In the movie The General Johnnie Gray, a simple engineer, tries to win the heart of his girlfriend by enlisting in the army. Although he is refused, he eventually takes on a group of Northern soldiers who hijack his train. Not only does he rescue his beloved Anabelle (and General), but he also helps defeat a Northern army in battle. Yet, his methods are hardly standard derring-do. Is Johnnie just lucky or a true hero? Does this film endorse standard ideas of military heroism or make fun of them? Or does this movie redefine a hero? What does this movie tell us about heroism (or related concepts of machismo, chivalry, or militarism)?
Anyone can be a hero. That is what the movie The General by Buster Keaton portrays to its reviewers. The film yields the perspective of the unlikely hero in order to contradict views on stereotypical heroes. From the beginning of the picture, Johnnie Gray is depicted as a small and weak man who wants to enlist in the confederacy in order to impress the girl he likes. After being rejected multiple times, he feels defeated and worthless so he returns to work on the railway as an engineer. What Johnnie did not know was how important railways were in a military operation, but when the northers hijack a train and accidentally kidnap the girl of his dreams he has the essential skills to conduct a rescue mission by pursuing them with another nearby train. On his mission, Johnnie uses his wit and luck to free the girl by sneaking into a Union general’s home. After liberating her, they take off on the run and even have to face northern troops head-on in a climactic locomotive chase scene. Over the course of the excursion, Johnnie becomes more daring and brave molding into the role of a hero. He runs in front of a moving train, jumps over fire, and even takes a Northern general captive, but his biggest act of heroism is never giving up in his quest to outrace the Union troops in order to expose their next plan of action. Finally, when the battle arrives Johnnie shoots a cannonball into the nearby dam, washing away the Union troops, classifying him as a hero. He is then bestowed the honor of becoming a general in the confederate army and gets his dream girl. Johnnie’s story arc demonstrates how anyone can become a hero if they are given the opportunity, and never give up.
ReplyDeleteThe General by Buster Keaton is your typical “unlikely hero” story. The prompt asks the question: “Is Johnnie just lucky or a true hero?”, and I believe the answer to be both. At the beginning of the movie, Johnnie tries to enlist in the army and help fight the war. Regardless of whether he did it for a girl or not, he still has the courage to attempt to join the war. From the start, Johnnie shows signs of hero qualities even if he is clumsy and accident prone. Later on, in the movie, it just so happens that he was the engineer on the train that was hijacked by the Union meaning Johnnie gets involved in the war solely due to his luck. After getting caught in the middle of the war, he demonstrates his bravery by chasing after train the Union captured to retrieve Annabelle Lee. One could make the argument that Johnnie would not have actually done any of this, if Annabelle Lee was not involved. My response would be that all heroes have their own motives that inspire them. I cannot help but compare Buster Keaton’s The General to the plot of Kung Fu Panda. I see many parallels between the journeys of Po and Johnnie Grey. Po becomes the Dragon Warrior after he accidently gets launched into the middle of the Dragon Warrior ceremony by a firework. Ultimately, it was meant to be because Po trains hard and possesses the true qualities of a hero. This feels similar to Johnnie being thrusted into a conflict he really had no part of being in but made the most of the situation and proved himself.
ReplyDeleteIn Buster Keaton's film, The General, Johnnie Gray is not your typical hero. Johnnie Gray is a simple man who is being held down by his physical appearance and characteristics. But his actions and mental perseverance redefine what a hero is. When most people think about a hero, they think about a large man with big muscles and superpowers. Buster Keaton wanted to change the view of a hero to what your mental strengths are. When Johnnie attempted to enlist into the military, he was denied because the workers thought there were better uses for him outside of the military. Johnnie attempts multiple times to try and trick the worker but ultimately gets rejected. This foreshadows Johnnie's determination to never give up. Buster Keaton shows Johnnie's examples of being heroic in his mental perseverance. Rather than physical characteristics. One example of Johnnie's determination is when the Northern army hijacks the train, Johnnie tells the other southern army soldiers and they start running after the train. Eventually, Johnnie looks back to see that he is the only one following. This is because none of the southern army soldiers respected Johnnie because of his physical characteristics and small build. He continues chasing after the train even though no one else is. This is because Johnnie is a true hero with the bravery, courage, and determination to continue his battle alone. Buster Keaton was successfully able to prove that your mental power is much more valuable than your physical capabilities to be a true hero.
