In the movie The General Johnnie Gray, a simple engineer, tries to win the heart of his girlfriend by enlisting in the army. Although he is refused, he eventually takes on a group of Northern soldiers who hijack his train. Not only does he rescue his beloved Anabelle (and General), but he also helps defeat a Northern army in battle. Yet, his methods are hardly standard derring-do. Is Johnnie just lucky or a true hero? Does this film endorse standard ideas of military heroism or make fun of them? Or does this movie redefine a hero? What does this movie tell us about heroism (or related concepts of machismo, chivalry, or militarism)?
ReplyDeleteThe movie, The General, depicts Johnnie as a true hero not through his skill and knowledge, but with his undeniable motivation and spirit. While in the end, some may have considered Johnnie to be only lucky, this is not the true case. For without his constant motivation through uncertain and innumerable odds into enemy territory, his luck would have resulted in nothing at all. Examples of this argument can be seen throughout the movie. Such as, when Johnnie’s train was originally stolen, he could have easily called for help and done nothing at all. However, it was not luck that Johnnie decided to seriously throw caution to the wind by chasing the moving train down by himself. Luck then helped johnnie out again a scene after the previous when he stumbled upon a hand powered railroad based vehicle. It was not luck that powered that vehicle, but the sheer determination and will of Johnnie’s physical strength. It is important to note that while anyone could have done what Johnnie did, it took his heroic level of determination to chase after a northern army squad: outnumbering him likely 20 to one. Another such example of Johnnie’s motivation was when he stole his original train back. While he did have aspects of this mission part which included great luck, nothing of this action’s success would have been brought forth if it wasn't for Johnnie’s personal actions and heroic persistence. In the end, this movie tells a familiar tale of the hero’s story. Its descriptions of the hero differ from other media as the hero himself is not special or skilled. However his heroic persistence is what resulted in the celebration of his actions and accomplishments in the final scenes. That is what makes him a hero.
In The General, Johnnie Gray, played by Buster Keaton, emerges as a protagonist with unconventional but admirable qualities that part him from traditional military heroes. By tradition, the ideal war hero, a person with indomitable self-control, commits to war effort because of moral conviction and duty. Johnnie Gray, initially as a train engineer, clashes with this classical archetype as he is motivated to win the heart of his girlfriend, Anabelle. It is a personal motive, highlighting a more relatable and human side to his character. This departure from the typical narrative of selfless patriotism immediately challenges conventional ideas of military heroism. Though his enlistment is rejected, Gray finds a manner to display his admirable qualities when Anabelle and his train are taken. Johnnie's response is not a textbook display of bravery and planning but an improvised mess of creative tricks and cunning. He repeatedly finds himself narrowly escaping trouble in a comedy manner. Eventually, Johnny navigates back to the south to warn them of an impending invasion. During the invasion, it is his accidentally cannon fire which floods the northern push and a subsequent victory. These actions can be interpreted as both a challenge and redefinition of a hero.
ReplyDeleteJohnnie's character subverts the standard archetype by showcasing qualities like ingenuity, persistence, and an unconventional approach to problem-solving. This departure from the norm challenges the audience to reconsider what defines heroism beyond the traditional parameters of bravery on the battlefield and death. In so doing, the movie may be seen as mockery to conventional ideas of military heroism, suggesting that heroism can manifest in diverse and unexpected ways.
Buster Keaton's film, The General, depicts Keaton's character, Jonny as a protagonist, not a hero, since his successes were accidental. When Johnny is chasing the train, he loads a cannon to shoot at the opposition. Unfortunately, things get turned around and Johnny gets stuck in the crossfire of the cannon. Luckily, just as the cannon is about to fire the train takes a slight turn, angling the cannon near the opposition's train. This leads the northern soldiers to believe that the train behind them has a lot of weapons and soldiers. Here, the typical hero would correctly manage the cannon, to hit the opposition's train, and instill fear, unlike Johnny who instilled fear by luck. For this reason, although Johnny is the protagonist, his path to success does not match the ideal model of a hero. Similarly, when Jonny is in the final battle that unwarrantedly made him recognized as a war hero, he notices all his fellow soldiers around him get shot by a hidden opposing soldier. As he looks around, he swings his sword, causing the blade to fly off the handle, and, by chance, kill the hidden opposing soldier. Here, viewers root for Johnny and hope the opposition does not shoot him, however, in this scenario, a hero would stand up to the opposition face to face in a battle, while Johnny defeats him by chance. This contrast emphasizes the difference between the hero archetype and Johnny. Overall, despite Johnny's successes, and the way viewers root for him, since his path to success is different from that of a traditional hero, he does not fit this archetype.
