Keaton's Civil War comedy is often described as his best. He plays an
engineer on a locomotive, The General. When it's hijacked by the other
side in the war, the film becomes a remarkably symmetrical two-part
chase as Buster regains his beloved engine and then flees his pursuers.
But though rich in period detail and impressive large-scale set
pieces, it suffers from a lack of his ingenious athletic stunts and
gags. Many of the jokes are obvious and rely on props - a railway handcar,
a pennyfarthing bicycle – making the comedy more about "days gone
by" than the human condition in general. A classic, maybe, but
classic Keaton, not really.
