Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29411 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-04-25
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, PAL, Silent
• Subtitled in: German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, French, Esperanto
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 238 minutes

DVD Description
The original film has been digitally restored frame by frame on this special edition DVD and is accompanied by a symphonic score written and recorded by Joe Hisaishi, one of modern cinema's leading composers. A 23 page information booklet is also included with the DVD.

Synopsis
Johnnie Gray has two loves in his life: his locomotive, The General, and Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War breaks out, Gray rushes to enlist, but is turned down as he is deemed more valuable as an engineer. When Union spies enact a cunning plan, Johnnie must fight to save both of his loves...

Customer Reviews

Classic Keaton
This actually came out in France last year (alongside a theatrical re-release of the restored film) and it really is an essential purchase for all Keaton fans (and all silent movie fans as well). The film has never looked better, and has been beautifully restored, and while it doesn't show Keaton at his funniest, it definitely shows him at his most inspired. The film is a classic, and feels much more modern (in how it is edited and filmed) than almost any other silent film I have seen.

While the film alone would be worth the purchase price, this disc is full of bonus features.

Buster Keaton Rides Again (a documentary about the making of the Railrodder) is actually more interesting than the film it is about, and it is great to see Keaton as himself.

The Iron Mule is an Al St John short film that features a "blink and you miss it" cameo from Keaton. This is a nice addition, and is a film most silent film fans won't have seen. And while far from funny, is a nice touch.

The Orson Welles "introduction" comes from an early 70s TV screening of the film where Welles tells (for eleven minutes) of his admiration of Keaton and this film. It is interesting and again a nice addition to an already packed disc.

Some of the features are just padding (not that any padding is needed) such as "tinted film", "restoration of the film" and "return of the general".

But without a doubt this is a five star purchase, and with a full Keaton collection promised for later this year I hope this is the first of many excellent Keaton discs.

Nearly perfect.
This is a gorgeous restoration of a marvellous film. It's a little dark in the night scenes, but otherwise this is the best print I've seen in home dvd/video release. It's far superior to Kino's.

The only negative I have to say concerns the score. Joe Hisaishi's music is bland and inappropriate; this would have been the perfect disc if the marvellous Carl Davis score had been used instead.

Buster Keaton at his very best
I had two choices watching this movie...smile or laugh out loud. When I wasn't smiling I was laughing. Keaton's The General is a perfect introduction for those who may shy away from silent movies or who may think silent comics are too exaggerated and mannered. The story line is simple, but what Keaton does with it is genius.

Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is an engineer for the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He has two loves, his engine, the General, and Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), a fine Southern belle. When war starts, Johnny rushes to enlist but is rejected. He's more valuable to the South as a train engineer than he would be as a soldier. Trouble is, nobody tells him why he was rejected. Worse, Annabelle thinks he may be a coward, and tells him she doesn't want to see him again until he is in uniform. Just then northern spies secretly enter the town to steal the General and take it north, destroying bridges and lines along the way, while a Northern army moves south. Unknowingly, Annabelle Lee finds herself on the train and is kidnapped. Johnny sees the General chugging away and races after it, determined to bring back the General. When he realizes Annabelle Lee is held captive, his resolve knows to bounds.

For the rest of the movie we are on one of the cleverest, fastest, funniest chase movies ever filmed. Keaton creates slapstick situations and sight gags that not only are funny, but that always are in character and which always are part of the specific plot point. And when he rescues Annabelle and realizes how hopeless her Southern belle helplessness can be, his exasperation is matched only by his love. The General features a big cast, a major battle, fleeing armies, a failing dam and a spectacular moment when an engine tries to cross a burning bridge and everything collapses into a river gorge.

Keaton's timing and inventiveness are legendary; so is his risk-taking. He does all his own stunts and some of them were dangerous. In one, he is lying back on the engine's cow catcher while the train is moving at some speed forward. In the distance is a railroad tie across the tracks. Keaton has another railroad tie in his hands. At the last moment he tosses his tie so that the end hits the end of the other tie and they both bounce off the track just as Keaton on the cow catcher passes. This scene has no cutting. The two ties fly off as high as Keaton's head. He could have been killed; instead we laugh. It's amazing that in his older years Keaton could still walk. His body took incredible punishment for the laughs. Try falling hard backwards off a moving flatcar and landing on your back across railroad ties. His ingenuity is extraordinary. How do you build excitement out of an extended train chase? Both engines are behemoths and are on the same track. They can't pass each other. Keaton does it with endless bits of business. In fact, he does manage to reverse the chase at one point in an immensely clever moment combining logic and split-second timing.

What makes Keaton so funny and so contemporary is that he doesn't do double-takes. He barely reacts. But he's no stone-face. Keaton's characters are simply very serious fellows. Things happen to them. His characters don't react to events so much as they overcome them with honesty and good intentions.