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 Confederate Army. Along the way the film pokes fun at the military and its hierarchy, values and symbols.
What is the film telling us about the armed forces, about war and about the values of the military? Is it a satire -- and if so, how biting is the criticism? What is war good for?
I think The General should be considered a satire, but of the social expectations surrounding war rather than the army or war itself. Buster Keaton is an incompetent soldier whose rejection into the army appears to be a theft of his manhood and confidence. The movie criticizes the implicit idea present in society that all men have to serve in the army to be considered 'real men'. It does this by highlighting Keaton as a completely incapable soldier who is still able to prevail above his seemingly strong bodied fellow soldiers and become a lieutenant. If a lowly train engineer such as Keaton can lead an army platoon, than it must not mean that much to be apart of one.
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ReplyDeleteI think The General should be considered a satire, but of the social expectations surrounding war rather than the army or war itself. Buster Keaton is an incompetent soldier whose rejection into the army appears to be a theft of his manhood and confidence. The movie criticizes the implicit idea present in society that all men have to serve in the army to be considered 'real men'. It does this by highlighting Keaton as a completely incapable soldier who is still able to prevail above his seemingly strong bodied fellow soldiers and become a lieutenant. If a lowly train engineer such as Keaton can lead an army platoon, than it must not mean that much to be apart of one. The movie could also be insinuating that war's purpose is more so to feed into our need for heroes and purpose than anything else. There's hardly any reference to slavery or other Confederate ideals that the soldiers would be fighting for which makes me think they don't want us to believe that's really what they're fighting for.
The General pokes fun at the social hierarchies surrounding the military. Keaton, a long-haired-romantic-poet-looking-man is initially rejected from serving in the army. He lacked what was thought of as the necessary “soldier like characteristics” and thus would not make a good fighter. Deemed a “disgrace to his family and the South” he was no longer accepted by society. Despite that, Buster single handedly makes fools of the entire Union army by breaching the front lines and diving deep into enemy territory with next to no resistance at all. (Remember that most of Buster’s setbacks were due to natural occurrences or the actions of Annabelle, not the soldiers). He even leads the South to victory taking down several battalions of soldiers on his own. As Buster achieves these amazing feats we get scene after scene of high ranking soldiers showing how little they know. One of the best examples of this was a scene in which Buster falls into the river, escapes, returns to the train, makes it back over the front line, returns to South camp, and rallies the Southern army all in the time it takes an entire battalion of the North’s most intelligent generals to figure out how to fix a derailed train track. In fact, the generals never figured it out as one of the two non-soldiers walked over and wacked the track into place on their own. Hilarious. In the end, Buster is given the rank of Lieutenant. This rank means everything to Buster, but having just watched over an hour of the inability possessed by high ranking soldiers, we know that the rank is meaningless. This is definitely a satire, making direct fun of the attributes we associate with those in the army. While the film makes fun of the hierarchy, it does so in a joking and easygoing way. This film is pure comedy, not a political piece of propaganda. And in general, The General is a generally well made film.
ReplyDeleteThe General is a satire that aims to make fun of the social aspects of the army and the enlisted officers themselves. At the beginning of the film, Annabelle wants Buster Keaton to enlist in the army, which, right off the bat, shows that soldiers are more respectable people than engineers. Even though engineers are clearly more important, according to the enlisting officer, Annabelle is still blinded by her ideals and won’t talk to Keaton until he enlists. Then, at the end of the film, the commanding officer takes Keaton’s uniform away, and Annabelle looks disappointed. But after he gives him a lieutenant uniform, she is overjoyed and can finally start a relationship with him. Annabelle’s ideals shape how society saw enlisted men during the civil war. The film is making fun of how soldiers were seen as more important compared to essential workers, but in reality, they weren’t. It is also commenting on the social hierarchy, and how commanding officers were respected much more than regular soldiers, even though many times, they did not do very much to earn the position and that they too started out as normal soldiers. Throughout the film, the soldiers are portrayed as either being dumb or unobservant. Keaton is able to take out quite a few of them just by hitting them quickly on the head. Somehow, he is able to steal his train back from them even though there were hundreds of men near the train who could have stopped him from escaping. In the second half of the movie, the focus is around him outsmarting the northern soldiers, who do things like send a train over flaming train tracks and burn cigar holes into tablecloths accidentally. A majority of the film makes soldiers look plain stupid, and I think that was the intention. It is commenting on how any man could be a soldier, and it does not necessarily make them smart. The director most likely believed that they were overly respected, and that different people, such as engineers, deserved that respect.
ReplyDeleteThe General gave us a clear message that participating in the war or not impacted how you were looked upon by others. Keaton, who is short with not the most intimidating look, was rejected from joining the military. The administration thought it would be better for Keaton to stay working on the trains. While Keaton himself did not know why he was rejected, himself and others assumed it was because he did not look fit enough to join. When people saw Keaton without a uniform on, he received stares and was looked down upon. This is because people valued their homes and the south, and it was a privilege to fight and protect it. It would be a shame if you refused to fight in the war when you had capabilities to add to the force. Elizabeth, a girl Keaton was trying to impress and win over, was not fond of the idea that he was not part of the Military. This was Keatons main push to first join in on the war. We could tell throughout the film that Keaton always tried his best to look as presentable as he could whenever he passed guards. This also shows that the Military valued how they looked, seeming it was an honor to fight and protect. If you did not uphold the values of the Military, you would be scolded, and looked down upon, even though it may not be said out loud. War can represent and expose characters of your forces and who you are protecting. Whether it is through being put together and planned out, or being selfish.
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