In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $26 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at about amazon.ca. My name's Renee, and I'm good at plenty of things. For instance, I'm really good at parallel parking. But I am terrible at movies. Like, really, really bad. So that's why I ask my friends to challenge me to watch their favorite movies so I can build up my repertoire and stop looking like such a goddamn idiot. Sometimes I like the movie, sometimes I don't. But either way, my friend and I are going to talk about it.
So for today's show, I have my great friend and fellow moonroofer, Dee Belenis. He's actually a host of another Second Wind Collective show, the old scratchy radio hour featuring The Wolf. And today we are talking about a movie, The General, starring Buster Keaton. And so I haven't actually seen this movie. And judging just from the title alone, I'm guessing the movie is about like a general of some kind of war. And all his soldiers like don't really like him, but then they learn to respect him. But there's a big plot twist. And you find out that the general.
has in fact been a woman the whole time? What? But you know what? People find out there's a little bit of outrage, but then they learn, hey, it doesn't matter, because women can be strong leaders too, and the soldiers respect her even more in the long run. They end up winning the war that they are fighting. So that's probably what it's about, right? Let's go ahead and watch the movie, and then Dee and I are going to talk about it. Here we go.
Hello, Dee Belenis. Thank you so much for doing this with me. You're welcome. And you picked a very interesting movie. I did. The General, starring Buster Keaton. I think, honestly, that's the first silent film I've ever seen. Really? Yeah. It's a good one. It was. Yeah. It was good. I really enjoyed it. I think for listeners who have not seen the movie, it's definitely, I think it's an important one to see just to get a little bit of history of what film needs to be like and how far we've come. Totally. Because, honestly, I didn't know what to expect going into it. It was a lot more.
action than I was expecting because mostly the whole movie takes place on a moving train. It's Buster Keaton's character. It's like 80 minutes long and like half the movie is on a moving train. Right. And he's just running around the train the whole time hopping over stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So I guess the plot is this guy wants to sign up for the Civil War. He's an engineer. A choo-choo engineer. And they don't take him because he's more useful for the war driving trains. But he wants to impress this woman. Right. Of course. Yeah. Who believes that...
The height of manhood is joining the service. Which it is. I mean, yeah. I mean, those Lincoln girls back in the day. She was like, I'm not going to get with you unless you're in a uniform. And then he's like. So, yeah. So and then she becomes kidnapped. And then he leads a basically like initially starts by himself. This cavalcade of people to stop the union. The wrong side of history. But the union. Yeah. From. Yeah. From.
getting his girl back so yeah absolutely so it sounds like a very simple plot but it's just very gag heavy of course yeah and I like what you said about action because I guess he's like the Jackie Chan of his day yeah right it was I mean he was so acrobatic in the movie and I wasn't expecting it it honestly I was watching it with my boyfriend and I kept turning to him and saying how did he not injure himself or die during this movie because there was a lot of things where he'd be running in front of the train and hop back on and jump back or you know he'd be running on top of the train cars it was crazy yeah I know and he's directing it too at the same time so yeah he did get hurt a lot I don't think he did like the most famous time he got hurt There's a scene where he's pulling water down from a water tower, and it falls right on his head. They filmed that scene, and then he got up, and he was like, oh, my neck hurts, and he kept walking. And then 20 years later, this doctor did an x-ray of him, and he's like, you broke your neck. He's like, yeah, you broke your neck, and it's mended right here. You see that? And he's like, oh, and he's like, oh, it must have been when I dumped 1,000 gallons of water on me on my neck. Shut the fuck up. That is hilarious. So he broke his neck and just kept going. He's like, oh, man, my neck hurts. What a badass. Yeah, he was a vaudeville dude, and so he was like, he's kind of ugly.
Stone face, you know? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, he wasn't a looker. But, like, you don't see him with his shirt off because he couldn't do that back then. But the guy was cut. He had, like, Brad Pitt body, but, like, Steve Buscemi face. You know? It's my kind of man. Yeah, exactly. So he was just so strong and agile, he could do those tricks. But, like, all those guys back then did their own stunts, though. Like, Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Yeah, so, I mean, like, sometimes it's just nuts. He's more, to get more heavy on you, he's more, like...
Like, Harold Lloyd used to do bits that were, like, the guy with the big rim glasses, like circular rim glasses. And he would do stuff that was strategically made to look – you can't see my hands, but they're strategically made to look, like, with a camera angle to trick you into thinking, like, he's very high up in the air and things. But Keaton, it's all in the scene. Like, you're seeing him run across and all that stuff. So, yeah, he's definitely more in camera, which is – I think white people think he's a better director than Chaplin. And then Lloyd, too. I was wondering, like, how –
How they shot those scenes where they were alongside the moving train? Were they in a car? Yeah, apparently, like, the only railroad line at the time was in Oregon, and that could accommodate those old Civil War trains. So, yeah, they shut down two train lines, and one train was running. alongside the other train filming it as he's on the other side doing the stunts. That's amazing. Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool to think about because the movie was made in, what, 1926, 5? Yeah, I think you're right. And it's just, it's like, I wasn't, I honestly went into the movie not expecting there to be anything really fancy and I was just blown away by the techniques that they used that, you know, at the time were probably a lot more difficult to pull off than they would be now. Yes, everything in it is real. Like, there's a scene also where they're trying to stop the train from crossing a bridge and they blow up the bridge. Yeah. Yeah, that was the most expensive shot in silent movie history. The movie cost $750,000 at the time, which is like $10 million now.
