my DVD. (with the music being from the Thames Silents Orchestra according to my DVD)
So I am unsure which is the original or which is remasters. If I recall (my memory is a bit hazy on it) sometimes at a theater there would be a live orchestra to play along with the movie.
AND LEMME JUST SAY about that famous train crash. That is by far my most favorite scene in the entire movie cause it was REAL. No model set or anything. One wrong take and they would have been screwed on trying to reshoot it cause they destroyed the real bridge. It was the most expensive scene in all of silent film with it being $42,000 (and the entire movie was about $750,000). And if you take that $42,000 and do the inflation to see how it would be about $661,564.07 today for JUST that scene!! So overall that scene is just so amazing still no matter what and the fact they left it there after filming cause there was no reason to really clean it up.
Final thing is I love this movie alot but overall love Buster Keaton for doing all his own stunts and doing so much with all of his films. I hope in the future you can check some of them out cause there are some really good short films too!
Also a correction. With the playing in theaters, it was usually just a piano (not a orchestra) playing whatever they wanted to play. Some did have orchestras but it usually it was a bigger theater.
I remember they said that when they filmed the train crash, all the actors just kinda went silent after it fell. It was really shocking to see even though it was planned.
@@BeeWhistler It truly must have been a sight to see in person. Especially the sound and the impact. You don't get things like that anymore.
I really enjoyed your reaction. I am a big silent movie buff and appreciate someone reacting to them. Physical comedy and stunts were a big part of all 3 of the most famous silent film comedians (Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd) and they all did their own stunts. Chaplin is my favorite and The Gold Rush is my favorite of his films. If you are interested in silent drama you might consider, from each decade: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928); Tess of the Storm Country (1914); and The Country Doctor (1909). The Country Doctor is a short (14 min.) and is the earliest film I found truly moving (earlier films are interesting, but don't really have a strong emotional impact on me).
Mia if I can recommend an amazing silent movie is *The Passion Of Joan Of Ark* from 1927. Has arguably the greatest on-screen performance of all time by Maria Falconetti👍
Her performance was stunning.
Buster had a finely tuned athletic body, he was not a big guy as you can see, but stronger than he looked. He could have been a sports star or a fantastic stuntman. Another great movie he did with a southern theme was Our Hospitality. His character may not have smiled in his movies, but his eyes told volumes. He's my favorite silent star.
Probably in 1926, movie critics, many of whom were from up North and couldn't get past, that "The General" was done from the perspective of The South. There were still many people alive from the Civil War era. Of course, "Birth of a Nation", from the teens was popular, so maybe my theory isn't correct, although Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner, was President then, and he liked it, so that may have given "Birth of a Nation" a boost. ...Now that I think about it, "Birth of a Nation" which was a big and technically groundbreaking movie, unfortunately wasn't so much about the Civil War but more about celebrating vigilante racism after the war. Although the North wasn't cool with slavery, they still thought of the South as the enemy, when "Birth of a Nation" was released, and along with much of the country including President Woodrow Wilson, a hardcore racist, were still cool with racism. "The General" had no dipiction of racism in it, and it showed "the enemy", Johnny Gray, in a heroic light, so perhaps that explains the discrepancy?
Even by the the 1970's, many people up North didn't trust Jimmy Carter, because he was from the South.
😅"It's not like she hasn't posted for 3 days" - You are are hilarious, babe. Iv'e seen The General, and Sunset Boulevard many times before you were born and never saw such wonderful criticism. I love you.
My teenage kids love this movie as much as I do. Mia, I would absolutely love to sit and watch a movie with you. I love your reaction videos, and I have some I'd like to recommend 😊
buster keaton was making movies well into the 60s. i think his last film was "a funny thing happened on the way to forum" (1966) with zero mostel, phil silvers and jack gilford. it was directed by richard lester who directed the first two beatle films. it, too, is a wonderfully funny film with many sight gags and well worth a watch.
Thank you for including silent film in your reactions!
There is no other movie quite like 'The General.' And as you mentioned, the soundtrack makes a big difference. If it's a comedic score that points up the jokes, the movie stands out as a comedy; but, if the music is mostly serious, like this version, it plays perfectly well as an adventure/drama. If you haven't done so, you should watch the 3-part Thames mini-series 'Buster
keaton: A Hard Act To Follow.' There's a great deal of good background information about Buster's life and career, and it's packaged quite entertainingly. All 3 eps are available on RUclips.
Glad you mentioned the National Film Registry. Howard Hawks has the most films in the NFR: 11, from SCARFACE IN 1932 to RIO BRAVO IN 1959. Hitchcock has 10, Capra has 3. Don't know about John Ford.
Dinner at Eight definitely.
