The General (1926) - 95 year old train crash in slow motion

Buster Keaton's the general (1926) includes the most expensive single shot in cinema history till that point and for years to come. We'll be looking at that shot in detail. In some ways this very moment in time (Friday, July 23, 1926) can be seen as the pinnacle of his career.

The movie has been restored in 4K, but for our purposes we'll be AI upscaling this shot to 8K. Why bother? Imgur can't even display 4K and even FHD will compress like potatoes. Don't worry, the reasons will become obvious later on.

Slowed the shot down using frame interpolation (Pixel motion, After Effects CC2021). Buster would be amazed. It is in 1/4 speed. Renders resulting in this shoot took 12 hours total. I also splashed some color in there, because at this point why not. Might as well go bald and bankrupt.

Now that we have this big ol' frame to work with (click to zoom), we can make the camera follow the train, or we can look at some interesting details. Look at the flowers, Lizzie.

The result may look a bit cartooney, we're limited by the technology of our time. Also note that what I'm doing is wrong. Buster Keaton's films where all about what happens inside the static frame. There are very few pans and obviously no ungodly zoom pulls. I added some vaguely fitting quick sound fx which is another big no-no.

Bonus Michael Bay edit. We have the technology.

You could say more fell to the bottom of that river that day than a very expensive 60 ton locomotive. The General with its huge production budget was nearly the last truly independent production Buster Keaton ever did and its low box office score drove him to the hands of MGM. The studio had poor understanding of the kind of creative gem they had acquired and gave him no independent control over his work. As a result, The General stands as the high water mark of Buster's career and the end of his elaborate stunts and storytelling that made him unique. The movie entered public domain in 1954, as no one cared to renew its copyright (although in all fairness, the same applies to some more successful silent movies as well). It has since become a classic of the era.

The movie cost $750,000 to make (in 1926 dollars) and the train crash represents $42,000 of that sum. You could get a brand new automobile for 300 dollars in 1926.

Here's what the place looks like now days.

This is Row River, south of Cottage Grove in Oregon. That's where the locomotive lay, till salvaged for scrap during World war 2. They say you can still see bits of the train and track at the river bed when water is low (the river was dammed for filming to appear bigger and to make bridge building easier beforehand). Apparently the exact spot is not easy to reach on foot due to vegetation. Might be a fine place for magnet fishing.

My work is done.