And it made a million dollars. So it was a huge flop. So they spent a lot of money on this movie, and nobody went and saw it. Reviewers said it was just boring. It was too action-packed and not funny. And some said it was too funny and not action-packed enough. Like, it was just kind of—the audiences were split. And then Buster Keat thought it was his best work. And then after that, he never got creative control again. He was, like, pigeonholed to a contract to MGM, and he was kind of forced to do whatever they wanted him to do. And so he—
didn't really have a successful career that he liked after that. And he didn't really make a transition into movies with sound because he has a really gross voice. So he has a really rough and tumble voice. So when people heard it, they were like, what was this? So he just kind of had some hard knocks in the last part of his life. But yeah, it's a very expensive movie. And I mean, you've seen it. So you look in the background when you're standing on this train, there's horses in a battle going on and stuff being blown up.
Unreal still. I think they had 500 extras, which at the time was quite bad. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. That was crazy. It's a great flick. Yeah, that bridge scene is just, I honestly, I think I yelled out like, oh shit! I wrote it down, I think I wrote it down, yeah. Oh shit! The bridge scene! Exclamation point! That's the last note I made about it. I saw this doc on that, and then this woman was like, I think they shot it in the 80s, I think, and she was like in her 60s, and she was like a little kid, and apparently everyone came out to see that shot. Oh, cool. So when you see the train going across the bridge, there's actually like a couple hundred people watching that scene being filmed.
People thought there was a real person in it, and women fainted and stuff. And there's this girl, she's like, I have the measles, and my daddy said, we're going to take you out because this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And she's like, when I went there, I saw a lot of people with measles. There's just people with measles and fancy dresses standing in this river watching a train blow up. And they never took that train apart. That's what they said as well. I think they only took it apart out of the river. They left it in the river for 20-something years. Right, of course, because who gives a fuck? They weren't aware of waste or recycling or anything at that point. It's just like, oh, you wreck a car, you leave it. Exactly. I think they only took it apart.
Because in World War II, they needed the metal. So they're like, yeah, Master Keaton, leave a bunch of metal on a river in Oregon. Yeah, let's go pick that up. Yeah, I guess we can get that. Let's stick that apart and salvage it, yeah. So, yeah, there's just so many set pieces like that. But the bridge scene is particularly my favorite. Oh, yeah. And there's a cannon scene, too, where he keeps putting this cannonball in and shoots into the train instead of the train ahead of him. That's a real cannon. It's a real Civil War cannon. Oh, wow. And supposedly they, like, he put some in it and it was too much and it shot off into another train, like, way ahead of him. And luckily it was, like, turning a corner so it didn't hit the train. Yeah. And then he said he had a count, like...
take tweezers and count each grain of gunpowder to calculate how much primitive shit. Right. Yeah, because they didn't have an explosives expert on set or anything like that. They just had to wing it. In fact, Harold Lloyd is this other silent film guy. He was doing a movie and he had a bomb, like a gag bomb.
And he lit it, I think, with a cigar. He's holding a bomb with a really long wick. The cigar lights it. And then it blows up. Well, it actually blew up in his fucking hands. And he lost three fingers. Shut up. Yeah. And then they're like, cut! And then they see him and his fingers are dangling off. He's like, ah! And it got on film. Oh, my God. What? Yeah. So later in his life, he always had to wear this prosthetic or fake glove that has fake fingers in it. What a fun story to tell people, though. Like, hey, man, how'd you lose your fingers? Oh, I blew up a bomb in my hand. And I thought it was fake. And then it exploded. Funny story. I was smoking a cigar and lit the wick of a bomb that said TNT on it.
We're trying to impress some ladies. Let's just say they were impressed. Yeah, let's just put it this way. Up to my elbows and pussy. Bottom line. Oh, yeah, they did all those little gags. I just couldn't believe it. Like, Chaplin did all his own stuff, too. I wrote down, like, how many people died making this movie? Because at least, I estimated at least five. That was the low number for me. It was your low number? Yeah. It's crazy. What else do you think? What was your other favorite stuff? I like the iconic image everyone's probably seen is when he sits on the train.
moves up and he's still sad but the train keeps moving right into the tunnel it's like um i don't know train's good but there's like there's that um it's like a a flat line, and he's sitting on it, but it's also, it moves up and down and rotates to move the wheel, so his body is just going in a little circle while he's sitting on this train, and then he just goes into a tunnel. Pretty cute. Yeah, he's so sad. That's why I like Keaton. Chaplin was always the brat, you know? So in his movies, he's homeless or mistaken for homeless, or someone picks on him, he always gets his revenge back, but Keaton never did that. Keaton just smacked in the face and just kept walking. That's his whole movie. It was a big shrug. Another big Keaton image is the one where he's standing.
