Buster Keaton

The General pairs a remarkably composed face with a world of moving machinery and physical danger. Keaton lets the audience register the scale of a problem before his character gets on with solving it, making restraint part of the action. Start with the train sequences and watch the relationship between a still expression and a precisely timed movement. The film is set during the American Civil War and follows a Confederate train driver; its comic construction can be appreciated without treating that perspective as neutral history.