Though it runs only seventy-five minutes, it still seems remarkable that Buster Keaton's fertile imagination is built upon short, quick gags that pass by quickly--so quickly that it staggers the mind that anyone could come up with enough to flesh out seventy-five minutes. The gags themselves are gracefully athletic and consistently come unexpectedly, given Keaton's slight build and features that make him look old beyond his years. He plays a train engineer whose attempts to join the Confederate army are rebuffed (as are the affections of his beloved, believing him to be a coward) but who almost single-handedly manages to win a major battle by using his train to confound the Union army. There's great attention paid to detail--quite a bit is happening both in the foreground and the background of the frame--and the jokes are both laugh-out-loud funny and amusingly ironic; but Keaton's genius is his ability to isolate the individual within the crowd and draw out that individual's endearing strengths--his connection with each member of the audience is subtle but sublime.