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton’s, Johnnie Gray, despite being a clumsy and non-traditional soldier, is absolutely a hero. While there is an argument to be made that Johnnie Gray is not a hero because most of his success came from luck, I would argue often in comedies the hero of the story achieves victory or defeats the antagonist through a stroke of luck. A good example of this is in the movie Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Carrey and Daniel’s characters find themselves in a predicament when they accidently pick up a notorious kidnapper hitch hiking, though they are not aware of his profession. When the crew stops for lunch, Jim Carrey’s character Lloyd Christmas puts chili peppers in the kidnapper’s burger as a practical joke. The kidnapper is extremely sensitive to the heat and asks the duo to grab his pills. They accidently grab the rat poisoning pills the kidnapper was going to kill them with and gives those to kidnapper, resulting in his death and saving their own lives along with eventually his victims. While this scene is ridiculous, The General features similarly crazy scenes where Johnnie Gray inadvertently saves the Confederate army. For example, in a battle with the north, Gray is standing at the front lines and unbeknownst to him, all the soldiers around him have been picked off by a Union sniper. By dumb luck, Johnnie Gray begins to wave his sword around, the blade flies out of the handle, and impales the sniper across the river. Another example of dumb luck is when Johnnie Gray is trying to shoot a cannon at the enemy when he accidently fires a ball straight up in the air. Somehow, the cannon ball doesn’t land straight back down and rather takes out an entire dam which ends up completing flooding the Union’s position and leads to a Confederate victory. While untraditional to the typical action movie hero, Johnnie Gray fits perfectly into the role of a comedic hero.
ReplyDeleteThough he was significantly aided by good luck throughout his adventure, Johnnie Gray, the protagonist of The General, is a true hero because of his goals and determination. Throughout the entirety of the movie, Johnnie is aided by a multitude of comedic situations and gags. Most of his major successes against the Union soldiers are complete accidents including destroying the dam with the cannon and killing the union soldier with his sword. But the only reason that Johnnie was in the situation to be helped by luck was that his determination put him in that position in the first place. None of the chase would have happened and Johnnie would not have ended up in the Union's territory had he not stolen the second confederate train and began pursuing the General. In the two train chases into and out of Union territory, Johnny perseveres through many different challenges and antics and works his hardest to keep the train running and himself progressing to his goal. After he accidentally discovers that Annabelle had been kidnapped and there was going to be a Union sneak attack on the Confederates, he makes it his mission to get Annabelle home safely and warn the Confederates of the inbound Union troops. On his way back, he deliberately starts a fire on the bridge in order to stop the advancing trains and while the fire lit before he wanted it to and he fell in the water, this fire is what stops the advancing union attack. While some of his "heroic actions" were often not exactly what Johnnie intended to happen, they were all in line with his intentions and would not have come about if he was not pursuing an arguably heroic goal.
ReplyDeleteI think that in the film The General by Buster Kenton, Johnnie Gray is a true hero because of his heroic acts to save his lover and warn the soldiers of the upcoming attack against the South. During his journey, it is very clear that he has the advantage of luck on his side, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a hero. Similarly, heroes in more modern films needed luck in order to be the ones that were able to save more lives. Barry Allen, known as the Flash, for example, was able to save thousands of lives, but the gaining of his powers was completely by chance. So the idea of having luck on Johnnie's side doesn't invalidate his heroic acts. To me, the true identifier of a true hero is a person who is willing to risk themselves for the greater good of their city, where they are from, or for their loved ones. Though his methods of saving the girl are rather strange, he is still able to bring her to safe ground. One clear scene where his heroism is able to come into play is when he saved her from captivity. This scene shows the special relationship between the two characters; it highlights his care for the girl and shows that he is able to do whatever is necessary to save her. Throughout his journey back to the south, he has many setbacks and hardships, but is able to overcome them and get back to the town and warn them about the coming attack.
ReplyDeleteIn Buster Keaton’s movie The General, Johnnie Gray is indeed a true hero to the South, but his portrayal in the film is used to make fun of what society classifies as a “hero.” Taking into mind what literature before the invention of film defined as a hero, Johnnie fits the mold perfectly of what a classic hero is. As said by Thomas C. Foster in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, a hero is typically someone who takes on a quest leading them to another place, has a clear reason to go there, and faces countless challenges and trials along the way. Johnnie eventually takes on this role of a hero when he goes on his quest to rescue and win over the heart of Annabelle. During this quest, he goes on countless challenging adventures, such as the first-ever filmed train chase, hiding in the house of the Northern generals, and escaping from the North back to Southern territory. All of his questing was for the very distinct goal of rescuing Annabelle. At the end of the film, Johnnie, though accidentally, wins the battle against the North for the South, putting the cherry on top of Johnnie's story as a glorious hero. However, Keaton uses Johnnie Gray's character to challenge the modern definition of a hero at that time. Though Johnnie reaches his goal of saving and winning over Annabelle as the hero of the film, he does so in a very lucky manner. He only manages to give away the North’s plans because he accidentally ends up in their home, accidentally foils the North by burning the bridge to make it collapse, and by complete coincidence, kills the Northern General to win the battle when his sword flies off the handle. Keaton depicts how even though Johnnie’s success and “heroism” is by complete luck, he is still crowned as a hero. For society back then, all it took was a compelling story and a rosy ending to be crowned a hero. What comes into light in The General, is that sometimes we put on a pedestal as our hero, the least heroic person of them all.
