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  • 2021-06-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Buster Keaton Perform This Dangerous Train Stunt? (en)
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  • In 1926, audiences were amazed by the daredevil antics of comedian Buster Keaton in the movie The General. Nearly 100 years later, Keaton's performance in the movie is still drawing oohs and aahs, as clips from this famous silent film circulate on social media. The following clip went viral in June 2021 and shows Keaton removing a set of broken train ties from a track while sitting aboard a moving train: This is a genuine clip from the movie The General and this is a real stunt that was performed by Keaton. Keaton, like many performers of his day, performed many of his own stunts. And since computer generated effects weren't exactly widespread in 1926 (or computers at all for that matter), many of the stunts you saw on screen were genuine, as film critic Roger Ebert noted in his 1997 review of The General: While digital effects were certainly unavailable in the 1920s, there were other ways to trick the viewer. Keaton could have used close-ups or quick cuts to make it look as if he was truly clearing railroad ties from the the front of a train. Keaton, however, preferred to use long shots that showed his full body and uninterrupted cuts so that his audience would know that he was truly performing these stunts. Here's an excerpt from a book of interviews with Keaton that was published in 2007: In addition to performing his own stunts, Keaton would also occasional act as the stunt double for other actors. Keaton, for example, said that he performed the stunt in Sherlock Jr. where a police officer falls off a motorcycle. Keaton said: I didn't use stunt men for me, but I doubled them. There's a scene in Sherlock Jr. when I call a motorcycle cop, and I say, follow that car. And I jump on his handlebars, we hit a bump in the street, and I lose the cop. Well, the cop that fell off was me. Because what I did was take Ernie Orsaiit, an assistant prop man with me, who was my size. Put my clothes on him. I put the cop's clothes on, drove the motorcycle hit the bump and fell off the motorcycle. Unlike the viral train clip above, the following scene includes multiple cuts that show the characters from different angles. This allows Keaton to make it appear to the viewer that the actor playing the cop fell off the motorcycle, but in reality it was Keaton in the cop's clothing. The clip from The General truly shows Keaton riding on the front of a train as he clears off railroad ties. However, we can't be certain that there wasn't some movie magic at play. For example, we'd guess (although we haven't been able to find any record of this) that the railroad ties used in this scene purposefully manufactured for the movie to be lighter than real railroad ties. You can watch The General in its entirety below. (en)
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