ReplyDeleteIn the film, "The General," Buster Keaton mocks ideas of military heroism through his portrayal of Johnnie Gray. In the film, Johnnie Gray is repeatedly depicted as someone who is incapable of enlisting in the military. In Johnnie Gray’s first attempt to enlist, he is pushed aside and ridiculed for his size; as a result, he becomes an engineer instead. Gray is illustrated as a lost cause. For every clever idea he has, a mishap due to his clumsiness seems to follow it. For example, Gray comes up with the ingenious plan to hide Anabelle in a sack so she goes unnoticed by the Northerners. However, his plan backfires when he is forced to put the sack holding Anabelle with the other sacks and she ends up getting piled upon by the heavy sacks. Johnnie Gray quickly becomes a joke to viewers and his rescue of Anabelle and his role in defeating the Northerners feels like pure luck. Johnnie Gray is in no way the stereotypical, buff, handsome hero that everyone loves. Johnnie Gray repeatedly makes mistakes. For instance, he falls into water while attempting to jump over a fire, he constantly trips and falls, and he even manages to soak himself in water when trying to set up trap. Although Johnnie Gray is not perfect, he perseveres when everyone else gives up to save Anabelle, despite how dangerous it may be. Buster Keaton highlights Johnnie Gray’s flaws to redefine heroism. Keaton represents Gray as human and someone who has faults but is still able to accomplish his goals, making him the hero in this film. Even though much of what Johnnie Gray had done to defeat the Northerners and save the love of his life may have been a fluke, he pulled it off and got what he wanted in the end, the ability to enlist and the affection of Annabelle. Buster Keaton makes fun of military heroism but he also makes a statement about how anyone with courage and willpower can be a hero.
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ReplyDeleteI think the massive problem is that people try and compare the engineer to the Avengers. This is a huge flaw, as the Avengers or your average hero, is in an action movie. However, The General is a comedy movie. If the engineer would be portrayed as a legitimate hero, the movie would have to sacrifice its comedic plot. So I think we need to take into consideration the fact that his heroic story needs to be coated in comedy. If we look at the movie, we see he chases after people who stole his girlfriend, he saves her, and wins the war. Taking luck out of the equation he is a hero. However, if we want to say luck shouldn´t count, look to the Avengers. In the latest movie, it was said they and 1 in a billion chance of success. They then won but were extremely lucky in the process. However, the Avengers are still considered heroes, even though they were lucky. The engineer saved the day in the end as well and was lucky while doing it. The only difference in the luck is one was comedic luck, and the other was Hollywood framing of luck. For the idea of military heroism, however, I feel the movie pokes fun at it. This is where luck is actually applicable, as they make fun of how lucky he is, in the context of the military. For example, the flag was about to fall, Buster grabs it, and then drops it a few seconds later. This shows the meaningless of heroism in the confederate army in particular. I really don’t think the movie redefines a hero. I think a hero is a very flexible term, they just give away for a comedy movie to have a hero. I think for heroism in general, the movie tells us that anyone can be a hero. As Buster was a nobody who turned into a sombody.
Johnnie is able to become a hero throughout this film although this stems from him being extremely lucky at times and possessing traits that enable him to be considered a hero in the end. Like heroes we will typically see, Johnnie is able to stay determined and works tirelessly to help others, in this case, he works to save Annabelle Lee and later, to help even more people. I would say he is overall a hero in this story but also is just very lucky things turned out the way they did for him. If in the end, he didn’t succeed in saving Annabelle, he wouldn’t be considered a hero and if he did this with no qualities a hero possesses I wouldn’t necessarily claim he’s a hero. Such as if he did this through selfishness and had other not typical unheroic traits. Although this isn’t the case because, in the end, he is able to both save Annabelle and do this from courage and selflessness. This film doesn’t necessarily define a hero, a typical hero we may see in a film would be someone who is determined, brave, and the willingness to help others. These are all traits I was able to note that Johnnie possessed during this film, so these aspects are not anything out of the ordinary for being heroic. In the end, Johnnie is a hero for saving Annabelle almost all through luck but this doesn’t make him a true hero the traits he possesses do make him one.
ReplyDeleteThe General redefines a hero as someone who stands up for what they believe in, no matter the circumstance, rather than focusing solely on someone’s physical strength. Johnnie Gray is a clumsy, weak engineer that only loves his engine and his girl, Annabelle. Later in the movie, he has to bring his train on a trip where Anabelle is aboard, and when they stop at a train stop, all the passengers get off, except Anabelle. Just as they planned, Union solders hijack the train and leave with his girlfriend. Without any hesitation, Johnnie gets up and starts chasing the train. After that doesn’t work, he tries other modes of transportation until he finally finds fellow solders and takes their train instead, demonstrating his persistence in this situation. Johnnie, with no one beside him, risks going into enemy land to rescue the two things he loves. After arriving in the North with the Union army, he hides underneath a table until he spies Anabelle through a tablecloth, and he later meets her and they plan their way back home. Anabelle and Johnnie take back the stolen train and work together by planting obstacles for the Union army behind them, so they are able to warn the Confederates of their enemies. Johnnie is smart, even though he’s clumsy, and his intelligence, heart, and persistence are how he was able to save Anabelle rather than through his physical strength. Right when they get home, they warn everyone they see about the attack. The solders quickly suit up and go out to fight, now Johnnie joining them. The film ends with Johnnie finally earning the respect of the men in his town, and officially being a part of the Confederate army. So, even though initially Johnnie may not look like a hero, he spends the film refusing to give up on someone and something that he loves despite having no support, thus showing characteristics which define a hero.
ReplyDeleteIn "The General", Johnnie Gray, played by Buster Keaton, is quite obviously not what would be considered a traditional hero. He is shown to be an engineer, and everyone seems to expect very little out of him. Johnnie Gray is portrayed as somewhat clumsy, and not very intelligent outside of his own field. He isn’t really the type of hero where it can be seen from the beginning that he has great potential, and even at the end of the film, he doesn’t seem like he has much talent. The film made it look as though Johnnie Gray got to where he was almost entirely through luck, and that he really shouldn’t have been able to do as much as he did. However, he most definitely was a hero as what he did should determine whether or not he was a hero, even if his process might not seem legitimate. Johnnie Gray gathered crucial information from his side’s enemy and delivered that information to the south, which allowed the south to be prepared for the incoming attack, ultimately winning the battle. He gathered the information entirely by accident and was incredibly lucky to have somehow escaped. However, I believe that regardless of how he achieved his accomplishments, what he actually did should certainly constitute a hero, even if he didn’t become one in a more typical way. In addition to that, Johnnie Gray also achieved his initial goal of rescuing his girlfriend after she was captured by the North. In that sense, he could still be considered a hero even if he had not informed the South of the North’s attack.
ReplyDeleteIn Buster Keaton’s The General, the bungling train engineer, Johnnie Gray, should be perceived by the audience as a hero through-and-through, not for the lucky positions he finds himself in but for his resolve and quick wit after finding himself in those situations. One cannot deny that throughout the first half of the film, seemingly every positive outcome for Johnnie comes from sheer luck. His misaligned cannon ends up firing near the enemy train because of a well-timed curve in the track. A stray boxcar left behind by the enemy to slow Johnnie down tumbles off the track before he even notices. And most importantly, in his desperate, improvised plan to find food and shelter in enemy territory, Johnnie miraculously finds himself listening in on a group of Northern generals discussing a surprise attack at Rock River bridge. However, it is in this moment that the audience’s perception of Buster Keaton’s character changes from a fortunate loon to a true hero, for he decides then and there that he will do everything he can to warn the Southern troops, slow the progression of the attack, and safely return Annabelle home. Furthermore, he carries out some truly brilliant schemes in pursuit of these goals. For example, he dresses up in a Union uniform and puts Annabelle in a sack to sneak her onboard the General in an unsuspecting way and steal his train back. He also purposely breaks the railroad switch in order to delay the Northern troops who had been pursuing the two lovebirds. Still his most ingenious idea, perhaps, was using the gasoline from the lantern in the front of the General to burn the Rock River bridge and prevent the North from crossing. All of these instances of quick thinking provided Johnnie with the means necessary to return to the Southern camp and warn the soldiers of the oncoming attack before it was too late. Therefore, if it weren’t for Johnnie and his determination and quick wit, the Union army would have made quick work of the unprepared Confederate troops, and that is why the intertitle following the battle scene fittingly reads “heroes of the day,” with the clumsy, incompetent Johnnie Gray leading the parade.
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ReplyDeleteIn The General, Buster Keaton reminds us of what it means to be a hero. It may not have been the most traditional version of a hero, but no doubt, Johnnie Gray represents one in the film. He wins the heart of the girl, but it was not easy for ole Johnnie to win the heart of the girl. It took many tries and a lot of effort for him to finally win her over. He continuously finds himself extremely misfortunate situations and his quick thinking and resourceful mind allow him to pull himself out of the sticky circumstances. Slowly but surely, the female starts to notice Johnnie Gray’s humorous bad luck and his quick wit which starts to turn him into the hero he is portrayed as. Johnnie’s bad luck is what leads to him being a hero. One situation in particular, he saves the girl and sets up an opportunity for himself to prove to us that he is a true hero. He helps the girl escape from being trapped by the northern army, and in the process overhears them discussing an attack. After hearing this information, he puts himself in the right place at the right time, giving him another opportunity to prove his heroism. Johnnie hustles to gather some soldiers and shortly after the two armies engage in conflict. Johnnie, who once again has some bad luck with his sword falling apart, miraculously kills a sniper moments before he is shot. Seconds after that, Johnnie fires a cannon into the air which then strikes a dam, washing away all other threats towards Johnnie and the southern army, making him the hero.
In the movie the General, Johnnie (the hero) starts off as most typical hero's do in the sense that he is down and the girl doesn't want him anymore because he couldn't enlist. Although eventually Johnnie gets a chance to save the girl in typical hero fashion and of course he takes it. Johnnie is definitely a lucky hero in the sense that everything that happens throughout the movie is unrealistic and only happens because the main protagonist needs plot armor and the audience needs something to laugh at. The film definitely makes fun of typical military heroism by allowing Johnnie to preform extremely lucky actions that would more than likely never happen if it wasn't a movie and the audience didn't need to laugh at something. Overall the movie does in a sense redefine or create a new kind of hero because Johnnie does end up as a hero but definitely didn't get there in a typical fashion. Things throughout the movie happen in order for Johnnie to look like a hero that wouldn't happen to a normal hero. Johnnie still eventually gets the girl in typical hero fashion at the end of the movie when he luckily defeats the northern army in battle and he ends up being the victor of the conflict.
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