The F. W. Murnau’s masterpiece silent film “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans”, is amusing for the effects of its songs and the mood of humanity. But I think the plot of the film is too obvious and preaching. I prefer “The General”, for the style of Keaton's comedy. The plot is very simple but full of surprise and is funny. It’s a story of a railway engineer, Gray, using his locomotive to chase the enemy to rescue his girlfriend. Gray is too concentrated on his work and often overlooks the circumstances. For example, he makes many mistakes during the train chase and under the table in the enemy’s house. But fortunately, the mistakes he has made, like the poorly aimed cannon, the broken sword, and wearing the wrong uniform often cause a lot of unexpected and funny results. Keaton's comedy is not just for fun. Many actions have his serious thoughts behind the humorous activities, such as, Gray doing his job on the train in spite of the Northern army teams passing by. He also set the marvelous scene of the bridge collapsing with the train. That was incredible at that time. Therefore, I realized that Keaton, the Great Stone Face, might want to show us many deep meanings through his unique silent language in "The General”.
The F. W. Murnau’s masterpiece silent film “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans”, is amusing for the effects of its songs and the mood of humanity. But I think the plot of the film is too obvious and preaching. I prefer “The General”, for the style of Keaton's comedy. The plot is very simple but full of surprise and is funny. It’s a story of a railway engineer, Gray, using his locomotive to chase the enemy to rescue his girlfriend. Gray is too concentrated on his work and often overlooks the circumstances. For example, he makes many mistakes during the train chase and under the table in the enemy’s house. But fortunately, the mistakes he has made, like the poorly aimed cannon, the broken sword, and wearing the wrong uniform often cause a lot of unexpected and funny results. Keaton's comedy is not just for fun. Many actions have his serious thoughts behind the humorous activities, such as, Gray doing his job on the train in spite of the Northern army teams passing by. He also set the marvelous scene of the bridge collapsing with the train. That was incredible at that time. Therefore, I realized that Keaton, the Great Stone Face, might want to show us many deep meanings through his unique silent language in "The General”.
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ReplyDeleteComparing to the “Sunrise”, I like the “General” better. It is a hard-time story that happened in the war period, but it told us a romantic and hopeful process in a delight way. Without speaking, the character expressed out his wisdom, love, and loyalty by his humor actions. For example, he entered his lover’s room without finding there were three boys behind him into the room. Then he just put his hat on and showed a pretending to outside. The boys went out and he immediately closed the door, leaving himself and his lover inside. It was a usual and simple behavior, but full of humorous sense. At the same time, it showed his adoration to his girl. His over-luck also showed a strong comedy . Liked his mistaking with his gun shot the enemy’s officer. Anyway, this is an excellent silent film.
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