The movie The General set during the Civil War tells the unlikely story of a train engineer, rejected by the military with no obvious combat skills or training, winning a battle and become an officer in the Confederate Army.
What is the film telling us about the armed forces, about war and about the values of the military? Does the film promote the military or is it a satire -- and if so, how biting is the criticism? What is war good for?
Buster Keaton’s “The General” cleverly depicts most military officials and soldiers as incompetent people to represent the armed forces as satirical. Although there are glimpses of patriotism for the Confederacy and Union, most of the officials come across as incapable of forming logical decisions. For instance, while preparing to fight the Confederacy, one Union official ordered his troops to cross the river and bridge into enemy lines. The official believed that the flaming bridge was safe to cross; however, this was not the case. In the end, the bridge collapsed leaving multiple soldiers dead and making the Union official the laughingstock of the battle. His actions were naïve, which perceived him as being unqualified for his position. Buster Keaton’s character, Johnnie Grey, also heavily demonstrates the satire of armed forces in “The General”. After miraculously “defeating” almost all of the Union’s army, Johnnie Grey returns to the Confederacy with the Union’s general who he mistakenly found. Grey’s promotion to lieutenant due to his dumb luck is laughable since most of his actions were not deliberate or skillful. In my opinion, the legitimacy of the Confederacy to appoint someone with no skill is questionable, and displays that the military will hire any foolish person who is perceived to be heroic by his peers. Buster Keaton mocks the credibility and qualifications of the position of officials needed in war. Although these details are extremely hidden within a deeper analysis of the film, there is definitely evidence that exhibits military satire. “The General” uses comedy through ridiculous actions as a way to disguise Buster Keaton’s message of the ineffectiveness of the military and war in general.
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton’s “The General” depicts military official and soldiers as unintelligent and incapable of making wise decisions. When I watched the film for the first time I did not pick up on this idea, however looking back at this film there are several scenes where generals are making unintelligent decisions or are completely oblivious to their surroundings. The first scene is at the Union table when Buster Keaton is hiding 2 feet from the generals underneath the table. The Generals are complexly oblivious to Buster and he is able to learn all of the Unions plans. Another scene showing the soldiers and generals incompetence is represented when the train track is broken. It shows several shots of them trying to fix it which gives the impression of a lot time passing. In the end it was a random conductor that came over and fixed it quickly and easily. Slightly before the battle between the Union and Confederacy began the Union general orders the train to cross the bridge. The scene shows the bridge engulfed in flames and clearly dangerous to cross, however the general tells his soldiers to cross. The bridge crumbles and the train plummets into the river. The final act of unintelligence shown is by a Confederate general. Buster Keaton is clearly unfit to be a lieutenant. The entire time Keaton was in the battle he made mistake after mistake and was lucky that his sword hit the Union soldier and the cannon hit the bridge. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant after demonstrating that he didn’t know what he was doing. After watching this film there is a clear idea shown of military satire. Buster Keaton uses through ridiculous actions to display incompetent military leaders in war.
ReplyDeleteBefore I state my opinion on the film, I think it’s important I state this: I do not believe The General by Buster Keaton is a satire. If it’s a satire I think it is a poorly delivered one. To me, while watching the film, it very much felt like confederacy propaganda. I don’t want to get too off track but tak a film like The Wolf of Wall Street or Fight Club. Both satires of very similar subjects. While you can see the reasoning for the main characters living the lifestyle they do you also get to see the pain and anguish that comes with it. Making it in my eyes an effective satire. I cannot speak for Buster Keaton and am unsure of his vision for the film, so I can’t speak for him and say it is not a satire. While I can acknowledge the technical brilliance of the film for the time it feels wrong for me to not discuss the film's shortcomings. A lot of points I see for why it is a satire is that the military officials often act incompotent. However, unless I’m missing something, it is very frequently the union army who is shown acting like buffoons. Whenever the Confederacy is shown acting incompotent is when Keaton himself is a part of their army. The whole goal of the movie is for Keaton to become a full fledged confederate soldier. As shown at the end, once that happens Keaton’s character gets virtually everything he desires. I could see a stronger argument for it being a satire if at the end of the film Keaton’s character ended up with nothing, or realized the negatives that come with being in the army. However, all we see is when he truly becomes a soldier, all happiness is achieved, making me feel as if this film isn’t saying to stay away from the army but to join it because if you do, you have a shot at everything you’ve ever wanted. This to me, is why I don’t feel The General, by nature, is a satire or at least an ineffective one.
ReplyDelete“The General” by Buster Keaton is a film surrounded in war propaganda, military and social beliefs relevant to the place and time, and promotes the military in general. Contextually this film was made in the time period of the civil war, and the characterization of both sides shows a very obvious bias to the southern or confederate side. This can be shown in his characterization of the Union forces, particularly their leaders. The expressions shown by the union generals are more malicious and evil looking, and the way they carry themselves is more aggressive and abrupt. Throught the entirety of the film Buster Keaton depicts the union generals as bumbling fools that can’t get their acts together. They fail to figure out there is a spy under their own dinner table, think that Buster has a lot more men than he does, and most notably, sends a train full of men to their deaths over a bridge. Not only that, but a single train engineer was able to defeat the entire confederate forces. “The General” also promotes military violence, war, and the confederate souths agenda. It is mentioned to Buster in the beginning of the film that it is his “duty as a southerner” to go fight in the war, and he is literally rejected when he isn’t able to fight. Due to the time period of the film, I do not think it was satire. The beliefs shown in the film align to those of southerners of that time period. Additionally, the film personally persuaded me too root for Buster, until I saw the confederate flag and realized what the south really stood for. “The General” is a film of military and confederate propaganda, disguised in the plights of a train engineer.
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton's The General depicts someone who somehow, through unlikely means, ends up becoming a war hero for the Confederate army. As a whole, the film depicts those in the military in a very comedic light. Keaton uses Johnnie Gray’s incompetence to poke fun at how at the end of the film he somehow ends up with a high-ranking position in the Confederate army. Throughout the entire film, Keaton shows the Union generals messing up almost everything that they try to do, such as fixing the railroad (which results in them falling over numerous times) and one general ensuring that the bridge is crossable (which results in the train falling into the river). Overall, the film tries to have less of a stance on war itself but more on the values of war and how dumb war can seem if looked at from a bird’s-eye view. The film definitely depicts a satire about war, with some pretty biting criticism of what it takes to become a “respected, high-ranking officer” in the military and uses Johnnie Gray to somewhat insult the military. Although he does manage to save Annabelle and prevent a surprise attack on his hometown, he still does not take anything about the army seriously – even in the end of the film, he is seen kissing Annabelle and saluting everyone that comes by in a comedic manner. Keaton uses his film to show a message that war is not that serious or prestigious as people make it out to be and also show that even those regarded as “important” or “high-ranking” are still very stupid or dumb when it comes to normal tasks.
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