The General / Steamboat Bill Jr.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it, Buy it Now!
Review: The General is a great movie. The Prints are the best I seen for this movie. Alloy Orchestra is the best. The Chugging sound fits in good. In Steamboat Bill Junior Buster Keaton does a stunt where a two ton wall falls on him but he goes right through the window.
Buy It!

Rating:
Summary: Deserves its reputation: a masterwork.
Review: The General

Buster Keaton's love of history, engineering and operatic displays of action are put to their finest use in his masterwork, The General. However unwelcoming the concept of an incredibly accurate historical movie about the civil war may seem, or a title which refers to an army rank, rest assured that The General is imbued throughout with a wonderful sense of fun, as with all Keaton. The pervasive irony running through The General is the fact that little Buster is helping fight the civil war just by happenstance - all he really wants to do is save his girlfriend. The appeal of The General may lie in its ability to take you back to what it would have been like in frontier America, its remarkable visual beauty (incredible cinematography), or possibly Keaton's trademark operatic stunts, the climax of this movie which is one of his most impressive (the famous bridge scene was the most expensive shot in all of silent cinema).

But the thing which makes this and all Keaton films a joy to watch is the irrepressible charm and appeal of his onscreen persona. You just can't help liking little Buster, and rooting for him in all the troubles he happens to fall into. 5 stars from me - one of the all time greats.

This DVD is a great buy, b.c you get Steamboat Bill Jr also - one of Buster's best features, which sees his little character at his most charming, trying to woo the daughter of his father's rival steamboat captain. The effectiveness of the storm scene at the end are alone worth the price of entry - you'll be surprised.

Rating:
Summary: FINEST TRANSFERS
Review: These are two of the greatest silent comedies and the finest of Buster`s meticulous `stone faced` work. An Image DVD is usually a guarantee of highest quality material and these transfers are absolutely superb.

Taken from the highest quality 35mm material itself drawn from original nitrate negatives the image quality is unbelievable for films almost 80 years old.

These prints really highlight what excellent films these are and with detail so crisp and sharp it is like watching a new version.

Now the soundtrack: They are presented with a new stereo soundtrack composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra and it is actually incredible. It is synchronised so well using instrumentation that even Buster`s stone face would be smiling. It has a quirkyness and originality that is so fitting with the two films. It really breathes new life into these movies.

Overall this is the finest presentation I have seen of two of the greatest silent films of all time!

Rating:
Summary: The Keaton DVD you've been waiting for....
Review: Well, at least it's the one I was waiting for. "The General" is one of my all-time favorite movies, and "Steamboat Bill" is my second most favorite Keaton movie. I've seen the Kino DVDs of both films, and I was blown away by the quality of Film Preservation Associates' restoration. Just astonishing--they look like they were filmed last week.

If there was one weak point of those DVDs, it was the music. For example, the music for "General" was basically a series of Civil War tunes. Not bad by any means, but unremarkable. The music didn't add or subtract from either movie.

That all changes with THIS new DVD edition! The Alloy Orchestra (which is actually just three people) composed and performed brand new scores for both films, in high fidelity stereo (of course). The difference is astounding. Thanks to the new scores, both movies have a new energy and immediacy, and I find this edition to be far more entertaining than the original Kino releases. And, since the versions of the films on this DVD are the same FPA restored versions on the Kino releases, I'd have to say this is the DVD that Buster Keaton fans should DEFINITELY own, even if they already own the first Kino releases.

But don't just take my word for it. If you can, rent this DVD, compare it to the original Kino release, and judge for yourself. See if you're as impressed as this Keaton fan was.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome visual quality and music!
Review: While the Kino releases of these and other Buster Keaton films are entertaining, this release has the advantage of (1) being taken from excellent prints of the movies, and (2) the music (non-intrusively) complementing the story. In The General the music has a simple chugging quality, and changes tempo with the speed of the trains, while in Steamboat Bill it imitates the windstorm. It's a great effect - the music, while not a "soundtrack," onomatopoeietically (?) does what the musicians in the original theaters likely did - it helps bring out the excitement in the story.