buster keaton always amaze me . he be truly one of the most hilarious deadpan screen clown of early cinema . and the general and even clock in at around three hour and be surprisingly watchable base on his physical performance alone . grant and i still admit that i prefer the silent clown in short and because it can be a bit exhaust to watch them in an entire feature and especially since they be often string of vignette thrown together and my modern brain prefers to edit out everything that unnecessary and but some of the joy in these film be find in those very moment . there be multiple point in the general and a story about a southern engineer that have to rescue his beloved from the clutch of the north in the civil war and where keaton character and johnnie gray and have to stop his train and jump out and and remove something from the track and which in itself can be quite boring and but the way that keaton injects physical comedy into those moment keep me entertain . and it a marvel how so many realistic and yet comedic stunt that keaton could come up with . it nothing fantastic like some of his other film and but it still funny . and i think the strong point of his comedy be his completely stonefaced response to all adversity but he let you see just a little his plight in his eye and it just enough to know that he be frighten and but that the rest of him doesn not react similarly creates such an amusing dissociation that it go from bizarre to funny . whether he pratfalling due to surprise or erroneously succeed at something he unskilled in and be shock by it and that response of his be win . but the general do show it age a little . it exist in a time when people be still get quite use to movie and so there be a lot of space that doesn not get edit out to help people get a good sense of the context . i wouldn not dare cut those moment out of this film and even if i could re edit it and because the space always have something go on and but at the same time and this film and if make today and would be cut to one and a half and or two hour and pack in the comedy more tightly . the plot and story be simple and but exist more than to just help the comedy move along except at the end when the first story be accomplish . then we move into a second extraneous and but still amusing and story regard a battle between the north and the south that could have be excise and still have a decent and though simple and story . i do not really love the score that the dvd company attach to it and which be a number of classical piece end on end . i think a new commission soundtrack would have good match the piece and but i guess we get what we get . and on the plus side and you can always mute the movie and play whatever on top of it . be it perfect . no . but despite the age it show and it still hold up a an enjoyable work from one of cinema great physical comedian . if you want to spend three hour with a silent clown and this be not a bad way to go . positive .