Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Gag and Story
In comedy, especially in physical comedy, there is always a tension between the gag and the story. The gag is a visual joke, be it a pratfall or an unexpected (and sometimes seemingly impossible) achievement. If a comedy focus too much on the gag, the story bogs down. That was one reason so many early silent comedies were shorts. If a comedy focuses too much on the story, there is not enough visual invention to be funny. The General, however, is widely viewed as a masterpiece in integrating the jokes and narratives. FOCUS on one visual gag and explain how it serves the interest of the story in terms of such things as plot, character, or theme.
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The one visual gag that I want to focus on is when Johnnie is chasing the northern generals. The generals release a car in the back of their train to get in Johnnies way. Johnnie quickly try’s a the next junction to put the car that is slowing him down on a different track, he succeeds but the extra track quickly reconnects to the main track and the extra car is still in front of Johnnie. Then the northern generals put large pieces of wood on the track which in turn derails the extra car. The gag, or gags, in this series of events is the reaction or lack thereof reaction from Buster Keaton. He first is surprised that the car is there, he then looks away for what seems like a couple seconds and the car is no longer there. This ties in both with the character Johnnie and the plot. It ties in with the character as he is trying to be a hero and pursue the northern soldiers with his knowledge of the rails and that he is trying to do that as fast as possible by getting rid of the extra car. This also in part shows his heroism as he is trying to catch up to the northern soldiers so he can face them and save his girlfriend. This also develops the plot as there is a constant battle between Johnnie and the northerners on the rails as to who is out smart and thus slowing down the other. This is just one of the many gags that Johnnie and the northerners take part in via the rails during the duration of the movie. Through those examples you can see how even one little gag like the one I described above can be funny as well as having plot implications at the same time.
ReplyDeleteIn the film The General, the moment where Johnny Grey accidentally loses control of the railroad hand car shows a perfect balance between physical comedy and the progression of the story. Compared to some of the other gags in the film, this pratfall is reasonably short. It begins with Johnny Grey following his stolen train in a hand car. A previous scene shows the union soldiers wedging rocks into the track and removing a piece of rail in an attempt to derail any pursuers. Johnny Grey comes across the ruined section of track and as the Union soldiers intended, he loses control of his hand car. He falls off as it derails and it rolls down a small embankment into water and falls apart in the process. Aside from this pratfall’s visually amusing component, it also contributes greatly to character development. Johnny Grey’s initial failure in trying to get his train back allows him to show perseverance. He does not give up, but continues his search both by bicycle and on foot. Johnny Grey’s determination also plays into one of the main themes of The General. The film often questions who can be considered a hero. By exhibiting Johnny Grey’s positive qualities such as tenacity, the film suggests that it is possible for heroism to be determined by strength of character, not physical prowess. Finally, the hand car scene manages to be amusing while still moving the story along. Johnny Grey is able to continue his mission more or less uninterrupted and the film’s audience benefits from a humorous scene.
ReplyDeleteIn The General, protagonist Johnnie Grey has two loves: his train, The General, and his woman, Anabella. Thus, when both are stolen by Union soldiers Johnnie Grey immediately gives pursuit. Arriving at a Confederate military encampment, Johnnie raises the alarm, hollering, “Three men stole my general. I think they are deserters.” The soldiers board the second train compartment while Johnnie Grey boards the engine car. He starts the train and the engine car begins to accelerate, yet the rest of the train remains stationary. The train cars were not hooked together. The soldiers on the train stare in confusion, then jump off of the train and wave in a useless attempt to get Johnnie Grey’s attention. This unexpected visual joke is funny and yet it also has a major impact on the continuing plot of the story. While laughing at the joke, it begins to sink in to the audience that Johnnie Grey is truly alone in his mission. It is now up to him and only him to chase the Union army and recapture his train and his woman. It is amusing how oblivious he is to the situation and even more amusing to see his shock when he swivels his head and realizes there are no train cars teeming with Confederate soldiers behind him. Nevertheless Johnnie Grey continues on his pursuit. This gag has deeper significance to the viewer’s perception of the character Johnnie Grey and ultimately to what defines a hero. The way in which he deals with this setback illustrates his resiliency, strength, and ability to overcome a setback. It is his belief in himself that keeps him going and not his physical ability nor the help of others. The visual joke portrays Johnnie Grey as silly and slightly careless in his earnestness. At the same time this scene makes the viewer feel sympathy towards Johnnie Grey. The viewer cannot help but admire the fervor with which he attempts to reclaim his train and his woman, and admire his courage in proceeding alone.
