The General (1927)

Directed by and starring Buster Keaton. Co-directed by Clyde Bruckman.

I've never made it a secret that I prefer Buster Keaton to Charlie Chaplin. It's not that I don't like Chaplin, but while Keaton was never as beloved or recognizable figure as Chaplin, he was a much greater filmmaker. It was tougher to choose only one of his films for the list (SEVEN CHANCES and SHERLOCK JR. were also strong contenders) but in the end I kept coming back to his Civil War-era film- the best Civil War movie, in my opinion. Here the Great Stone Face stars as a put-upon engineer who isn't allowed to join the Confederate Army because his train, The General, is needed for the war effort. Much of the film is comprised of scenes with Keaton alone on the train, and these scenes feature some of the most ingeniously realized gags ever put on the screen- the most legendary being the one in which Keaton finds a railroad tie atop the tracks in front of the train, so he carefully climbs down onto the train's cowcatcher and uses another railroad tie to knock the first one off the tracks. Like so many of the film's great moments (which are plentiful) this gag is less about gut-busting hilarity than engineering- we marvel at the simple ingenuity of it, with the added charge that Keaton did even the most dangerous stunts himself. Theres also a nonchalance about the film that's refreshing, a charm that takes its cue from its star's unassuming demeanor, that allows even the most intricate gag or potentially deadly stunt to feel like a throwaway, as though instead of a showstopping moment it's all just another annoyance to this character's routine. While Chaplin's sentimentality makes so much of his work feel like a time capsule from the days of silent cinema, it's his pricklier and less overtly emotional kind of filmmaking that makes Keaton's work feel modern even today.