ReplyDeleteHeroes in the media often take many forms, some simple like first responders, others much bigger like Batman and Robin, Superman, and many more. Johnie Gray’s character challenges these standards of heroism by being a hero by accident. Initially in the film he attempts to join the confederate army, not because he believed it was a cause worth fighting for, but because Annabell’s, the girl Johnie is trying to impress, brother and father say it’s what a man should do and if he does not, he’s a coward unworthy of her. When he gets in line and tries to register though, he’s turned down, not because he’s not physically capable but because he’s an engineer. Something the general at the registry decided was more important than another soldier on the battlefield. This starts to challenge the idea of a hero because it’s someone on the back end of a war, not going out and fighting for a cause, but staying back and making sure everyone else is able to get to places on time. The next step in Johnie’s journey is when his train is hijacked by Union soldiers, it’s their plan to destroy bridges on their way back to base, and ended up taking Annabelle as a hostage, which they almost do successfully if it was not for Johnie chasing after them, being almost completely unaware they were Union soldiers or that Annabell had been on the train when it was hijacked. Despite his intentions Johnie is successful in saving Annabelle, stopping the Union soldiers from cutting off the southern resource transport lines, and killing a Union general when they tried to attack the South, all by complete accident. But does this make Johnie a hero, doing everything by accident? Yes, it does, regardless of initial intentions in the end Johnie knows he had to do the right thing by saving Annabelle and warning the Confederate generals of an incoming attack, and that is what makes him a hero.
ReplyDeleteIn The General, the main character Johnnie Gray is portrayed as a fool who becomes an important figure in the confederate army. Now this is all well and good, but the way he achieved his status as an important figure was nothing but chance. So is Johnnie's new status as this hero for the confederate army deserved despite the only way of getting recognized being dumb luck? Well yes, Johnnie is a hero to his army, despite it being pure luck, due to the fact that his methods don't take away from the result. For starters, Johnny’s girlfriend was kidnapped by the Union Army, and Johnny found and rescued her, albeit by chance. However, he still got his girlfriend to safety and away from her kidnappers. That makes him a hero, because the result of the situation was that the damsel in distress was saved, which is what is most important. Getting her safe through means of a raid, or a steal infiltration are definitely options, but we don't praise heroes for their methods, we praise them for doing heroic things, like saving people in danger. Next, Johnnie is responsible for the confederate victory in the battle at the end of the film. It was his doings, despite them not being intentional, that resulted in the bombing of the bridge. It was his fault that the Union snipers and other gunmen were killed, meaning it was his doing that the Confederate won the battle. Now of course, he could have aimed his gun properly at the sniper instead of his sword handle breaking off at stabbing him, but once again, the methods do not matter nearly as much as the result. The Confederate army won the battle, the damsel in distress is safe, and the enemy has been defeated. Does that sound like a heroic tale to you? Of course it does, because Johnnie is a hero, despite being a lucky fool.
ReplyDeleteThe character Johnnie from the film The General is abnormally lucky, but his risky decisions and impressive accomplishments still make him a hero. Throughout the movie, a clueless Johnnie solves many of the military’s problems. He destroys an enemy train, kills an enemy captain and sniper, and breaks a dam to win the final battle. The thing is, all of it was luck. While at the beginning of the movie, Johnnie looks like a coward who only wants to join the war for a woman, he actually takes a lot of risks and makes many heroic decisions. Right when he realizes the enemy kidnapped his girl-friend, he takes action. Johnnie is the only person to run after the train and uses his engineering prowess to catch up to the army that is ahead of him. He infiltrates the enemy’s base and steals a uniform while saving his love interest in the process. He then steals a train and escapes from an entire army by himself using his knowledge. While many things that helped this fall into place were luck, that still takes courage. Then, when he does escape, he warns his Southern comrades that an attack is coming, saving them from an ambush, and does not run away. He goes back to the fight and, although he is not very good in combat, stands his ground. This movie did partially redefine what it means to be a hero. A hero to me is someone who is willing to step in and save others, even if they have to risk their lives. So, while many of his most impactful successes were luck, Johnnie makes heroic sacrifices and saves his comrades from massive loss of life, making him a hero.
ReplyDeleteJohnnie Gray, the protagonist of, The General, starring Buster Keaton is a hero. Although one may argue all of his accomplishments were by chance, he still had intent behind his success. To me, to be a hero, one must have noble intentions behind their actions. For Jonnie, his choice of embarking on the daunting task of rescuing the kidnapped women alone was the catalysis to his heroism. Along with making this noble decision sparking his journey he was able to follow through and ended up saving and returning the kidnapped women home. Unfortunately for Johnnie heroism means something different in the town he lives in, to be a hero you must be in the military so, upon his return, he was not celebrated as a hero because he wasn’t in the military instead he was shunned. The movie continues to play on society's idolization of the military in the early 1900s by the townspeople not respecting Johnnie until he has a uniform and it was only then that he was praised and respected for his accomplishments.
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