Saturday, October 8, 2011

"The General"

The General, Annabelle Lee

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0193.jpg

First off, I will begin with speaking about one of the most legendary and notable of silent films, The General (directed and written by Buster Keaton, along side of Clyde Bruckman). The General is a silent film made in 1929, about a man (Johnny Gray, played by Buster Keaton himself) and his love for his train. Oh--and he also loves a girl named Annabelle Lee. I phrase his love for Annabelle Lee in this manner because his love for her comes second to the train he so loves. You see, as a train engineer, Johnny Gray was rejected from the service because he was worth more to the war as he was; a simple engineer. The film hits its highest point of conflict when Annabelle Lee is captured, along with The General (Gray's Train) , by Union spies.

The General is definitely a good example of how women were viewed in and around the 1920's. Annabelle Lee is depicted as superficial, dimwitted, and ridiculously hallow. Put rather plainly and with all humor aside, she is the symbol of what misogynistic males of the time thought of women. Watching the scenes in which Annabelle was a focus, for myself, was quite painful to sit through. In the clip that follows my commentary, Annabelle is shown throwing a large piece of wood that would have done quite a good job to make the train move faster out the side of the train because there was a "hole" in it, as it appears "unusable" to her. Furthermore, she begins to actually sweep the cabin of the train. Johnny Gray then grabs Annabelle by the neck and appears to choke her (a reflection upon male stereotypes perhaps, or just Keaton's own underlying sexist opinions). What a stereotypical portrayal of women!



-Critic Neutral

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