Buster Keaton and the Switch Tracks of Comedy / General - NOSPR

He was often described as the greatest silent film comedian, not so much for WHAT he did, but for HOW he did it... And how did he? His artistry lay in the creation of the ‘Keatonian man’, a figure endowed with supreme courage and unyielding will to survive – against the chaos of the world, the elements, the recalcitrance of matter, and the treachery of machines. Yet one machine – the film camera – proved to be made for him. At first a vaudeville performer, Keaton would also become a director, screenwriter, and ACTOR in his own cinematic universe. If one were to look for the defining quality of his stone-faced, slightly built protagonist, it would be courage itself. Maybe courage disguised in the garb of comedy, masked by explosively funny on-screen gags, set in a world turned upside down – yet courage all the same. In its truest sense. In Keaton’s films, it is courage that propels the hero into action like a locomotive. Thanks to it, he has a clear GOAL and pursues it unwaveringly. Like the protagonist of The General – a brilliant masterpiece in which Keaton pays tribute to his twin passions, pursuits and trains. The latter do thunder spectacularly through his other works, such as Our Hospitality and Sherlock Jr., but never on such a scale as in the 1926 cinematic classic – in this film, the eponymous General, i.e. the engineer Johnnie Gray’s beloved machine on rails – is present in every frame. When this locomotive is imperilled (caught up in the American Civil War), the modest engine driver defies every obstacle thrown on the tracks, braving fire and water alike, and comes to its rescue... The film – cherished and celebrated – continues to run its perpetual motion of silent-era genius on big screens across the world.

Anita Skwara