Film #1 is "The General", a Civil War tale involving trains, one of Keaton's obvious real life obsessions. "The General" was filmed in 1926 in the town of Cottage Grove, Oregon. He stars as the engineer of a train who tries to join the Southern Army but is rejected as being too important to the southern cause as an engineer to be sacrificed as an infantryman. Keaton helps out anyway and is chased throughout the film by the mean Yankees. There's a scene where the engine of one of the trains collapses a bridge and tumbles into the river, which happens to be the most expensive scene filmed in the entire silent film era, and it's kind of thrilling. Keaton took great pains in making sure that authenticity of the Civil War era (1861-65) was shown throughout the film, but I wish he didn't dress the Confederates in matching uniforms, like their counterparts, the Yankees. With the limited resource material he had at the time, it is understandable; however, the reality was that matching uniforms in the Confederacy was rare, for reasons too long and detailed to go into here.

Film #2 is "The Playhouse" (1921). Although this isn't as fun as the Keaton shorts that involve his being chased around Los Angeles, I found it unique and interesting. In one scene, Keaton falls asleep and dreams that he is every person inside a live theater, from the spectators (women, too), the actors - including a monkey!, the guys in the orchestra pit, and backstage help. It was hilarious to see him take every part in a minstrel show, a softshoe act (my favorite), and he had the monkey act down perfectly. Just from seeing how Keaton imitates the precise details of the various acts shows us that he absorbed A LOT from watching the other performers when he toured in vaudeville his first 20 years of life.

Film #3 is "Cops". This is one of Keaton's all-time classics. Keaton is swindled out of a wad of money by a con man who sells him some poor family's junky-looking furniture, who think Keaton was hired to be their mover. When a bomb is thrown at a policemen's parade and ends up on Keaton's wagon full of furniture, Keaton uses it to light his cigarette and then tosses it out, landing in the parade and exploding. This, of course, causes a million cops to chase Keaton through the streets. We get to see a lot of 1922 Los Angeles in this film, and sometimes you may find yourself getting too distracted at looking at the interesting streets instead of him. If you're interested in seeing more 1920's L.A. in Keaton's films, try "Sherlock Jr." and "The Goat".


GREAT entertainment for the whole family   January 23, 2000
 17 out of 19 found this review helpful

Buster Keaton has always been a personal favorite and I'm EXTREMELY HAPPY that Kino International is putting out such high quality DVDs of his work. Since many of the copyrights are now public domain, there are many garbage DVD transfers out there. Fortunately the Kino Buster Keaton series is gorgeously preserved.

If you are new to Buster Keaton's work, I recommend starting with The General DVD. It is his most seminal work and rated as one of the 10 Greatest Films of all time by Sight and Sound. The scene with the trainwreck is a cinema classic, and one of the biggest budget effects of it's day.

2 20 minute extras, 'The Playhouse' and 'Cops' are on this DVD as well, and are an excellent and welcome addition. 'The Playhouse' uses film trickery to simulate multiple Buster Keatons at the same time and stretches the technology of the day to new creative heights. 'Cops' is a great slapstick chase flick which all ages can equally enjoy.


The best silent film ever!   January 2, 2004
 15 out of 20 found this review helpful

Most silent films require some patience from modern audiences, but The General (in the version from King Video) is entertaining from beginning to end -- funny, exciting, and poignent. If you would like to try a silent film, this is the one to start with. If you find you do not like The General, then you probably can give up on silent film entirely, and move on to talkies, and the Marx Brothers. If you don't like the Marx Brothers, then there is no hope for you. Stick to Adam Sandler.


The pinnacle of silent comedy!   October 12, 2001
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

When the average person thinks of famous silent movie stars, Buster Keaton takes an undeserved backseat to Charlie Chaplin. Neither was better than the other, which is why they were both so popular.

Chaplin's movies had better stories with more original plot points, and they were able to get more emotions out of us. Chaplin could make us cry as well as laugh.

Keaton, however, had more comic invention. His movies were funnier, because he had better ideas of how to get an full laugh out of an audience.

Never is this more evident than in the DVD release of Keaton's greatest film, "The General". Watching the film for the first time, I noticed something unusual about the film. The entire film took place on a train. This is something that Chaplin would not do. He would have left the train 30 minutes into it. I think that the reason he would have left the train would be because he would have run out of ideas, whereas Keaton did not.

"The General" takes place during the Civil War, and Keaton plays a train engineer who is rejected from the Enlistment Office because of the necessity of his job. He is discouraged and his girlfriend will no longer talk to him.

Then, Union spies take his train and the girl, two things that are described in the film as "the loves in his life". He goes out to set things straight...and ends up helping the war effort in the process.

This film features the perfect example of the attraction to the silent comedy. We get the scrawny underdog, wanting to help but rejected every step of the way. Suddenly, he is thrown into a situation that under any other circumstances would be out of his league, and pulls through with flying colors. This is a dream fulfilled.

And all the while, Keaton handles the subject matter with humor that is original, inventive, tasteful, and laugh-out-loud funny. His deadpan reactions hold up better over time than Chaplin's overdone expressions.

The DVD also has some extra treats. Two shorts are included. One is "The Playhouse", which contains, if nothing else, an opening sequence that is a marvel of optical camerawork, as Keaton plays numerous characters at once, many of them interacting with each other (compare this to "The Parent Trap" and you'll see how revolutionary Keaton was).

The second is "Cops", and the film's ending is one long, fantasic chase scene. Even to this day, ideas are borrowed from this hilarious short.

If your experience with silent comedies consists only of watching characters called "The Tramp", and you want to be a Keaton fan, the DVD of "The General" is the perfect place to start.