And then the house falls on him, but he's perfectly standing, you know, in the window where the window would be. Yeah, okay. I think that really sums him up really well. Like, oh, shit. Okay, well, this house fell. All right, I almost died. All right, we'll just keep going. That's really funny because I feel like every, this might be a theme for every episode that I'm going to bring up Arrested Development, but there was this scene where they had that happen to Buster in Arrested Development where the whole wall of the house fell and he was, like, perfectly in that window. Yes. I think that was Buster. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Yeah. Yeah, that is a great scene. Like, just those images, like, Keaton was really good at surprising people. I think that's why I personally like him more because he's more cinematic. So he's really, he understood.
like Chaplin was really into characters and would make you cry you know like at the end of the movie you're like oh the blind girl recognized oh my heart's melting and that's Chaplin and then Keaton was the surprise guy like one of my other favorite gags is like he's driving alongside I believe it's in Or Hospitality. It's another movie of his. But he's driving alongside this girl, like, trying to, like, talk to her as he's going inside. And then all of a sudden a tree comes in, boom, crashes right into it. But the tree comes into the frame. So, like, he was aware of, like, how to move the camera to make a gag work. You know? And so, and I think that's why the general works so well. It's either in the frame and it's surprising or there's something invading it or coming in or coming out or something jumping out. Oh, yeah. I think that's, yeah, that's why he's so good. He understood, like, language of cinema more than anybody. Yeah. Everyone liked Chaplin. So, yeah. I would have been a Buster Girl. You would have been a Buster Girl? Well, it's just, like, his whole character. It's something that I think you see.
at least tinges of that in like normal, or I shouldn't say normal, but modern characters in movies. It's kind of like this sad sack who you just feel for. You know, it's kind of like, oh, he's trying his best. He's trying so hard. It's just that, you know, it's that kind of guy that just never wins and then you just kind of want to give him a hug. Right. That's how I see Buster. Yeah, rejection is always something in his work. He's always rejected, especially by women, which, I don't know, I mean, I think he had a...
No, he had a bad wife. Really? I was going to ask. She kind of took a lot of his money. Oh. It's okay. Yeah, guys. Dig it. Sounds like a real dig it. Yeah. Rejection was always a big thing. Yeah, he's just a schlub. Yeah. He's just a schmucky dude. There's this old clip of this old guy from the 80s, but he was talking about growing up watching silent movies, and he was like...
He's like, Keaton, you felt bad for. Keaton was the guy you always felt bad for. He's like, Chaplin was a freak because he never fell down. Like, who is this guy that always keeps almost falling when he never falls down? He's like, but Harold Lloyd, that guy fell on his ass just like everybody else. He's a regular Joe. He fell on his butt like everybody else. It's so funny. What a weirdo. Chaplin's a freak. That's hilarious. Yeah. Why doesn't he fall? I mean, he's thinking better than us. I heard he's a communist.
He's a bastard. Okay, so Buster Keaton was married. I was going to ask about if he got a lot of tail outside of the movies. I don't think he womanized or anything. He was very, from what I understood reading about him, he was very, you know, always kind of doing his work. Yeah, and then he just fell in a lot of hard times. I think I was watching something and his wife spent like $900 a week on clothes and stuff. He was too busy to keep mind of it, I guess. He was trying to always work and that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I mean, he was friends with Fatty Arbuckle, and he was, like, talk about a weird story. That's a weird story, too. He was friends with Fatty Arbuckle, and Fatty Arbuckle was, like, the number one box officer in the world, and then he got accused of rape and went to trial, and then his career never recovered, although I don't think he was actually ever found guilty. It just ruined his career. Right. So, like, him and Fatty came up together, and then at that turning point, he went one way and Fatty went the other. Yeah. So he was always just kind of, I don't know, in the business. Interesting. Yeah. So, yeah, and then you said after this movie, basically, he wasn't able to make another really successful movie on his own.
Well, he was basically, so he did this movie called The Navigator. And that was like a huge hit. And then they're like, you can do whatever you want. And I think it was distributed through United Artists, which was Chaplin Studio. But yeah, they were like, okay, you know, take all this money, you have total freedom. And then it was just a big dud. And then what happened was they just terminated his contract and then they put him on a contract of like, do whatever I say. Yeah. For MGM. I think the first movie done after that was The Cameraman. And it was just like, okay, it's not really funny. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of people our age don't think.
There's a lot of truth that a lot of old style movies aren't funny. There's a lot of them aren't. Falling your ass gets old pretty quick. But it's how many times and how you fall on your ass. I think that makes Keaton really funny. Yeah. It was definitely, yeah, a lot of the gags in there. I was still tickled by them. And I think mostly what stood out to me was all of the stunts that he did. Yeah. It was just, every time he did one, I'd say, what, what, how, how? You're going to hurt yourself, boy. What are you going to do? Stop it. I did hear that the story is based on a true story, I think. It's been, I think.
The Confederate soldiers, one of the Confederate soldiers that ended up capturing the Union guys. They killed the Union guys. That's not in the movie. They killed the Union guys, and one of them was, his last name was Forrest, and he was the guy, one of the guys that started the KKK. Oh, great. Yeah, I know. Wonderful. But yeah, so that's a real story. I think it's obviously not as factual, but yeah, it's all based on a real event that happened in Georgia. I wonder if people, I guess maybe in that time.
