Talk:The General (1926 film)

Older comments

As I recall Cut to the Chase, it was the most expensive film of its day, partly because of many forest fires touched off by the locomotives. (Why, I dunno; they were all steam then. Were woodburners worse? Had the stacks been modded for authenticity?) My stab at correcting for inflation put it on par with Titanic.

It was also filmed in Cottage Grove, Oregon, where Stand by Me was shot; I suppose the same railway appears. Dunno if any common background features can be spotted. 142.177.124.178 04:40, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It is the same rwy; the OP&E. Also hosted Emperor of the North Pole.[1] 142.177.124.178 05:06, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Page move

This page was moved from "The General (1927 movie)" to "The General (1927 film)" as per the naming convention set out at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (films) – Ianblair23 15:58, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Keaton's Character's Name

On the Kino DVD, Keaton identifies himself as Johnnie Gray the first time he tries to enlist, before he thinks of using subterfuge. The credits also identify him as Gray. It is kind of a cute name for a Confederate, but it's the only name we've got, and I'm editing the article to reflect this. --68.41.122.213 08:04, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Length Of Movie

For several reasons--different versions, different adaptations to sound and video, different title cards--there are several different timings available for the movie. Nevertheless, most are between 70 and 85 minutes. Since the number that was previously up was a half an hour longer than many other timings, I changed it to the IMDb's number for one particular USA version.

Rewrote Plot

Hi guys. Thought the Plot section was a touch long and some parts were.. well.. incorrect. So I rewrote most of it. Hope it meets with your approval Captain deathbeard (talk) 14:46, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Scores

should there not be a section mentioning the different scores available for the film? There are many that have been done post release. -NeF (talk) 12:28, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Release year

Discussion here about the film having a possible release in late 1926 in Japan. Any help to confirm this would be gratefully welcomed. Lugnuts (talk) 09:02, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

External links modified

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Peer Review

The General (1926 film)

I've listed this article for peer review because I just did a lot of work on it and although I do not think it has enough content to be a B article I would like to see it in great shape and simply needing more content added to it.

Thanks, Deoliveirafan (talk) 03:36, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Sorry for the late response. All the issues with the articles seem to be tagged but I would like to point others:

• Remove citations from the lead WP:Lead
• I would merge the two versions section due to small they are.
• "In 1989, The General was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It made it into the registry in the first year it was enacted, along with such films as The Best Years of Our Lives, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, Singin' in the Rain, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Sunset Blvd, and The Wizard of Oz." That is also unsourced.
• Try formatting the two sources

Other than that, I can see this article becoming a GA if its issues are solved. Also, I made a peer review request here. I would appreciate any sort of feedback. Regards.Tintor2 (talk) 20:13, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Comments from Dig deeper

@Tintor2: Overall a good article.

ID'ed 2 dead links.

Per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (numbers), there should be a non-breaking space -   between a number and the unit of measurement. For example, instead of 35mm, use 35 mm, which when you are editing the page, should look like: 35 mm

To say it is one of the best movies of all time... a little misleading. I rephrased it slightly.

The lead should have more plot info. Just a couple of sentences, see the featured article The Cat and the Canary (1927 film) as a good example.

In the plot, it would good to give the reader a sense of the comedic part of the movie. Perhaps mention how his clumsy actions consistently serendipitously turn out to have positive results.

The references are good, but I think the bot has concerns about the variety. The article weighs heavily on 2 sources, try to balance this out.

A good candidate for a GA. A pleasure to review. Dig Deeper (talk) 23:24, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Source of funding

"Because of its then-huge budget ($750,000 supplied by Metro chief Joseph Schenck)..."

I haven't read up exhaustively about this, but as yet I've found no connection between Joseph M. Schenck and Metro Pictures - which had in any case been merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the time The General was produced. Perhaps an expert on U.S. silent films might be so kind to comment. Harfarhs (talk) 19:20, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Production, Safety of Stunts

Keaton would have taken measures to protect himself from injury.

"the locomotive could have derailed and Keaton would have been injured or killed had he either failed to pull out the first tie on time, or mistimed the throw to the second tie"

This is dubious. The railroad ties are probably not real, and they do appear to be props. For instance, they do not feature wood grain. Most telling is the fact that Keaton was able to pick one up at all. Railroad ties are very heavy. The ties being thrown from the leading train are showing wood grain, and they are being handled by several men. This sets up the illusion for us. As a further safety measure, Keaton probably performed the stunt slowly and then accelerated it in editing.

"had the locomotive suffered a wheel spin, Keaton might have been thrown from the rod and injured or killed"

The locomotive could wheel spin if it were powering itself. Probably the engine we see is idle, being pushed or pulled by another vehicle. We see other scenes in the film where one train pushes another. Our engine is carefully framed so that the top of the smoke stack is not visible, to hide the lack of smoke, and framed so that the ends of the train are not visible, to hide the other propulsion. We don't see any incidental smoke from this engine during the scene. To enhance safety, the stunt could have been performed at a very slow speed, allowing Keaton time to jump off in case of error. Indeed, the actor playing the engineer appears to have been accelerated during editing. It's no surprise that Keaton was able to perform his actions at a suitably slow speed to create a better illusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris Fallis (talk • contribs) 04:33, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

Although it was written from the Union Army perspective, Keaton did not believe that the audience would accept Confederates as villains and changed the story's point of view

I'm inclined to remove this uncited claim in a few days if there isn't a citation added. On Sober Reflection (talk) 05:34, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Needs update, right?

…the president of the National Film Archives offered the movie's master print for production of the DVD. It is currently in production, and a worldwide tour is planned to accompany the DVD release.

That can't possibly be current, can it? Will someone w/research time please correct it? (As you can see, I haven't even time to write out "with".) – AndyFielding (talk) 08:04, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:The General (1926).webm, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for May 13, 2023. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2023-05-13. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 13:31, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

The General is a 1926 American silent film released by United Artists. It was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. The story was adapted from the 1889 memoir The Great Locomotive Chase by William Pittenger. The film stars Buster Keaton in the leading role; Keaton co-directed it with Clyde Bruckman. The General was not well received by critics or audiences at the time of its release, but it has since been reevaluated and is now often ranked among the greatest American films.

Film credit: United Artists

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