ReplyDeleteThe General is credited as a masterpiece in combining plot and humor, a feat that was rather rare at the time that The General was filmed. The film features an engineer, Johnnie Gray who chases down Northern Union soldiers after they hijack one of his two loves – his train engine. Gray is not necessarily a built man – he stands nearly 5-5 and was even refused from the Confederate army for being “more useful as an engineer”. When he pursues the Union soldiers, however, one could argue that Gray might even make a better soldier than an engineer.
ReplyDeleteThe scene I’d like to focus on is early in the movie right after Gray steals a train to chase the Northern soldiers. As soon as Johnnie Gray picks up a cannon to accompany him on his pursuit, Gray singlehandedly demoralizes a Northern battalion. In addition to causing the soldiers to think they were outnumbered three to one, he forces them to modify their escape by abandoning a railroad car. However, the satirical nature of this film interrupts his escapade as then angled cannon points directly at Gray after becoming detached from his main engine (so much for being useful as an engineer). In an attempt to escape from the cannon, he climbs up the main engine, stumbling on his way, and even stops to throw a piece of wood in a futile attempt to stop the cannon from firing (on second thought, he might not be that great of a soldier). This entire scene is so characteristic of Gray’s behavior: klutzy, ambitious, and quite brave (as seen from the rest of the film). The attempt to stop the cannon by throwing a slab of wood is a perfect addition to this obviously humorous scene, as throwing a piece at a cannon will not prevent it from firing (trust me on that one). The icing on the cake in this scene comes when the train tracks just happen to angle so that the cannon fires in the direction of the Northern soldiers, further demoralizing them. The gag in this scene comes from the perspective of both parties: while the soldiers are supposedly soiling their pants from the fear of the incoming Southern train, Gray too is soiling his pants from the cannon aimed at his train. The hilarity that ensues from this one man army is what makes this movie a masterpiece
As the film industry developed in the early 1900's, with better technology ensuring higher quality takes, and a growing clientele base of millions throughout the world with increasingly high expectations, innovation and creativity in films were key to bringing them to the forefront. The 1926 film "The General" starring Buster Keaton is exemplary of this notion, as it successfully incorporates comedy with a relevant storyline to enhance the point which the film is trying to make; that the Civil War was much more than the accomplishments of a few well-known leaders. Perhaps the best example of this is when the protagonist Johnnie Grey is pursuing Unionists who have stolen his train, the General, (as part of a multi-faceted plan to plunder the Confederate's success in the Civil War), and decides to fire a cannon at the enemies with a train he himself has "stolen". The determined Grey loads the cannon with a minuscule amount of gunpowder and a cannonball, and later lights the fuse, returning to conduct the train. The camera zooms out to show the entire train, and suspenseful music suggests a highly important event to proceed. Instead, the weak ball is shown departing the caboose and landing right next to Grey, a traversed distance of just a few meters. Yet the tireless Grey returns to the caboose and reloads the cannon, this time with the full quantity of gunpowder available. After lighting the fuse, he attempts to return to the front of the train, yet his foot gets stuck on the connector between the caboose and the wood cart, causing the caboose with the cannon to disconnect from the train. Making a quick recovery, he then watches the cannon's pivoted component gradually level down due to railroad bumps and point towards him, and he attempts to climb the wood cart's stairs. Yet he fails once again when his foot gets entangled in a random chain, as he tries to escape the impending, life-threatening danger of the cannon. When he escapes the chain, he climbs to the top of the cart and throws a light piece of wood at the approaching cannon, as if it were some threatening animal, but this has no effect. Standing there like an idiot, he finally makes the smarter move of embracing for his life on the "cow catcher". Just as the audience is contemplating the clumsiness and lack of common sense which Grey exhibits, the train suddenly enters a bend, after which the cannon simultaneously fires, missing Grey's train and nearly hitting the enemy's. At this point, the enemies are under the belief that a massive army is in their pursuit, possibly stronger than they are.