It wasn't a novel. It was a true story. Union spies stole The General, a Southern locomotive. The engineer chased it first on foot, then on a handcar, then on a bicycle, and finally on another train, The Texas. And he did it all running the other train in reverse. The Northern spies were captured.
Keaton had originally arranged to use The General -- but the owners backed out at the last minute when they found out the film was to be a comedy.
Great reaction. Another great physical actor from that period was Harold Lloyd, you should give his films a view. His most successful was "The Freshman" and that's a really good place to start.
I think safety last is a good starting point.
The train crashing into the river was the most expensive special effects shot of the entire silent era.
Most of the soundtracks for silent movies have not been preserved, so this is probably written much later... My Aunt Addie used to play piano in the silent movie theaters, and other than main features, she was required to make it up as she played...
Before Buster Keaton gotten into classic silent movies, he started out with his parents as age of 4 in 1899 when his father, Joe Keaton owned a traveling Vaudeville show. Buster's 1st name is also Joseph too. Then Keaton did serve in US Army during WWI. Others commented that Jackie Chan stated Keaton influenced him. There are others stated Keaton them such as Jackass' creator, Johnny Knoxville who re-enacted one of Keaton's famous stunts during Season 2 finale of Jackass.
According to the great film critic, Andrew Sarris, in his seminal book American Cinema, the kiss that Keaton gives his girlfriend on the locomotive is one of the most glorious of all times. I heartily agree, it’s a beautiful moment in a superb film. Keaton was a genius.
Yes, but Sarris is writing about the complete sequence that includes the kiss, which this version does not have. Pauline Kael and James Agee also loved this moment in the film.
The Cameraman is his best film. He designed all the stunts in his films, and many were downright dangerous.
For a fun treat find "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum" Buster Keaton has a small role and you appreciate his physical humor ability. PLUS it is a musical by Stephen Sondheim!!
Buster was known as "The Great Stone Face", because he never smiled or showed great emotion in his films ... he did it all with his extraordinary physical skills.
The bridge shot was the single most expensive scene filmed up to that time.
I think Buster's masterpiece is actually Our Hospitality, with its breathtaking stunts and an even more endearing little train.
Yes! He was very stoic, but it definitely added to his charm 😁
one of his best. he was a master at his craft. even in his last movie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum he did an unexpected pratfall that was left in the movie. and since there was no soundtrack in movies until 1927 each theater that played a silent film had at least a piano to play music while the movie played. the music was a personal choice by either the theater owner or the musician. it was only later when remastered or transferred to better quality film that a musical soundtrack was added.
Hi Mia! I’m really enjoying your channel and loving the movies I’m seeing you react to! Because silent films are all visual, no sound except for music, the lengths these comedic actors would go to for stunts is shocking sometimes. During the silent film era there were three comedic actors considered unparalleled. Buster Keaton is one. Charlie Chaplin is another. And the third is my personal favorite, Harold Lloyd. Like Keaton, Lloyd is also a physical comedian. What he does with heights takes years off your life! Check out his film ‘Safety Last’.
Buster is famous for doing his own stunts, believe me, you ain't see nothing yet! I'd recommend you to watch Sherlock Jr and The Cameraman, my two favorite films from him. Sherlock Jr really made me fall in love with his art ❤️
One of my favorite moments is when Johnny is riding along on the cowcatcher casually picking splinters out of his hand.
As to scores: most silent films did not have specifically tailored scores written for them; generally a studio would send cue sheets with a film to give accompanists an idea of what to play for each sequence but the music chosen to accompany the film would be selected by the accompanist or, in the larger theaters with an orchestra, the musical director. These days a video company releasing a silent film to home video will commission a score from a musician or group that may or may not be based on original cue sheets.
I once had the pleasure of improvising piano scores for both plays and silent film showings. It was the most fun when I had live actors, who played off of what I was doing at the piano, and vice versa.
This is a great movie and not ridiculously exaggerated as a lot of silent movies might be. All the stunts,reactions,and action is very believable in the context of a comedy. Keato does his own stunts, and in other films,does stunts for others as well. If someone was to fall off a motorcycle, it would be buster although it wasn't his character.
Love the movie where all the buildings fall and buster is standing just where the window hits. He actually does this stunt which could kill him if he moves a foot in any direction.
This was great! The most dangerous thing Buster does is sitting on the piston of the train as it starts up. Those things move slow at first, and then after about ten seconds they suddenly speed up, and if you sit on it then you'll get mashed to mince. And there's no way of knowing precisely when it's going to happen. Another thing I realised only after seeing the film about five times: when Annabelle Lee tells Johnny Gray she won't speak to him again until she's in uniform, she's true to her word, only he's actually in ENEMY uniform when she next speaks to him.
