The General (1926)

Why it's here:
Usually considered Buster Keaton's best work. And often hailed as the best movie of the silent era.

Specs:
1 hr and 45 minutes. Black and white, silent. Available on Youtube and other free sources, though we watched it on a dvd from the Library.
The film is set in the Civil War era.

Our family's average rating (on a scale of 1-10):

8.5

More about the film and our reaction to it:
Heralded as the next best depiction of the Civil War ever recorded -- second only to Matthew Brady's photographs -- The General views like a documentary, a comedy and an action adventure film rolled together. Layered over exciting scenes of Buster chasing down enemy soldiers who have stolen his engine (the 'General'), are a sweet story of love (for his girl and for the train) and a simple story of a man who rises to the occasion that duty calls for him.

Keaton spends most of the movie running... around, in, under and atop two civil war era steam trains. The trains are so enlivened by his clear love and attention that they become movie characters themselves. But the best character is of course Keaton's -- Johnny Grey, who spends the movie alternating between doing things that show incredible strength and skill, with things that feel pitiful. He walks a balance figuratively and literally that is astonishing. In one striking example, the renegades have thrown a long heavy wooden railroad tie onto the track to derail their pursuer. Keaton runs ahead of his train in an attempt to dislodge the tie. He manages to do so at the last moment, tugging it free and falling into the cow sweep.  With barely a moment to rest, he  sees another tie lodged halfway across the track just ahead. With precision that astounds, he heaves the first down onto the other hitting it like a see saw whereupon the whole thing springs to life and off the tracks -- not without nearly smacking him dead in the face first. Shots such as this cannot have been 'faked'. Real logs. Real movie star. Real train. Moving. Real precision. Yet our hero conveys as much awkwardness as skill in having done it, takes it in stride and climbs back into the engine to stoke the fire before the next disaster. 

The stunts come fast and furious (including one so stunning it still shocks: the sight of the (real) steam train "Texas" collapsing a burning bridge and plunging into the river below). Underlying the whole is a movie with so much heart that it makes yours ache.

Iconic shot: