This is one of the most expensive silent movie stunts of all time. (Video)



This shot from Buster Keaton's "The General" (1926) cost $42,000 (equal to $600,000 today). The production company left the wreckage of the train in the Row River, south of Cottage Grove in Oregon. The site became a tourist attraction until 1944 when the wreckage was finally salvaged and scrapped during World War II.

"The General" went way over budget, costing $750,000 (equal to $11 million today) in total. Some of the unforeseen costs included "Keaton being knocked unconscious; an assistant director being shot in the face with a blank cartridge; a train wheel running over a brakeman's foot, resulting in a $2,900 lawsuit; and the train's wood-burning engine causing numerous fires. The fires often spread to forests and farmers' haystacks, which cost the production $25 per burnt stack."

In the end, the film only made $500,000 at the box office and was panned by film critics. Despite failing financially and losing his artistic independence, Keaton considered "The General" to be his crowning achievement. "I was more proud of that picture than any picture I ever made," he said.

Today, "The General" is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars and listed it on his top 10 in 2002. He had this to say about Buster Keaton: "Today I look at Keaton's works more often than any other silent films. 
They have such a graceful perfection, such a meshing of story, character, and episode, that they unfold like music. Although they're filled with gags, you can rarely catch Keaton writing a scene around a gag; instead, the laughs emerge from the situation... 
And in an age when special effects were in their infancy, and a 'stunt' often meant actually doing on the screen what you appeared to be doing, Keaton was ambitious and fearless. 
He had a house collapse around him. He swung over a waterfall to rescue a woman he loved. He fell from trains. And always he did it in character, playing a solemn and thoughtful man who trusts in his own ingenuity."
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