He was legendary for doing his own stunts. In The General he literally broke his neck and didn’t know it for several years. In Steamboat Bill Jr he set up a stunt that was so dangerous half his crew walked off rather than participate. It worked which was a good thing because if he hadn’t he probably would have been killed.
y'all buster is so adorably precious skjfshf
update: loved the video! can't wait for more Buster Keaton & Charlie Chaplin (Harold Lloyd) video reactions x
7:26 It's most likely a modern attempt at creating a period score, though many silent films had either recorded scores, or scores on sheet music to be played by musicians, in the theaters. Much more care has gone into creating good soundtracks for silent films, in recent decades. In my film class days, most silents were blurry, shown at the wrong frame rate, and "featured" generic Ragtime piano scores.
You know which film you should watch now? Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last" another great combo of action, laughs and romance...
Buster Keaton did so many amazing stunts; the one at the climax of Our Hospitality has to be seen to be believed. But this was not too uncommon in the silent era. The most shocking story I ever heard about it was with reference to D. W. Griffith's movie Way Down East, in which at the movie's climax the hero must rescue the woman he loves from a river on which the ice is breaking apart: she's trapped on one floating piece of ice while he tries to make his way across others that are disintegrating. The horrifying thing (and I'm sure it must have been true of many other movies of the period) is that in this terribly difficult and dangerous stunt everything had to go exactly right the first time, because there was no money in the budget for a second take.
I remember hearing about that, how the actor doing it was so terrified. The woman he was rescuing was telling about it and you could tell she kinda felt bad for him even though she was the one who had to lay there and hope he succeeded!
Buster Keaton always reminds me on Christopher Walken. :-))
What a genius he was! "The General" isn't my favourite, because there are rather boring (while Chaplin never was boring) sequences - but it's still a great example how well Keaton "understood" film.
The movie is classed as "silent" because there was NO sound to it.
When shown at cinemas at the time there was usually an organist or at least a piano player, watching the screen from on stage and improvising as he goes...
The museic you are hearing now was added as a part of the film restoration...
How silent film music worked...
There was no "sound track" for the movie. If technology had supported sending a recording of music, then it would have supported dialogue as well, and we'd have had talkies years earlier.
What the studio did was to send a suggested score to the theater along with the print of the movie, and it was up to the theater to supply music. Sometimes they had a little orchestra, sometimes just a local piano player. Sometimes they'd follow the score, sometimes they'd just use whatever music the piano player knew. It was pretty uncontrolled and free form.
Excellent pick. Also recommend Sherlock Jr., Safety Last, City Lights.
Another Great Buster Keaton movie is the Navigator plus all his short films from 1920 - 1923 all between 17 minutes to 24 minutes long
An incredible film. Sherlock Jr. is my favorite of Buster Keaton though ;)
I hadn't realised bow much I wanted to see you watch this film until I actually whooped when I saw the link and sprained my finger with how fast I clicked.
This is more of a dramatic comedy than most of his films, which are outright comedies or surreal fantasies.
There's a 3-part Keaton Bio, A Hard Act To Follow, on one DVD: they give a lot of background info: the story was based on a real event during the Civil War; they based the sets on actual Civil War photographs; the collapsing bridge was the most expensive stunt of the entire silent era; critics reckoned that a lot of his gags were in "poor taste".
My favourite version has a sepia overlay to match the look of the Civil War photos, and also has appropriate music "When Johnny comes marching home" etc. All helps in the believability.
re "lots of action" - film-makers today forget that they were "movies" long before there were "talkies"!
edit: typo
Most silent movies had a score written especially for them but obviously they couldn't record sound with movies back then so this is not the original soundtrack. Some silent movies that came out after the first talkie, such as City Lights contain the original score but it is rare. Even though this movie probably had a score written for it, I think Carl Davis created an entirely new score for the DVD release. FYI, Carl Davis is the best silent movie soundtrack composer of the past 40 years.
Walt Disney remade the Pittenger book into a movie called "the Great Locomotive Chase" starring Fess Parker.
He was a renaissance man:he could act,do his own stunts,expert gagman(Charlie Chaplin was like that too)checkout Cops and Seven Chances to see him put his body through the wringer
If you get a chance, there is a hilarious video of him in a diner that was aired on "Candid Camera" in the 50s...
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned The Artist which is a recent, French silent movie and Oscar winner. Think 'A Star is Born' crossed with 'Singing in the Rain'. Whenever I see pictures of Jean Claude Van Damme I see Keaton, and Tobey Maguire in his recent flick.
i HIGHLY recommend watching Design For Living if you havent already! my favorite 1930s film!
Please consider my all-time favorite Chaplin film, "The Kid", and the amazing films of Harold Lloyd, including his most popular, "Safety Last". (In case you didn't know, Lloyd also did incredible stunts, and with the added complication of having only half of his right hand, having lost his thumb and index finger in an accidental explosion in the studio when he was around 20. He hid it so well with gloves or a prosthesis that many people never knew.)