ReplyDeleteThis scene, with its endless irony and comedy, essentially serves one main interest: enhancing the plot so that it makes the aforementioned point; that the renowned heroes of the Civil War were overemphasized and that the little accomplishments, though overlooked, had a much bigger impact. The fact that Grey, being one of the most incompetent men audience has probably ever seen, succeeds alone in taking on a handful of Confederates suggests that there were a whole league of little, unnoticed accomplishments which collectively meant more than the accomplishments of a well-known hero. If the film had not shown Grey’s proneness to failures and lack of common sense, in other words if the cannon hadn’t been disconnected, if he hadn’t been entangled in chains, if he hadn’t improperly loaded the cannon, and if he hadn’t dumbly thrown wood at the cannon pointed directly at him, the movie would no longer make this point. If none of these had happened, he would have no difference from a general (the only difference would be that he didn’t have a uniform). The fact that the cannon, which could very well have killed him, almost hit the enemy by luck, adds the idea that actions are reciprocal; one could contribute to the war effort and go unrecognized and unpaid, but in return he/she would gain success through some stroke of the universe and fate (ie. luck, in this case). So, the broad message of the film is that individuals who contribute in activities without personal ambitions are more valuable than the most prominent people in that field.
ReplyDeleteThe one gag that I found very interesting, considering the time period, was the one surrounding Johnnie’s fiancée, Annabelle Lee. In the film, there seemed to exist a running gag on her uselessness and the general female stereotype of being incapable. However, whether it was by accident, to add to the story of their love, to add to the comedy, or to bring about an entirely new sub-story surrounding gender roles, I found this gag to be very interesting in that it also consisted of a clear running story.
ReplyDeleteThe running story that I noticed, pretty clearly, was the growth of Annabelle Lee’s character throughout the film. For example, more towards the beginning and when she was first rescued, she contributed to the simple running gag of the useless woman. However, throughout the film, she became more and more competent, more and more reliable. By the end of the film, she knew how to use a train, and she knew how to, more or less, be the soldier that Johnnie was trying to be. I liked this because while certain scenes she was involved in contributed simply to the gag, other times, it became clearer that this gag was developing into a story of her growth as a character.
I would assume that this gag/story combination was meant to contribute to the comedy but that would have to be a separate argument. I found this to represent, pretty clearly, the exact masterpiece that this movie is. This is the ideal example, for me, that does that.
Out of the many visual gags in the General, I would like to specifically focus on the gag when Johnnie uses a piece of wood that was on the tracks to knock another piece of wood off the tracks. This scene in The General emphasizes the extent of luck that Johnnie had throughout the movie. Johnnies luck really seems to play out for him throughout the film. Every instance throughout the film where Johnnie seems to be backed against the wall, his great amount of luck pulls through to save him. By having these two extremely important factors in the movie contrast, it illustrates the way comedy and story intermix in The General; a feat never successfully accomplished before in a film. Johnnie, being a rather small, not built man, seems that he would not be capable of fighting off the many soldiers that he runs into on his escapade of retrieving his train from the Northern Union that stole it from him. Scenes like this prove the General’s successfulness in merging both a long, thorough story and the visual gags that was revolutionary at the time. This scene in particular serves the interest of the story in terms of plot, theme and character in many ways. This gag serves the interest of the comedic theme in the film. Visual gags in the film are integrated to make the audience laugh as much as possible during the films. The visual gag on the train also serves to represent Johnnie and his personality. It shows that Johnnie is filled with luck and goes on to ‘defy the odds’. This visual gag adds to the many more gags that come in the film, the many that make the film the masterpiece that it is.
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