Identification poster for The General
IMDb identification poster · for film identification only

Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman / 巴斯特·基顿、克莱德·布鲁克曼 · 1926

The General

The General

War, railway, flood, and broken bridge first compose an immense situation that dwarfs the little man. Continuous trajectories and the ‘miniaturization’ of machines then let a small body transform the whole through the locomotive. The General places burlesque directly inside the large form S–A–S′.

Film details

Original title
The General
Director
Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman / 巴斯特·基顿、克莱德·布鲁克曼
Year
1926
Region
United States

Film analysis: how shots organize concepts

ATLAS MECHANISM BREAKDOWN

An immense situation first surrounds the little man; continuous trajectories and miniaturized machines then let burlesque action transform the whole, forming S–A–S′.

  1. 01
    Immense situation surrounds the figure

    War front, extended railway, flood, broken bridge, and two locomotives first compose a whole beyond individual scale.

    The burlesque figure begins inside a total situation S that must be transformed.
  2. 02
    Trajectory writes action into the whole

    Pursuit, reversal, switching tracks, and bridge movement join local acts into a trajectory crossing the war space.

    Action does more than solve local obstacles; it continuously rewrites the figure’s relation to the whole situation.
  3. 03
    The great machine is miniaturized

    Locomotive, cannon, and railway apparatus are turned by Keaton’s small body into manipulable comic partners.

    The total situation S passes through action A into S′, bringing burlesque into the large form.
Atlas analysis · evidence classification unrecorded.
Reading attribution: Atlas editorial synthesis · Sources and locators

Close-reading questions

  1. 01
    How do railway, locomotive, switches, and supplies turn geography into a route of action that the body must solve continuously?
  2. 02
    As Johnny drives while moving sleepers, chopping wood, and operating a cannon, how do body and machine form an action-unit that can fail and correct itself?
  3. 03
    When the burning bridge collapses beneath the pursuing train, how does previously established spatial information let one gag also complete a decisive transformation of the military situation?

Analysis and scene sources

Shots and scenes

Primary texts, scholarship, and locators

Theory coordinate: Cinema 1, Minnesota 1986, ch. 10, pp. 173–174, 176

  1. 01
    Cinema 1: The Movement-Image

    Standard Minnesota English translation and a principal citation edition in Anglophone scholarship.

    Open the atlas source record →
Consult the primary-text locator above.

Viewing gateways and editions

  1. Verified complete Bilibili carrier: 将军号 (1926)bilibili.comOpen film page ↗
    Page access
    Accessible when checked
    Version extent
    Recorded as a complete version
    Source type
    User-uploaded page

    Edition note: Complete single-part film · 1:18:53.

    Link checked: 2026-08-14

    Report a broken linkRaise a rights query