Family Film Friday: The General

A couple of weeks ago, I showed the kids Buster Keaton's classic comedy, "The General."  I sat down at the dinner table and talked with them about not only this movie, but silent movies in general (no pun intended).  At this point, they have only seen films by Chaplin and Keaton, but we're off to a good start.  They came up with some insightful stuff:

Joel:  "We're having a dinner time discussion tonight.  Last night, we had a pizza and movie night...Corrie, tell me the name of the movie we watched."
Corrie:  "We watched 'The General.'
Joel:  "Jack, do you remember the name of the actor who stars in 'The General?'
Jack: "Johnny?"
Joel:  "Johnny is the name of the character he plays, but do you know what the actor's name is?"
Jack: "No."
Joel:  "Corrie, do you know the name of the actor?"
Corrie:  "No."
Joel:  "Stephanie, do you know the name of the actor?"
Stephanie:  "I know the name of the actor...Buster Keaton.  I like the name Buster."
Joel:  "Do you guys like the name Buster?  Buster Keaton was one of the most famous movie stars back before movies had what?"
Corrie:  "Talking?"
Joel:  "Talking, that's right.  And he made lots of silent movies.  Who is someone else we have seen in silent movies?"
Corrie:  "Charlie Chaplin!"
Joel:  "Those are the two most famous silent movie stars...some people like Buster Keaton better, and some people like Charlie Chaplin better..."
Corrie:  "I like them both equal."
Jack:  "I like them equal."
Corrie:  "They both make equally good movies."
Joel:  "What would you say is the main difference between a Chaplin movie versus a Keaton movie.  Is there any difference in the way they make you feel?"
Corrie:  "I feel like Charlie Chaplin is a little more crazy.  He does more stuff on purpose, and the stuff he sort of on purpose and sort of on accident."
Joel:  "And what does Buster Keaton do that's funny?"
Corrie:  "He reacts to stuff funny...what I liked is when he sat down on the piston and he didn't know when it started pumping."
Joel:  "Piston of what?
Corrie:  "A train."
Joel:  "Why does he sit down on the piston?  What has just happened to him?"
Jack:  "He's sad because he couldn't join the army."
Corrie:  "And because the lady said she wouldn't speak to him again until he was in a uniform."
Joel:  "So, he uses his skills as an engineer to help the army out in the war.  What is another really funny part in the movie?
Corrie:  "I like it when he disguises as a soldier and he's walking bent over...and he puts his stick forward and knocks the man out...weird..."
Joel:  "Jack, do you have a favorite part?"
Jack:  "When he climbs up on the table to cut into line."
Joel:  "The part I really love in the movie is when the Northern soldiers take something that is really valuable to him...what is it?"
Jack:  "The General"
Joel:  "What is the General?"
Jack: "I don't know..."
Joel:  "There are two things that are really valuable to him, what are they?  They are both in a picture of him at the beginning.  They take what is in the picture.  The train is in the picture...the train's name is the General.  Now, when he is chasing the Northern soldiers on the train, he does so many amazing things that the Northerners think a whole army of soldiers are on the train.  What are some of the funny, crazy things he does on the train?"
Corrie:  "He takes a cannon and hitches it to the back of the train."
Joel:  "Yeah, he shoots it by accident, and what ends up happening?"
Corrie:  "It hits the other train."
Joel:  "Yeah...my favorite part is when the soldiers put a bunch of wood beams on the tracks in front of them, and he has to try to move them while the train is going.  Now, do either of you know what a stunt man is?"
Corrie:  "A guy who does weird things?"
Joel:  "Well, in the movies people do crazy things like jump off cliffs and through windows.  A lot of times, what movie makers do is they pay famous actors a lot of money to be in their movies.  Since the movie makers are paying the actors a lot of money, they don't want them to get hurt.  So, usually, movie makers will take someone and make them look like the real actor, and they back the camera up so you can't see their face...they call that a stunt man or a stunt double.  Now, did Buster Keaton do that?"
Stephanie:  "Did he have a different person?"
Jack:  "No"
Joel:  "He was doing all of that himself.  He was climbing around a moving train."
Corrie:  "What the heck?!?!"
Joel:  "Yeah, and Charlie Chaplin was the same way!  All those things he would do when he would fall over did he have a stuntman?  Do you think that's special?"
Corrie:  "Yeah."
Joel:  "Part of what makes these guys so special is what's called physical comedy.  Do you know what that is?"
Corrie:  "I know what comedy is."
Joel:  "What's comedy?"
Corrie:  "It means funny.  Like Shakespeare plays, some of them are comedies."
Joel:  "Yeah, like 'The Princess Bride'.  Is that a comedy?  Why?"
Corrie:  "Because they say funny things."
Joel:  "Now, if comedy is partly saying funny things, what do you think physical comedy is?"
Corrie:  "Ummm...DOING things that are funny."
Joel:  "YES!!  Excellent.  So, when Buster Keaton is trying to pump that train thing and he pumps it the wrong way, that's funny isn't it?"
Corrie:  "Oh yeah..."
Joel:  "So, what Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were was masters of physical comedy?  Now, why did they have to be so good at physical comedy?"
Corrie:  "Because they were in silent movies."
Joel:  "They couldn't say like that line in the 'Princess Bride' that you like...'Stop that rhyme now I mean it..."
Corrie and Jack:  "Anybody want a peanut?"
Joel:  "They couldn't do that, so most of the comedy is in their..."
Corrie:  "Expressions...
Joel:  "In their falling over...so that's what makes Buster Keaton special.  Another thing that makes him special...go ahead Corrie..."
Corrie:  "What I was going to say...when the big wooden beam in front of him on the train, and he's on the plow, and there's another wooden beam...he ises the other wooden beam to get it off."
Joel:  "I want to ask you one more question about Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.  When you see their faces, are they different in how they use their faces?  How?  Does Buster Keaton smile?"
Corrie:  "No."
Joel:  "Does Charlie Chaplin smile?"
Corrie:  "Yeah."
Joel:  "So, I'm going to ask the question again, how do they use their faces differently?"
Corrie:  "Well, Charlie Chaplin is sometimes in a way happier mood."
Joel:  "Would you say that Chaplin is more expressive with his face?"
Corrie: "Yeah"
Joel:  "Jack, is there anything else you want to say about The General?"
Jack:  "Well, the he thinks that part of the train and throws it out..."
Joel:  "Well, you guys have been able to watch some classic movies with me...I hope to watch a lot more with you..."
Corrie:  "One more thing...I think that silent movies are equal to talking movies.  It's almost like 'Fantasia.'  With 'Fantasia', it's almost like the music is the talking and it's leading you through the story and also in the movies of the General and Chaplin movies, I feel like their actions...sometimes they mouth words and the way they move is the action."
Joel:  "All right! Great job."