People didn't care, but I just thought it was really funny that the movie kind of took the side of the Southerners. Yeah. You know, in most Civil War movies, you kind of don't see, like, oh, the South. Yeah. Yeah, go South. Go race it. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't know. I think, honestly, it had to do more with the trains. Yeah. Keaton was obsessed with trains. Every movie has a train in it, more than likely. Like, I think, yeah, I can't think of a movie that doesn't have a train in it. Interesting. He's obsessed with trains. Yeah. I think because of the rail movements in the South, that's why it was so appealing to him. And you're from the South. There's a lot of trains in, like, Alabama, Kentucky. Like, there's train lines everywhere. Behind my house, we had, like...
four or five train lines. For sure. Yeah, for like coal and that kind of stuff. Absolutely, yeah. But yeah, he was just obsessed with that, the engineering side of stuff. I can't explain it. I don't think he studied to be an engineer or anything. I just think he really liked them. Yeah. Go through gut. Whatever, dude. I like, I like, it's just funny, I would definitely recommend watching this movie, I think I said it earlier, just to see how far we've come. Yeah. As far as storyline and everything, that wasn't, it didn't just, it didn't seem to be as important to them to really, I mean, there were things happening on screen, but.
Because it's a silent movie, there was very little dialogue, and what dialogue they had was pretty just plain. Yeah, marry me. I will marry you unless I see you in a uniform. Yeah, the whole relationship between, I can't remember her name in the movie, but Marianne Moore, that's the actress's name, right? Yeah, so the leading lady with Buster Keaton, their whole relationship, I was like, they don't even seem to really like each other. They don't. Yeah, it doesn't come up at all. Yeah, there's no chemistry. I guess that just didn't really matter. Yeah, someone had an interesting point.
Like for Chaplin, the women were everything. Yeah, he did. But like for Keaton, they were kind of like MacGuffins. It was like the women were the things that started the story and maybe ended it. But it wasn't.
the full spectrum of the story. You don't really see her too much. You see her at the beginning, her getting kidnapped, her fighting, and then that's kind of it, and they get together, but they don't, you know, it's not like they're throwing rice at them, you know, nothing like that. But, yeah, the whole story really is, like, him overcoming, like, the obstacles on the railroad, like, bad tracks. He starts in a push car, and then he moves into a bigger car, and then he, like, gets a bigger one. That was hilarious, yeah. So, yeah, the women seem to really be, like, just a, I don't think it comes as a sexist at all, not particularly, but it's just, yeah. She just didn't, yeah, she didn't have much to do with the story itself except that.
I mean, in the beginning of the movie, it starts by saying Johnny Gray's two favorite things in the world are his train and then they show a picture of this woman. Yeah, right, right. So that was just the motivation of basically what happens is that the North takes his train and with his woman on board, right? It is his train that they take, yeah. So the two most important things in his life are taken from him, so he's just trying to get them back. Right. But yeah, I thought it was just so funny that throughout the movie, all she really does is she has a little handkerchief and she just rings it a lot. Yeah, just stares at the camera.
I'm like, she's kidnapped. You can't, like, give her, I don't know, like a book to read or something. When she's in that, she gets locked in a bedroom by herself. She just sits on the bed and fucking rings that handkerchief. Just grits her teeth. Girl, you can, like, find something else to do. You don't have to just stare at a wall and look sad. That's not important. There's a discipline in the day. Honey, if you're ever with a man, just stare at the wall and grits your teeth in. Grits your teeth in. Look pretty. Hold on to that hanky for dear life. Your daddy got you that hanky. Yeah. Yeah, it's not.
Yeah, it's a pretty shallow plot. But it's just more, I guess it's more you're right of the spectacle. Yeah. This movie's more a spectacle than anything. And that's why I think it's so freaking awesome. It's very inventive. The comedy comes out of weird places. Right. I think personally, as an improviser too, because I know a lot of improvisers would listen to this, I think it's a great way to understand game.
Old-time movies, it's just nothing but patterns, games, and repeats. Like heightening. Yeah, getting higher, higher, higher. And Keaton's the king of that. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay, here's a cannon. Oh, shoot's too short. Put the whole gunpowder in it, the whole can of it, and then shoot it too far. Gets from A to B really quickly. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, when I was watching it, I was thinking, I totally get why D likes this movie and why he probably, I could see the influence that Buster Keaton would have on you because you have a very physical comedy styling as well, and it's just, I could see it in Buster, and I was like, yeah, this makes sense why D would really.
appreciate this movie. Right. I never thought of that. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's that physicality and that comedic timing of, I don't know, I see you perform sometimes and it's that old style of a little bauvillian, but yeah. Got my cane, my hat. Totally. Yeah, I don't even know when I started watching silent movies. I think it was in college.
Just because I was just bored. And we had a library that had everything. And you can rent it for free. The late fee was like five cents a day. So I would just rent all the time. Oh, there you go, yeah. Yeah, I remember coming to the library like, oh, I've had this for like a couple months. What's the damage? You're like, oh, man, it's $2. I was like, okay, thank God. But yeah, I watched that.
Jacques Tati is another, he's a French guy, but he was in the era of sound, but he doesn't use sound a lot. So that's another good one to check out. If anyone's interested in silent stuff, Tati, Jacques Tati, Monsieur Who Loves Holiday, another good movie. Gesundheit. Yeah, and then he has one called Playtime, which I got to see in 70mm at the music box. Oh, neat. That's awesome. He's cool because when he shot that movie in 70mm, there's always like two jokes going on.
