Updated 7 March 2007
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Examples for Analytical Paper, Using The General as a Model

Summary Plot and Story Mise-en-Scene Cinematography Meaning
 
SUMMARY:
The General is a comedy set at the time of the Civil War. Johnnie Gray is a Southern railroad engineer whose two great loves are his train, The General, and his girlfriend, Annabelle. When the war breaks out, Johnnie attempts to enlist but fails. Annabelle, believing Johnnie to be a coward, refuses to speak to him until he is in uniform. One year later, as the war rages, Union spies steal The General while Annabelle is aboard. Johnnie winds up chasing them by himself, only to wind up behind enemy lines. He manages to rescue Annabelle, steal back his engine, and lead the Yankees on another chase south. He arrives in time to warn the town of an impending Union attack and becomes a hero by accident during the ensuing battle. At the end, he is reunited with his train and Annabelle, in uniform at last. [146 words]
 
PLOT AND STORY:
The General begins with an opening segment that takes place just at the outbreak of the Civil War.  The events in this segment create the historical and physical setting, introduce the main characters, define their major traits, and set some of the major problems that will need to be resolved by the end of the film.  The major event in this segment is Johnnie's failure to enlist in the army, causing Annabelle to reject him.  There is a gap of one year between this scene and the next, when The General is stolen and Johnnie begins his chase to get it back.  All of the events from here to the end take place within two days and one night of story time (the "real" time needed for all the events to unfold).  The film's plot (the events as presented in the film) does not alter the order of events or repeat individual actions, even though some individual actions and settings create ongoing motifs in the film.  However, the duration of many scenes is shortened by cutting away from action that is not central to creating humor or providing information needed by the audience.  Thus, plot order and frequency do not play especially significant roles in the film, but the plot shortens the story's duration in order to present a set of actions in a concise way.  As we will see, the film's mise-en-scene is significant in conveying the film's plot and "meanings." [242 words]
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MISE-EN-SCENE (This is list of examples that you might cite and discuss in this section):
  • apparent realism of the costumes and the settings
  • uses of specific settings and props for suspense, gags and physical humor, such as the trains, the bicycle, the handcar, the water tower, the firewood, the tables and windows at Union headquarters, and the Rock River bridge
  • how the props and settings create a parallel structure between the two chase scenes and some other parts of the film
  • costumes--role in separating people into different groups and providing humorous props, such as Johnnie’s sword and the bag of shoes
  • lighting--the nighttime scene at Union headquarters, particularly during the lightning storm
  • expression and movement--Keaton's performance and stunts as well as non-human uses of movement such as the railroad trains themselves
  • use of space--Keaton's staging of scenes in deep-space mise-en-scene

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CINEMATOGRAPHY (This is list of examples that you might cite and discuss in this section):
  • use of black-and-white film stock
  • use of extreme long shots to establish settings or provide information
  • use of close-ups for facial reactions and other reasons
  • the use of tracking and panning shots to follow movement
  • use of offscreen space to provide information unavailable to the characters
  • use of relatively deep focus cinematography
  • elements of lighting

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MEANINGS:
The General assumes that we already know something about the Civil War (even though it depicts almost nothing about slavery!), and that we have some familiarity with conventions of the Civil War film as a genre. There is little or no explicit meaning in the film, but there are a number of implications to what we see. One of these, demonstrated by the actions of "inanimate" props, is that things can behave like people. However, in the "split personality" of Johnnie, the film also suggests that people can act like things or machines, and are likely to run into trouble when they do. In the end, though, all problems are resolved, including the apparently warring parts of Johnnie’s personality, implying a need for balance in one's life. Although the film’s portrayal of women is symptomatic of a sexist ideology in portraying Annabelle as a fairly helpless object of desire, it also uses Annabelle to mock the stereotype of the "Southern belle" and questions the "glory" of war both through humor and through the realism of the battle scenes. [181 words]
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