People are voting emotionally.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Living in 2018, it is impossible to imagine what the audience of that time think of this film . For me , it doesn't look that funny but it still entertains and is special in its own ways. Comedy completely relies on stunts . Each and every stunts amazed me. It is hard to believe how they shot it almost a century ago.Before this I have watched Sherlock jr. . While that film relies heavily on its special effects , this one seems to be more realistic (Many will disagree with me) . Buster Keaton himself performed all the stunts and no special effects were used .People always compare Buster Keaton with Charlie Chaplin. For me ,Keaton was not that good as an actor atleast in the silent films . Technical aspects of his are not either great . But one thing at which he was better is writing scripts . He was far more innovative than Chaplin . He was master at using special effects and stunts for comedy . Something even the modern day directors can't. For me Keaton >Chaplin.

Buster Keaton is "Johnnie Gray", a southerner who wants to fight for the cause but gets rejected because he could be of more use as an engineer than as a soldier. Unfortunately, he's not told why he was turned down and his gal just assumes that he's a coward. Not so, because when a Yankee scallywag steals his beloved steam engine (the titular "The General"), Johnnie heads north to recover the engine and through a series of misadventures, becomes a hero of the Confederacy and rescues Annabelle Lee. Glorious sight gags abound as "Old Stone Face" deals with errant cannon, loose sword blades, uncooperative firewood, inexplicable soakings and a less-than-helpful rescuee, not to mention an entire army of blue-bellies. Great fun from another era and a wonderful example of the silent genre.

Buster Keaton plays the lead in this silent era masterpiece that takes its inspiration from the Great Locomotive Chase, which in turn was a real event during the American Civil War in which a train was stolen by the North and sped over the lines in preparation for the coming offense.The General has some definitive upsides working in its favour. Buster Keaton is an amazingly versatile performer, able to go from clownish jokester to a saddened victim of war and poor circumstances in a heartbeat. The film is also really ambitious in scope. Keaton performs all of his stunts, most of them hair-raisingly dangerous and completely unimaginable nowadays. Plus, very little money is spared and the film famously has some of the most expensive set pieces and stunts of the silent era.The plot of the film is also a lot more cohesive than say in the films made by Charlie Chaplin in the same decade. Chaplin's films usually contain segments that have little to do with anything except the need for funny situations. The General is also a comedy, but with a clear, clean story arc.On the other hand, I didn't find the humour or the characters as captivating. They're okay, but in this regard the decades of cultural development between the film and yours truly work against the film. I just didn't find the slapstick all that funny.Still, The General is a great watch for all interested in early cinema or really involved physical humour.

Outstanding performance by Buster Keaton. What a silent comedy! What a character is this train engineer! Beautiful! This action-adventure-comedy is smooth and light fight with trains. But obviously, those kind of trains of the first ones - those that work with firewood and a flexible 'driver'.Our main character, very tenacious, wants his love. He has his first one, the train, and now he wants Annabelle Lee. He does everything, from the beginning till the end to achieve her attention. An attention obtained because of an uniform. Yes, that is true, but only because those times were like that.But forget about that love - cheap kisses and looks - because in here the story is about these bloody trains and how they chase each other. Interestingly enough, for 1926 this 67 minutes are 'marvelous'! There is more text than The Kid (1921) or City Lights (1931), and even more comedy and captivation. Yes, it is true that is all about those trains, but the story goes on the rails with a linear perspective.