First published on the public account "No. 3 Wenhuiyuan Road"
Speaking of Keaton, it’s not difficult for fans who have watched his films to find that since he really started to set up his own film studio, his short films can be made into a big collection, but there are not too many feature films—especially because His golden creative period is relatively short, mainly concentrated in the period 1920-1928, so his high-quality feature films are not too many. And "General", this work is even more special in that it can be called a watershed in Keaton's film career. This movie, which was called a big-handed, big-scene movie in the 1920s, encountered Waterloo at the time. To this day, when the last screening ended, I could still hear the opposite opinions outside the cinema: some people like me were so cute by Keaton, and some said, "I can't get a laugh at all, this is the bad one at the time." Piece". But no matter what the evaluation is, this general, whether in terms of its intuitive scale or the content of Keaton's own movies, can be regarded as a masterpiece of Keaton in the golden age.
Let's start from around 1920 and look at Keaton's full-length works in timeline.
At that time, the feature film starring Keaton was mainly directed by the comedy star "Fatty" (Fatty) Roscoe Abaker. Keaton was the lead actor in the film and also contributed his own creativity during the filming. However, the comedy film produced by the star who has a good understanding of Keaton is more focused on plot description. Although some of the jokes in the movie have the iconic characteristics of Keaton's own films later, they have brought these characteristics to the extreme. , There is still a long distance.
After that, Keaton shot a series of short films as a director, and launched the feature film "Three Times" in 1923. It is not so much a feature film, but the structure of this film is more like a splicing of three short films. Different stories share a "love" theme through simple cross-editing. In Keaton’s movies, love and romance must be a strong part. Therefore, wedding scenes are also elements that often appear in his movies. His movies usually have similar routines: the poor boy meets the rich and powerful rivals or rivals or rivals. Misunderstood by a loved one; discovering a turning point through your own wisdom or by chance; using your own methods to resolve previous difficulties; in the end everyone is happy. But the similar plot trend, because Keaton has small organs and small surprises belonging to different movies in each movie, which gives each movie a different charm. In the same year that the three eras were released, Keaton also released "The Way of Hospitality". Keaton took the whole family to the battle, no longer like a hodgepodge of short films, but tells a complete story from beginning to end. In this story, Keaton continued the feature of evading chase in his movie, and worked hard to avoid chasing and killing the opponent. In addition to running agile and crazy, Keaton also presented a lot of amazing disguise. This kind of stalk has been used for reference in later movies. In the way of hospitality, we can already see Keaton's follow-up on the tracks in the General-whether it is a railway changeover or a black face pitted by the train driver, we can already see Keaton using trains and railways to achieve "laughs" Fruit” ability.
Then in 1924, Keaton released his new feature film "The Voyager". Just like the name of the film, Keaton has begun a wonderful adventure on a ship. Due to the typical Keaton-style "foul play", only Keaton and his lover are on the big ship, and the process of the two people meeting on the ship has brought this sense of mischief to the extreme. The two wandered on the sea, experiencing the adventure of sailing and accidentally entering the Savage Island. After the girl was captured by the wild man, Keaton rescued his lover with his specially designed sailing suit, and the lover fought with him stupidly. This setting was also reflected in the later "General". In addition, in the same year that this work was released, Keaton’s another short feature film (45 minutes) "Holmes II" was released. This film’s dazzling editing and creativity in the play, reality and story unparalleled imagination It directly determines the status of Keaton's technical coffee. As a result, compared with the previous feature films, the technical Ka Keaton began a bold design in props and technology: underwater shots of ship repairs, half of the repair and a lobster that came to mess with it, and then was skillfully used by Keaton. Tools; he is also good at being serious and funny. When working underwater, he puts up a "Danger! Staff working!" sign; these are inadvertent laughter; the scenes against the warriors are lively and not chaotic, and a fight Quite a small battle style, it can be seen that Keaton has a strong skill in controlling the scene. Throughout the course of the story, you will be amazed by his creativity and practicality in that era, and you will also admire that he fully knows how to make the audience nervous about the plot of the story, and you will find the common jokes in the movies of the next century. I was played by this person in the 1920s. In my opinion, the two works of this year reflect the most energetic Keaton.
