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. 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 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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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
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