The General Film Analysis

Buster Keaton is funny – a fact evident from a viewing of The General (Keaton, 1926), ninety years on. His mastery over visual comedy: the physical nuances it exemplifies, coupled with the deadpan expressions that garnered him the nickname The Great Stone Face, are the driving forces behind his continuing appeal.
In one of the very first scenes in the film, we see Keaton as Johnnie Gray walk up to the house of Annabelle Lee, one of the loves of his life – the other being his engine: The General – followed by two young boys. Completely absorbed in the task at hand, Johnnie is oblivious to Annabelle joining his merry band. Mechanic in his movements, he leads them to the porch of her house and begins sprucing himself up. He then proceeds to knock on her
They attempt to kiss but this is unsuccessful as a soldier walks by from the left, forcing Johnnie to pull away from their embrace, and give a salute with his right hand. This situation repeats itself a couple of times until, upon noticing numerous soldiers exiting their tents, Johnnie switches sides with Annabelle. This does away with him needing to pull away, as his dominant hand now faces the incoming soldiers. He proceeds to kiss Annabelle, while offering up a flurry of
When Johnnie solves this problem and can finally do so without interruption, his immediate contentment is evident.
The scene harkens back to Johnnie’s previous interaction with the side rod, at a time when he was in some emotional turmoil. In contrast, he is now in a much better frame of mind, having not only regained Annabelle’s affections but been accepted into the army too. Johnnie’s story has been brought full circle, from happy to sad to happy