The first time I saw it was on a little TV. It's a very slow-moving movie, and I was like, this is really funny. And then I saw it on a huge screen in 70mm, and I was like, I fucking get it. So there's this dude right here, and he's sweeping, but he keeps missing when he's sweeping up here. There's this stewardess trying to check people in, but it's not working, and then here's this guy over here. So there's always something going on. And he never moves the camera, like Keaton, which moves a lot. He just puts the camera in one spot and rolls it for a long time, but there's four things going on at the same time. So you're talking about evolving. I think Keaton was the guy that was like, hey, you can move a camera, you can make beats and jokes out of editing and moving a camera.
And then as it got along, that became kind of the norm. And I think people don't give enough credit for setting the standard for comedy movies of, like, quick cuts and, like, having a pace and a rhythm to it. And then as it evolved, like, the silent style kind of actually became more longer takes away from that aesthetic. So I think the comedy was a lot. Like, the comedy film especially, like, Mad Mad World, like, all those old, like, Three Stooges comedies and stuff. It's all just Keaton's kinestism. Yeah. Now, I mean, I feel like I haven't seen that many.
And honestly, any movies from the 20s or 30s, really. And so I feel like this is probably a good place to start and to just build off of that. It's kind of a good starter movie. No, it's a great one. The problem is they look so shitty. Right. And that's because copyright law, I think it was like 50 years for a while and now it's 75 or 100. Whatever keeps Mickey Mouse from being copyrighted. So when they lost the copyright, people just put out real shit versions of them. Some of them were too short. They weren't the original cut. Because when movies get spread around the circuit, they might edit it because they objected to some of it.
I don't know. Honestly, there's a lot of racism. Certain characters looked a certain way or the stories they didn't like, so they would cut them. So a lot of the definitive versions were not the true versions. So there's just copy on copies on copies that look awful. But then you see Amazon and then Netflix, which this movie's available, and I think it's a pretty good copy. You realize, oh, this actually looks great. And actually, if you take the scratches out and stuff, it looks really good. But I think people get turned off by just how odd it feels, just the crackles. Sure, yeah. This movie, yeah, I'm...
Of course, because we're in such a, I guess, special effects heavy time, it's hard for somebody to, you know, stay focused on just the sepia tone kind of slow movie that doesn't have a lot of, I mean, this movie did have action, but, you know, there's not, like, any sound. You're just hearing music in the background. It's very easy to get distracted while watching it and just, you know. There's no doves coming out of him when he's diving sideways with two guns. Exactly. Yeah. Which would have been great. Go back in time. Yeah. Add some doves to that movie. That would have been great. John Woo. The general. That would be hilarious. I'd pay to see that. Hell yeah. That'd be sweet.
Yeah, like, I mean, just silent movies are dying. Right. But there's, like, the music box has silent Saturdays. So, you know, there's stuff out there. Like, luckily people, hardworking people are, you know, taking them and restoring them. But I think we only have, like, less than 10% of what was ever made. Wow. I think in India it's less than two. Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. I know, think about that. There's a really fucked up story of how they found this archive of, like,
nitrate negatives and they open them up and they all turn to dust because it's just chemical over time it just turned to dust so they literally found this vault and it was just like all these movies that are never ever be seen again just like powders so awful but it's a cinemaphile's worst nightmare I know seriously cinephile I said cinemaphile cinemaphile hey guys I'm bad at movies hey you're not that bad I'm learning I'm glad you checked it out though yeah it's not yeah it's not everyone's cup of meat What's Bob Dylan saying? Cup of meat. I know. What's Bob Dylan saying? What's some other silent ones that are great? There's a really good movie called M. Oh, that's not silent. Metropolis. I think we maybe thought about it. We talked about it, yeah. That's like three hours long. Yeah, that's something I was telling my mom because I thought, you know, maybe she and my father have seen some of the movies that you were talking about and I mentioned three and it was The General.
It was Metropolis, and the other one was Sunset Boulevard, which are all available on Netflix to watch instantly. So if you want to check them out, definitely do that. But when I mentioned Metropolis to my mom, she said, don't watch that. She said, it's really long. Me and your father both fell asleep watching it. So I was like, okay. Right, right. The last time I saw it, there was a full orchestra playing, but that was cool. Oh, that sounds great. But you're absolutely right. It was like, back in the day, it's like, all right, your next picture has to be four hours long. No dialing. Yeah, it was super, super epic. Sunset Boulevard's good, too. I don't know if...
We're talking old movies, but that is a fucking great movie. Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's something, I mean, you know, there's no... I'm going to cut you off, but there is, I think Boris Karloff's in there. Speaking of old movies. Well, there's no limit to how many times I can bring a guest on. Oh, true. We can absolutely have you come back and talk about Sunset Boulevard or one of the other 20 movies that you wrote down on the list. I know. You went to town, but I appreciate it. You're welcome. There's one guy now that I feel feels like a silent movie guy, and his name is Roy Anderson. I'll tell you a little bit about him, but most of his movies are just, each shot's in one take, so if there's 26 cuts, then it means there's 26 takes.