Young Adult

This movie takes no prisoners.  The protagonist begins the movie a loser, and ends the movie a loser.  She may have learned something along the way, but the film maker sort of leaves her development open ended. This movie represents another challenging character study by Jason Reitman, the film's director.  This is his fourth film, and all four are provocative.  "Juno", his second film, is a wonderful film which deserves its own blog entry.  It's protagonist has a lot of the sass, but still ends her story in a redemptive light.  Both in this film and in Reitman's third film, "Up in the Air," the main characters are narcissists who encounter a crisis.  In both films, the story ends in an open ended way, and the viewer is left in the uncomfortable position of having no closure with characters who, despite their issue, have become sympathetic to the viewer.

Mavis (Charlize Theron) is a 37 year old writer who long ago left the small Minnesota town of her upbringing.  She has moved on up to the big city of Minneapolis, and looks back on her home town with utter disdain.  She has moved on to better things in her mind.  The problem that becomes clear to the viewer is that she lives a pathetic life.  Her life involves dragging herself out of bed, downing booze and Diet Coke, having shallow sex, and then congratulating herself on escaping her small town upbringing.  Into this existence comes a bombshell...her old boy friend sends her a birth announcement.  He and his wife have had a daughter.  Mavis convinces herself that her old boyfriend Buddy is in desperate need of saving from the shackles of domestic life.  She travels back to her home town to "save" him.  While there, she meets an old high school classmate Matt (Will Patton) who had once idolized her.  Now, he walks with a crutch after he was beaten almost to death in high school because some students thought he was gay, though he was and is not.  Mavis begins her mission, but it becomes clear very soon that the people she grew up with are not the people who need saving.

This movie is a great platform for the acting talents of Theron.  Here, though she still retains her natural beauty in some scenes, she is called upon to look trashy and washed up in many scenes.  She is completely believable as she inhabits her role.  She looks tired and worn out by life, and the look that the make up and costume people did for her character makes the character very believable.  She still has her beauty, but she has let herself go.  She is cowering into a world in which she has no attachments and nothing to tell her that she lives a pathetic life.  She begins a friendship with the man  who once idolized her, and this man acts sort of like Jiminy Cricket to her Pinocchio.  He tries to steer her away from her actions, but in the end she is so delusional that she attempts to win over her married ex-boyfriend anyway.

The movie has a lot to say about happiness, projection and perception.  Mavis is miserable, and yet she projects that misery onto others.  Hence, she perceives her ex-boyfriend as a miserable man, even though he is happy.  In the end, she is challenged and becomes aware that maybe she is the miserable one and everyone else is happy.  There is one thing left to note.  There is an actress who plays Matt's sister.  Her name is Collette Wofle.  She is only on the screen for a few moments, but in those moments she becomes utterly familiar to us.  She is a sycophant.  As Mavis ruminates over the pathetic state of her life, Sandra listens in shock to discover that the woman who she always thought so cool is so miserable.  As Sandra reels Mavis back into her delusion, we understand Sandra.  She is the person who always thinks the grass is greener on the other side.  She is the voice of all of our insecurities, as we looks to people we think are cooler and more sophisticated.

Jason Reitman is on quite a good run as a director.  It is always fun to have film makers to follow and anticipate their next piece of work.

Trailer Tuesday: The Campaign

This movie looks not only like it will be funny, but also that it's coming out at the perfect time.  If ever there is a time when we may some comic relief, an election season is it.