The move “The General” is made on a true story that happened during the Civil War Incident. It is directed by Clyde Bruckman who was born on 20th September 1894, California, USA. Clyde Bruckman is said to co-direct “The General” but I think he was more than just a 2nd unit director for this movies. The tragic story of Clyde Bruckman is that he killed himself when he was pretty much broke. He borrowed Buster Keaton's gun and after eating a meal that he could not pay for, shot himself. There are two sides to this story, one group of people saying that he shot himself in the phone booth and the other group thinking that he did it in the restroom of the café he had a meal in. he shot himself on the 4th January, 1955. The catastrophic death of Clyde was a storyline for one of The X files as well. Keaton was too much in control of his production to let the advice of others interfere.

The movie “The General” is basically a silent movie so you won’t need a headset to watch this movie. It is about a Southern Railroad engineer played by Buster Keaton as Johnny Gray whose beloved train along with his fiancée Marion Mack as Annabelle Lee in the movie “The General”. He jumps on a hand-car and begins chasing them. The hand-car becomes derailed, and he finds another train, one that's carrying Confederate soldiers. In anger, he jumps on that train, waving for the others to join him. He chugs off, without realizing that the engine was not connected to the rest of the train. Buster must now chase his train alone.
The rest of the movie revolves around two chases; one is when Buster is chasing the bad guys to get his train and girl back and the other starts when Keaton finally gets his hands on the train and his rescues his girl. Both are kept in an order clearly apart from each other, and both are vividly inventive. There are big gags and small gags, as Buster tries to figure out how to fire a big gun, and how to remove obstructions from the tracks.
The movie ends with a battle scene like all action movies, the ending sight gag is breathtaking no matter how many times you see the bad guy’s train collapsing the bridge and falling into the river. Then Buster finally becomes a warrior and gets the girl. The movie is meant to bring to mind the Civil War period by intentionally copying the style of Matthew Brady's photographs. It's yet another tribute to Keaton that he was focused so much on style and look, and still managed to make every gag work.
“The General” is a pure diversion, with certain value as a Civil War period piece. It's nearly not possible to describe in a review. Yet it ranks among the greatest movies ever made. No artist since had the sheer flawlessness of Keaton, in both developing gags, in using the cinema itself as part of the gag, not just a recording gadget, and in developing a proper character that would interact with his invented world. Overall, Keaton had to be just as skilled as both an actor and a director. Of the great actor/directors, only Chaplin and Welles came close, but neither equaled Keaton. The movie is great with comedy, romance, action and some adventure to it, having something for everyone.