After Keaton, both storytelling and shooting methods are more proficient. On the basis of the original technical coffee, small organs, and dexterous editing, Keaton has completely become a scene man-the big scenes and group scheduling are simply amazing. In 1925, Keaton produced two feature films: "Seven Opportunities" and "Westbound". In these two films, a street full of brides chasing the protagonist, and the other protagonist chasing a full street of bulls, more fully demonstrated Keaton's excellent sense of photography, editing and scheduling. In particular, «Westward» is very similar to «General» in terms of structure and scene scheduling, except that the cause is explained in the first half of «Westward», and the train intervenes in the second half. In the second half of the train scene, whether it was the obstacles encountered by the robbers on the way or the arrangement of loading and unloading, we could see the shadow of the "General" to some extent. Therefore, I have always called it the "low version" "General". Such scheduling is not a flash of light. In fact, in Keaton's 1922 short film "Police", such a group chase scene has already begun to take shape. In terms of jokes and control of the audience’s emotions, Keaton seems to have a better grasp of how to use the feeling of inconsistency: the character himself is completely unaware of the environment in which he is in, but the audience is sweating for him while watching him turn danger to a breeze. , The audience's rollercoaster mentality and his own calm formed a contradictory but exciting contrast, which is hilarious and amazing.
After several years of production and performance of many feature films, "General" was finally born in 1926. This film was produced by Keaton’s brother-in-law and the producer at the time, Joseph Schenck, who invested $400,000 in a major production. Many more exciting elements. "General" is based on a true story. The structure of the entire film is very neat. The whole film is almost perfectly divided into two. The first half is the accidental beating of the lover who is robbed, and the weak train driver hero saves the beauty; the second half It is to flee the enemy with his lover, and find a way to inform the own army. The direction of the story is still roughly the same as the original feature film, but the rhythm of the whole film is very good. The first half of the paragraph is in many places the foreshadowing of the second half. In the current language, it is "the way of heaven is good for reincarnation". Waste any props. Especially the last part of the second half is the climax of the whole film. At that time, such a big scene also scared many people. In the film, the army and crowds that often appeared in groups under the background of war formed a sharp contrast with this weak train driver. The scene that surprised me the most was that the Southern Army and the Northern Army rushed past because of their different combat strategies. , Thousands of troops seemed to have no influence on this train driver. He was chopping wood on the train, thinking about the girl he would love to catch the train ahead. This is Keaton's as always, hopeless romance. These contrasts caused those "unconsciousness" effects to be stronger and more fruitful. Such a weak male protagonist is really not a strong fighter, but he is witty and courageous, and a fool is like a blessed man. Big leaks can also be picked up on the battlefield. The protagonist's wisdom and loveliness as General, is it not Keaton's wisdom and loveliness. What’s more worth mentioning is that Keaton not only worked hard on his character’s "laughing fruit" in this movie, but also did not hesitate to give other related characters a sense of joy: The Northern Army spent a long time discussing how to solve an obstacle. , As a result, it was solved by one's own within one second from another angle. After watching this movie, you will still wonder if there is something wrong with the protagonist’s position—usually, people think that the bright and upright Northern Army is just as stupid in this movie (and cuteness can be crossed out). The protagonist Keaton.
Keaton often said that this was his favorite film, but it did not achieve the results he expected. In fact, as far as the audience is concerned, many opinions and evaluations have different opinions, which is also reasonable. Such a painstaking work, in fact, is not just a simple high investment. It almost incorporates all Keaton's accumulated experience in feature film shooting. For him, high investment is just a better tool to show these experiences. Later, many filmmakers and movie websites gradually listed this legacy of the sea on their favorite or best in film history list. For Keaton, it can be regarded as a late affirmation. After Keaton signed a contract with MGM, he was restricted by the system of the film and television company and the characteristics of sound films. It seemed that he had gradually lost his original spirituality and heart. "General" was like a watershed. We are happy to see its peak, but we really have to regret the decline after the peak. But I know that, as at the beginning of "General", in Keaton’s life, there are two loves in his life, one of which must be His movie, which makes him bring a lot of flashes of himself and the times. We as The audience is lucky enough.
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