The Stunt Work in The General (1926) is Even More Impressive Nearly a Century Later

Buster Keaton has been in the news a lot lately for a man who died in 1966. (And, thankfully, it’s not because he’s been retroactively canceled.)

A brand new Buster Keaton biography, Camera Man, hit shelves in January. Then, a month later, the news broke that James Mangold—who has already made biopics about Johnny Cash, Susanna Kaysen, and Wolverine—will be directing a Buster Keaton biopic sometime in the near future.* Everything’s coming up Buster!

I took this as a sign that I needed to atone for one of my many cinephile sins: I had never seen a Buster Keaton film.** So I figured I’d rectify that shortcoming with what is considered by many to be his masterpiece: The General.

I’ll say this: “Masterpiece” is a bit strong, because not everything works about this film. There are some pacing issues, the ending is a bit of a mess, and apparently even audiences in 1926 thought it was weird do to a Civil War narrative in this manner. And that’s all ignoring some of the inevitable dated qualities that you’ll find in a film that’s nearly a century old.

But when The General works, buddy, it works. Buster’s comedic timing is, as millions before me have said, superb, and there are some really great gags that still work. But the stunts! I would like to talk about the stunts. Because I think “stunts” means something different in today’s film industry.

First, though, let me add some context. As many of you probably know, I was fortunate enough to be on a feature film set for a couple weeks this past fall with some of my amazingly talented friends. And without giving anything away (I ain’t gonna spoil my own movie!), I can tell you how extremely careful we were on set when it came to any stunts. And our stunts were very minor. We were just committed to upholding the standard on-set safety protocols to keep our cast and crew safe, no matter how minor the task seemed.

I can assure you that Buster Keaton was not this careful on the set of The General. Not even close. The man was a damn daredevil.

I should note that Keaton not only co-starred but co-directed and co-produced this film, which probably absolved his collaborators of any responsibility for his safety. I should add that I don’t necessarily think this is a very cool or good or chill thing to do. But the result is nothing short of spectacular, even (or maybe especially) by today’s standards.

Let me set the stage a bit for you (now that the newsletter is almost over). The General is based on The Great Locomotive Chase, a Civil War military raid that happened along a segment of railroad that ran from Atlanta to Chattanooga. So as you can imagine, much of the film takes place in, on, and around moving trains.

And because this was 1926, these were actual moving trains. And because this was 1926, Buster Keaton did not have the advantage of green screens or computer-generated images or sophisticated stunt technology. Instead, he decided to hop around from car to car, gracefully walking along the roof or casually strolling ahead of the locomotive, which would not seem all that impressive had it not been done in, on, and around actual moving trains. I found myself thinking, at multiple junctions of the film, “If he had messed that up, he could’ve died, or at least had his legs crushed.”

And that’s more impressive to me than any Mission: Impossible film or any Fast & Furious film or any John Wick film.*** Which is not to say that all of our modern action stars are sissies, because that is certainly not the case.**** Which is also not to say that we should bring back death-defying real-life stunts in our films either. But what a treat it is to watch someone give everything they’ve got just to entertain us.

*Not to make a whole thing about it, but one of the actors I worked with last fall, Joshua Burge, was born to play Buster Keaton, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

**I’ve been guilty of it before myself, but generally speaking, I think it’s not very cool to shame people for not having seen a film. But I think it’s especially dumb when the film is older than the person who hasn’t seen it. (I say this because I was not alive in 1926.)

***I almost said “or any Mad Max” film here, but then I thought about it, and I think Mad Max: Fury Road might be the closest thing to The General purely in terms of the stunts?

****I used to cover South By Southwest for The Birmingham News, which was a kind allowance that my editor afforded me more than an actual assignment. So I went to what I believe was the world premiere of The Raid 2: Berandal. There was a projector malfunction (or something) that caused a delay of the screening, and to entertain us while we waited, two of the stars of the film got on stage and performed a choreographed fight scene for us. It was breathtaking. So yeah, those are the kind of guys I’m talking about.

The General is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Kanopy, Paramount+, and Mubi, and it’s available to rent elsewhere.