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Southern army facing Chattanooga is ordered to retreat. There is a shot of
Southern cavalry troops waving a retreat signal followed by a shot of the Union
spies showing them crouching in the cab of The General. Finally, in an over-
head shot over the timbercar, we see Johnnie cutting wood. Keaton then cuts
to a shot of the retreating Southerners. Initially, it is a long-shot. Then, all
of a sudden, the front of The Texas pulls into the foreground from screen-
left. The Texas drives past the camera revealing that Johnnie is still chopping
wood with his back to the battle. This is quite an ingenious shot, not only
in terms of its use of foreground and background in order to set out the
significant facts of the situation but also because of the way Keaton channels
the relevant facts to the audience sequentially effectively adding detailed
selectivity like editing to the realism of the single shot.
The battle ensues behind Johnnie s back. The Southerners retreat entirely
and the Union troops triumphantly spill onto the field behind Johnnie. All
the while, he continues to chop. At one point he breaks his ax handle, but
even at this rupture in his work pattern, he remains unaware that he is com-
pletely surrounded by Union troops. In all, it takes 12 shots before Johnnie
realizes his predicament. He is so absolutely engrossed in his chopping that
he never once glances outside his narrow workspace.
In many ways, the railroad is an appropriate central image in The General,
since railroad imagery supplies a source of metaphors in ordinary language
for the type of automatism that is so characteristic of Johnnie. We speak of
people as having a one-track mind in order to underscore the fixity of their
ideas. The notion of a track in this metaphor emphasizes the rigidity with
which single-minded persons maintain their preconceived ideas. In this light,
Johnnie s conceptions of things can be analogized to a track. The imagery
of the film prompts this analogy, indeed, virtually demands it. Johnnie,
himself, might be thought of as a locomotive: he travels along his track
Themes of The General 37
oblivious to what the changing environment has placed in his way. Within
this context, the recurring derailments and track-switchings in The General
become a kind of objective correlative to the way Johnnie s one-track
mind constantly derails his schemes and sends him barreling in the wrong
direction.
Further examples of automatism can be found throughout The General.
Consider these from the second half of the film. First, Johnnie and Annabelle
plan to burn the Rock River Bridge in order to halt the Union advance. They
build a pile of timber on the bridge. Johnnie takes the kerosene headlamp
from the front of The General and sprinkles fuel on the fire, carefully dous-
ing every part of the pile. There is a burning torch on top of the tender. Annabelle
is up there tossing wood down to Johnnie. Johnnie wends his way around the
pile that is opposite the train; Annabelle inadvertently jostles the burning log,
knocking it onto the pile, setting it aflame. The burning lumber separates Johnnie
from the train. Unaware of her accidental arson, Annabelle runs to the cab,
presumably to back the train closer to Johnnie. Unfortunately, she starts the
engine moving away from Johnnie. Trapped on the Union side of the bridge,
Johnnie prepares to make a standing leap. Since there are several railroad beams
missing on the other side of the burning pile, Johnnie s only hope is to catch
on to the back of the train. He pulls back, ready to jump, but, at exactly that
moment, Annabelle starts the train moving in the wrong direction. Johnnie
is in flight, but the train is pulling away from him, letting him plummet through
the opening in the roadbed left by the missing beams. Johnnie just commit-
ted the classic error of not looking before leaping. In many ways, one can see
this maxim as a major theme of the film.
Johnnie again shows his proclivity for inattention during the battle between
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