This is perhaps Buster Keaton's greatest film, and perhaps one of the greatest films of the silent era. It is surely Keaton's most technically brilliant and cohesive work. Instead of the running sight gags and physical pratfalls that usually provide the humor (I'm not complaining about that, of course) in his films, here he went for more of a story arc and dramatic effect. This is the story of a small-town train conductor during the Civil War who becomes a hero after recapturing a hijacked train from Union soldiers. It was one of the most expensive silent films ever made, and contains the single most expensive sequence in silent films. Ironically, it was also what helped break Buster Keaton's hold on the box office and the hearts of filmgoers. It was a colossal flop, and only became appreciated as the masterpiece that it is many years later.

There is no shortage of laughs, of course, especially in the beginning. Keaton plays his usual character, a small, quiet man who keeps his stoicism no matter what tragedies and insults befall him. Here he is the engineer for a supply train in the South during the Civil War. When war is declared, he attempts to join up to impress his girlfriend (Marion Mack). He is judged necessary to the war effort in his capacity as conductor, so his enlistment is refused, prompting a lengthy, hilarious sequence in which he tries to sneak into the service, terrified that his girl will think him a coward if he doesn't show up with the uniform.

Unbeknownst to him, several Union soldiers have plotted to hijack his train, called The General, and take it back North, blowing up bridges on the way. Keaton sets off after it, prompting many great sequences like his encounter with a handcar, his near-misses with a cannon, and his eventual discovery of the Union men's hideout.

The "trajectories," Keaton's own word for his elaborately planned and difficult feats of physical prowess, are among the most grand and awe-inspiring in Keaton's (or anyone's) portfolio. The justly famous scene concerning a train crashing into a river was so great that I felt like applauding. The film was so expensive that the crew couldn't afford to pay for the removal of the train, and it wasn't until World War II that the wreck was salvaged from the river for scrap metal.