Buster's Civil War views
Why do you think Buster chose to show the story from the perspective of the south? He was northern, and hopefully had northern views (at least on slavery), no?
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MovieChat Forums > The General (1927) Discussion > Buster's Civil War views
I think it was a case of, the events that inspired the film happened to be from the point of view of the South. Well at least the interesting part of the story, with Buster's character risking life and limb for his beloved train. I doubt that it was anything other than the fact that he had a love for machinery, than any sort of political views that made him make the film.
shareIt's a comedy, and you don't need to espouse the views of either side in order to enjoy it. Too much is made of this non-issue in my opinion.
shareIn the Thames documentary on Keaton, 'A Hard Act To Follow,' they indicate that Buster chose to tell the story from the perspective of the South, because there were lots of people still alive at the time whose fathers or grandfathers had fought in the Civil War, and he didn't want to rile up half of his potential audience by looking like he was making fun of the side that lost.
- Crazy. All crazy but I'm.
Did that source state that that was the primary reason or a minor reason? Timewise, this film is equivalent to a WWII movie made in 2005. So fully agree that most people's fathers or grandfathers would have served or at least had direct connections to the war.
However, more than half the audience would have been Northerners - and they made them look pretty silly (for example, the scene where the switch is broken and they're trying to fix it. They all fail miserably until the engineer comes and whacks it with an axe). Supporting evidence for the theory would be that there was a lot of sympathy for the Southerners - scrappy underdogs have a special place in American's hearts. I've heard that while the Notherners won the war, it was the Southerners who won the peace.
But my own perspective is that the story simply works better on a individual level if he starts as a Southerner. It allowed him to be the hero and win the girl, rather than part of a team which lost the train (if he wanted to stick closely to the actual history).
However, more than half the audience would have been Northerners - and they made them look pretty silly (for example, the scene where the switch is broken and they're trying to fix it. They all fail miserably until the engineer comes and whacks it with an axe).
To me, that scene just made the Army look silly; all of these top commanders standing around a broken switch arguing ineffectively, then a no-nonsense, blue-collar engineer comes up and *whack!*
You can probably find 'A Hard Act To Follow' on Youtube; I only have it on VHS, and I don't have an operable VCR. I just recall Buster saying that he had to make the South the sympathetic side, and the narrator mentioning that memories of the U.S. Civil War were still fresh, at the time.
- Crazy. All crazy but I'm. share
Is it THAT important that Buster have "northern views" on slavery for you to enjoy the film?
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