The General, one of the great and enduring silent film comedies, takes its title from the name of the engine around which the whole movie revolves. It is a locomotive hijacked by Union troops, which the Southern hero rescues along with his beloved. The General achieves its humorous highlights by allowing events of wild comedy to unfold against an authentically reconstructed background whose often extraordinary visual beauty is reminiscent of Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs. (Bucher's Encyclopedia of Film) Buster Keaton: “I'm prouder of this movie than any other I've made. I took a leaf out of the history book and stuck to it in every detail.”