He's got that song I'll tell you about that kind of evolved where you kind of find it in the frame. Kind of like Tati, who's a descendant of Keaton, who's a descendant of blah, blah, blah. But he has a trilogy out, and it was one of the ones I recommended to you, too. But the first one's called View from the Third Floor. I believe that's right. I might be botching that. It's also from Northern Europe. I can't remember the name. We the Living, or You the Living, excuse me. And then Pigeon sitting on a bench talking about existence or something that just came out. Yeah, but he's a very strange bird. I wonder what that's about. I know, he's about a pigeon. Very strange stuff. But yeah, just because there's really no one that, I can't think of a director now that really uses silent techniques. I mean, I guess it just evolves so much, but no one uses irises in movies anymore. I kind of like that stuff. I don't know if I'm just sentimental or savvy, but there's a lot you can steal nowadays from that. Absolutely.
Cutty, quick cuts in TV videos and stuff, which I love. Everything's so fast. I wonder if it has something to do with the attention span of our generation now. I'm going to be honest with you. We're 30 minutes into the movie, and I was like, is it done? I was like, is this it? I just didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect at all coming through the movie. It escalates into that. I forgot at what point what was happening in the movie 30 minutes in, but it seemed like, oh, so this is it. It was at some point where...
Some small resolve had happened between Buster getting one over on the north, and I was like, oh, okay, so that's it, right? We're done? Yeah, we're done. And I paused it and looked, and I was like, 45 minutes left? What the fuck? No, it definitely, once we got past that mark, it was like, I mean, it stayed. There was way more story to be told, and it was interesting, but it definitely...
Like I said before, it doesn't have the depth or, you know, as much character development as a movie that you would see now. That's just, you know, that's not what was important at the time. Well, yeah, the crazy thing about movies is, yeah, you're right. Like, it's evolved so much, but you have to remember how dumb we were, too. Like, when Lumiere premiered, like, his stuff, like, with a train coming, people, like, drove out of the way. That's true. Yeah, because they've got a train that's coming at him. Yeah. And there's this autobiography called My Last Sigh. It's by Louis Buñal, who used to hang out with Dolly and stuff. And he was a filmmaker, too. But he was saying that when he was a kid, when the movies came to his town, they would have a guy in the corner explaining.
what is going on in this movie. Basically like, but not like, she loves him and she's really in love with this guy. Nothing plot wise, but just like standard movie shit. Like, hey, here's a mountain. We're in the mountains. Close up. Her face isn't 20 feet tall. It's just, it's this big to show you that. And so like, people are like, oh, I get it. I get it. So people would like sit there like looking at him.
watching this. Like a movie interpreter. Yeah, exactly. And then when he became a filmmaker, he was like, that's how I knew how to tell movies was because of this guy. Like, okay, so I'm shooting this scene. Oh, I got to have a close-up of her face to show this. I got to show this. And so he kind of learned the language of movies just by this dude sitting in the corner. That is so funny. I wish they still had that. I wish they still had movie interpreters. Just like some guy like Michael Bay, just in the corner. Oh, my God. This guy, he's going to be important later. Keep an eye on this one. Okay, he's got a mustache, so you know he's a bad guy. Yeah, because he's a bandit. Yeah, right? I just thought that was so cool. I'm like, oh, so that's how you learned how to tell movies. And Duneo is Hitchcock's favorite director, so I don't take his word over
He was the guy. And he did a silent movie, too, called Encien Andalou with Dolly. Again, Gesundheit. Gesundheit. It's the one with Dolly where they cut the woman die. Whoa. No. Yeah. Our producer knows what's up. Yeah. The idea of it was nothing can make sense. It all has to be from their dreams. So it's all like filmed interpretations of their dreams. There's hands with ants crawling all over it. Cool. I believe it's a woman's eyeball, close up of the eyeball. It's sliced open, and then it dissolves to this like...
shot of the moon. And yeah, it's just like super weird. It's like 20 minutes long. That sounds gross. Yeah, it is gross. Pretty gross. There's like some dead donkeys, right, pulling a piano. It's really weird. But it's cool. It's cool looking. Yeah. But when they premiered it, I think he put rocks in his pocket because he had to throw them at people because they were like trying to riot and flip over the seas and stuff. What? Again, idiots. Yeah. Like, what is this motion picture stuff?
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Silent stuff is like, it's very out of the ordinary and weird, but it's, I don't know, it's so cool. There's a language to it. It's almost like learning Spanish or French or something. It's like the silent film style is when you get accustomed to it. I think it's so expressive and so cool. Definitely. It dissolves. All the women are gorgeous and they have insane makeup and long dresses.
Yeah. Oh, I was going to, one of the first notes I took from the movie was, are they all in white face? It looks like they painted their faces bright white to contrast because it's all, you know, it's a black and white movie. So they can get away with shit like that where they just put, make all the people look pasty. But watching it, I was like, man, it looks like they had like really white faces. Yeah, they do. Like they're, it's pretty bad. Like they never saw the sun or something. You live right by SNA Studios. Yeah, yes. Which is the old silent. Up in Andersonville, there's a place called SNA Studios. Yeah, and that's where Chaplin first got his career started. That was crazy. Yeah, for a couple years, Chicago was the number one movie mecca in the world. Interesting. And then the weather was so shit, they moved out.
