So this is an old Buster Keaton silent movie, and I feel like it’s one of the more widely known ones out there. Which makes sense, since it’s basically the crowd-pleasing action comedy blockbuster of the ’20s (although it was kind of a flop back then, apparently).

So, the real meat of the movie is an elaborate train chase, full of epic battle scenes, huge effects sequences (like a train driving over a sabotaged bridge and plummeting into a valley)[1] and comedic bits involving flipping railroad ties around and so forth. It reminded me a lot of the Hobbit barrel chase and mine cart sequences, except obviously a lot more forgivable in context.

It’s a solid piece of craftsmanship, and if it feels a bit broad in comparison to a more character-driven silent movie like The Passion of Joan of Arc, well, it’s more in the Spielberg/Jackson/Lucas populist tradition than the indie elite art film world. So that’s part of the package, I reckon.

The one weird note is that it’s set in the Civil War, and the protagonist is on the Confederate side. So it’s like, uh, we’re supposed to be cheering for a dude bravely fighting for the cause of slavery, just a little bit awkward, Buster. I guess maybe in the 1920s the Confederacy was not seen as being as evil as the Nazis? (I mean, I guess relatively few people in the 1920s really thought of the Nazis as being super-evil, either. But you know what I mean.)

  1. This being the pre-CG days, they did this by: DRIVING A FUCKING FULL-SIZED TRAIN ONTO A SABOTAGED BRIDGE AND HAVING IT PLUMMET INTO THE VALLEY. I guess it’s good their camera didn’t jam, because I doubt you get a second shot at that. ↩︎