A classic stunt

August 18, 2021 4:53 AM

And possibly the birth of the action-comedy? Buster Keaton did the railroad stunt himself in The General. It must be noted that the film's genre does not excuse its racist undertones.
posted by jumanjinight (5 comments total)

To add insult to injury with the racist undertones in The General - I watched that film for the first time only a few days after the Charlottesville riots, and that timing ruined the film for me.

And I love Buster Keaton. But that just....hurt to see.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

There are times when over-thinking a subject matter can lead, many (96) years later and when social values were significantly different, to someone drawing vague conclusions and making assumptions with little or no knowledge of the thought process behind an action or comment AND basing this upon present day values. Not only does this make any claims somewhat tenuous, it tends to push the present day struggles for proper representation into the background and undervalues the efforts being made. All this from a sign and a brief 5 seconds of film clip with zero actual facts regarding the construction of a scene. There are many moments in many movies which would/could be considered questionable at the very least (e.g. there are echoes of slavery/sexism etc throughout the original Star Wars movie (and many other 'modern era' movies which seem to have been overlooked or not considered). For example, taking a completely alternative stance - it is perfectly possible that Keaton could have been displaying the very inequalities that make the central character do the things he does.

I am certain several people will find the above not in line with their thought processes... the blog post is, in my opinion, over-thinking the true scale of the problem which will take you down a rabbit hole of semantics and micro detail rather than pointing out that this was a different era which, gladly for me, is a now to be used as but one of many examples of the inappropriateness of humankind's suppression of others.

I understand the inappropriateness of MANY such film moments - the female character in Tom and Jerry cartoons has in all latter releases been eradicated despite there being no indication throughout whether they are a servant or home owner (unless someone would please correct my understanding of a specific instance I may have missed) because she is black and talks with a southern accent. Or are there other representations in there?

BUT WAIT: while revisiting many of the egregious examples may prove your film/media buff credentials, please remember there are multiple present day issues where energies need to be properly focused.
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 6:22 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't think it needs to be parsed too finely - it's a movie where the actual historical slaveholders are the good guys and we get to celebrate their victory; can't see how you can talk about the movie in any way in 2021 and not at least touch on the subject.

This is not on the same level as debating whether C3PO and R2D2 are people and buying them makes Luke Skywalker a slaveholder.
posted by each day we work at 6:31 AM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

please remember there are multiple present day issues where energies need to be properly focused.

Seriously?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

You might say I’m reading too much into literally five seconds of film, but let’s consider a few things. Keaton, as a director, has been rightly praised for decades for his impeccable grasp of visual storytelling.

This hits the nail on the head--you can't simultaneously praise Keaton's prowess when it comes to detail while simultaneously hand-waiving away certain details as insignificant. If it's in the film, it's because he wanted it to be there.

We can either decide that Keaton wasn't really that great of a filmmaker because he didn't understand the significance of certain visuals like the slave carrying the trunk and the cotton growers sign, or he was racist and deliberately included them because of their significance.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:47 AM on August 18, 2021