by Daniel Scully

Most people don’t look at a movie like The General and categorize it as a spy movie. And why would they? Buster Keaton’s 1926 silent classic may be considered a masterwork from the early days of cinema, but nothing about it rings of espionage. Anyone who has seen it knows that it’s just a long showcase of visual gags designed to exhibit the technical ingenuity of the filmmakers, and as the last entry in Keaton’s independent filmography before moving into a tumultuous relationship with the studio system, it could even be argued that it’s the first legitimate stunt reel ever made. If anything, it’s a relic from such an early time in Hollywood that it almost predates genre, existing in the minds of many viewers as a “silly silent movie that I’m supposed to respect because film nerds tell me I should.” And while it’s not not that, it really is so much more…