That's what happened. I can see that. Yeah. They're like, yeah, that's better. If I'm not mistaken, they first went to San Francisco because that's where basically, I think it's Muybridge did the photography experiments where they, basically they put out, they made a bet. Have you heard the story? No. They made a bet where they're like, they wanted to, the bet was does a horse's feet at any point all come off the ground at the same time? Oh. They couldn't tell and they didn't have the photography at the time to do it. So this guy set up 24 cameras and each time, Muybridge is his name, and each time they ran over the, I think I'm going to have to sound like an asshole.
But every time the horse ran over and tripped this wire, it took a photo. It's 24 frames, 24 frames a second, which is where we get that turn from, and that's the average speed that film's projected at. And they found that the horse does do that. Oh, so it does lift its feet off the ground. Correct. And they do it in Marin County. They did it in Marin County in the barn out there, so that's outside San Francisco. So it kind of started, similar kind of started there, and then they went to Chicago, looked to San Francisco, weather still wasn't perfect, went to L.A. That's what it came out of. That's crazy. Pretty neat, yeah. Well, I know, so you said this film was mostly filmed in Oregon, correct? Yeah. But I could tell some of the shoot.
Like you could see very plainly that there was just like a painted backdrop. Like some of it you could tell they were on set and not like out in nature. Yeah. What's funny is they built a set in nature because they had to make it look like Georgia. Ah, gotcha. And it's based on a lot of like old Civil War photography. So they had to recreate this town in Oregon to make it look like a Confederate town. Cool. So yeah, so you're right. There's a lot of like built pieces in it. Yeah. But it's because they were trying to replicate the South in the Northwest, which is kind of weird. Yeah. Yeah.
I was wondering about that. I mean, the scenery that they had was beautiful. Yeah, it was gorgeous. I honestly did think it was filmed in the South. I was like, that looks like the Smoky Mountains to me. Oh, right, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, all the trees. Yeah, definitely. I didn't think about that. That's a really good observation. I made a good observation. Oh, no. There's no hierarchy here. I'm just a geek, that's all. Yeah. Just a big old geek. Yeah, I'm trying to think of Sherlock Jr. That is the other one that Keaton is in that everyone loves. It's the one where he...
falls into the movie. So he's, like, standing on the screen, right in front of the screen. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? I know what you're talking about. Yep, so he's standing in front of the screen and he, like, falls backwards and all of a sudden he's in the movie and then, like, a car comes in. That's, like, 45 minutes. It's, like, he used to do these, like, two-reelers and then he started doing, you know, bigger pictures like the general. Right. Because they would have, they would show it in, like, big theaters and they'd pay a lot of money for it. Like, I think, like, even up until Gone with the Wind, people were paying, like...
Six bucks for a movie. And that's just a lot. And that's like a concert ticket. And so they wanted him to be like three hours long. Right. Make it worth their money. Yeah. Or just insane like the general was. Yeah. Big set pieces. Oh yeah. Explosions and all that stuff. Yeah. I can't believe that's so crazy that the movie really didn't make that much money for what it was. So you said when it came out it was critiqued for not being. It was like between an action and a comedy. Yeah. People just didn't really like it. Yeah. Variety said something like.
Like, what is this? What does this movie want to be? And it just, like, ripped him to shreds, basically. It's funny, because you see action movies now, and those are the best ones are ones that are a little bit funny, too. Exactly. Like, there's definitely the formula in this movie. Like, you can see the DNA of, like, all the old, like, chase sequences and stuff, all in this old stuff. If only they knew. If only they knew Danny Glover was too old for this shit back in the 20s. Figured it all out. That's what he could have been a real success story. Well, I'm sure, you know, he still was, but... And he only did, I think, Limelight with Chaplin.
They never really did anything together. Interesting. But they were, like, older. They were in, like, their 50s and 60s at the time. But, I mean, they're just so legendary. I mean, I don't know if Keaton ever won an honorary Oscar. I'm pretty sure he did. Chaplin definitely did, and he got a 10-minute standing ovation. Whoa, wow. I mean, imagine if we sat here in silence for 10 minutes and just imagine just roaring applause. Let's do it. Oh, we're back. We cut it out. Yeah, I'm sorry, guys. That was a bad idea. Yeah, we should have done that. But, yeah, those guys, I mean, they're just epic. I don't know. I feel like...
I feel like it's our responsibility, especially as comedians, to watch the old stuff. Absolutely. Well, I'm glad you forced me to watch it, Dee. Yeah. I really am. I tied you up like she was. You just sat there grabbing me. I just sat there wringing my fucking handkerchief. I didn't have anything else to do. Just troubled. Well, okay, that might be a good... Yeah, I think so. I think we had a really good talk, and I definitely would recommend our friends checking out this movie. It's easy to access. It's on Netflix. Watch instantly. And it's not even really a feature-length film. 70 minutes? Yeah, 70 minutes or 75, so you have time to watch it. Don't give up at 30 minutes like I almost did.
