Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
4/4
The General
SteelCity99 - wrote on 04/21/2018
Comedy is subjective. Specifically talking about the art of cinema, the very first face that comedy adopted is the slapstick subgenre. What are the main characteristics of slapstick comedy? Intelligent gags, violence-oriented hyperactivity, action humor, exaggerated facial expressions, comical characters and hilarious, nonsense dialogues. Most of the times, however, especially during the silent era, such stories were addressed with romance. Romance served the purpose of appealing peaceful audiences and, most of the times, for strengthening the audaciousness and characteristic motivations of the main character, decisions that would lead him to a memorable climax and a demanding happy ending. Charles Chaplin understood it; Harold Lloyd and his several directors applied the aforementioned …
Rating of
4/4
"There were two loves in his life."
Arbogast1960 - wrote on 08/08/2009
Most people are not inclined to watch silent films. To a point, this is understandable--movies wouldn't have become what they have, or have had their longevity, if they had remained deprived of sound. But anyone with even a cursory knowledge of film has seen multiple great scenes carried out wordlessly. And silent comedy is, if approached with an open mind, surprisingly accessible and entertaining, especially when performed by a genius like Buster Keaton. The stunts performed by Keaton in The General (and his other films) are remarkable, and real. There is a sense of timing and an appreciation for the demanding calculus that heightens the enjoyment in watching Keaton's misguided engineer wend his way unwittingly through Civil War battlelines. The graceful, inventive visuals …
