Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

20 Apr 2013, 8:16 a.m.

The General

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2013 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Oh my goodness, Buster Keaton's The General is AMAZING. Aside from being a little pro-Confederacy. Seriously, there is no reason this movie has to be about someone fighting for the racist traitors -- you could just switch sides and it would make just as much sense. Anyway, it has mindblowing stunts, jokes that stand up, and a protagonist who (unlike Chaplin's Tramp) is a hard-working competent guy. It makes me so happy to remember the look on his face the moment after something wacky happens -- sort of a scientist's resignation. Recommended.