Don't. It's not worth it. Well, let's go ahead and plug some of your shit. Dee, you're on Moonroof with me. I am on Moonroof with you. So for both of us, how about you find us on Facebook and like our page? Yeah. And then you're also on a Herald team at IO called Small Town Doctor. Yep, that's right. STD for short. ST Daisy for short. Yeah, and all that info is available on IO's website. I should be doing this video project called Dig Head soon. This is the first I'm hearing about it. Yeah, yeah. Sounds amazing. We'll be starting that up soon. And then, of course, The Wolf. The Wolf, yes.
Forgot to mention that. Dee is also on our wonderful Second Wind Collective network. So check out his podcast as well. It is hilarious. I love it. Again, old shit. Old shit. There's a song on there about cocaine that is probably my new favorite song. Yeah, and it's by the guy. The guy's name is Dick Justice.
Guy with that slang name is Dick Justice. Dick Justice. Like a porno superhero. Can't get better than that. Yeah, I think first one's out and the second one should be coming soon for that one. So, yeah, that's it. Keep your eye out, guys. Yeah, thanks again, Renee. Thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate it. Love you. Love you, too. Bye.
So thank you guys so much for listening to Bad At Movies. I'd like to give a special thanks to our guest, Dee Blennis, the producer, Dan Schiffmacher, and Sarah Zwinklis. So to end the show today, we're going to have our very special noted film critics, Ava and Morty Rosenblum, talk about what they thought of The General, starring Buster Keaton. We're on. Did you ask Daniel if we're recording? I already asked. Oh, I'm sorry. Hello. Hello, Internet. My name is Ava Rosenblum, and this is my husband, Morty. Hello. And we're going to talk about The General.
Severely racist film. Marty, it was a different time back then. 1930s. We were far past the Civil War. I don't know why we were still making movies about the Confederate South in the 1930s. Whatever year the film was made in. That didn't really matter. I thought there was a good storyline. Honey, if somebody had kidnapped me and put me on a train, would you follow? Not if recovering you meant that I was in support of slavery. If it was now and somebody had kidnapped you on a train, what kind of train would that be? If somebody puts you on an Amtrak? It's just a hypothetical, Marty. Yes, I would chase after you.
But my hip prevents me from running, so I'm certainly not going to be on top of a train, avoiding getting hit by signs or something like that. If you get kidnapped, just make it something feasible, will you? Not a train choice. Brian, you know what? When I get kidnapped, I'll ask my captors, hey, can you just roll me down the street on a skateboard so my husband can catch up with us? That'd be perfect. If they kidnap you and they maybe put you in the dressing room at the Kmart, I'll come rescue you. Great. You're so good to me.
You know what I didn't like about the movies? What? I saw the mouth moving, and then I had to read the words on screen separately. Yes, I kept adjusting my hearing aids because I thought there was something wrong. I had to wear my hearing aids and my glasses. You know I don't like to do that. I've had to alternate before, back and forth between adjusting her hearing aid and putting her reading glasses over her eyes, putting it back down. She can see faces just fine, but when it's words, she says... It was exhausting. Did you think about these things when they were starting out with the movies? You know, they wouldn't care about an old woman like me. Why would they care?
I don't. I'm not their audience. Their audience is obviously young men who have perfect sight and vision and are racist. Yeah, it was the 30s. They didn't market movies to women. It was just for young men trying to get away from their wives. Boy, sounds pretty good, actually. Excuse me? I'm sorry, but...
I want to get away from my wife sometimes. What does that mean? You're... You're not tired of you. It means we've been married for 54 years and sometimes I want to go watch a movie without you next to me. You don't think that I ever want to get away from you? No. Why do you think I insist on going to the grocery store by myself? Because I snip candy and Hawaiian bread into the cart. Exactly, Morty. Exactly. That's the sweetest bread I can find without it being a muffin. You're my sweet bread, Morty. Don't compare me to a Hawaiian bubble. Why not? It's soft and squishy and I like to put it in my mouth. Daniel, cover your ears. Too late.
I wouldn't know. Well, no. If I didn't know it, if I had the choice where I am right now, I wouldn't do it. But like, if you guys raised me to think that way, then I wouldn't. I didn't know that I had raised a racist. I said... I need you to come over across the stable and lay your backside over Morty's lap so he can spank you. I'm going to have to give you... I'm 30 years old. How many stars were on the Confederate flag? Six. All right, six spankings. I made that up. I don't know if there's six. Okay, if there's more, I'll spank you my time. I think there was no stars. You know what? Thank you for this movie.
What? Two Confederate stars out of six. Because there were some good action sequences, the acting was pretty funny or some good physical comedy, but overall it was in support of an America that I don't want to exist. Exactly. You know what? Besides the whole removing my glasses, putting them back on, turning my ear, my hearing aids up and down and up and down, it was still good. It was short. It was short. It was only 73 minutes. 75. That's a great run time for somebody my age. Well, all the best luck in the world with Buster Keaton. May he rule in heaven.
What are you talking about? I believe he's dead. I believe he's dead, too. I really believe it. A lot of people don't believe it, but I believe that Pastor Keaton is dead. Maybe we'll meet him one day. And we'll go up there and we'll say, hey, we'll give you a movie to our six racist stars. Yes, we'll get along fine with our son Daniel. He's a racist, too. He's a six out of six racist. Thank you, Internet. Goodbye.