It's difficult enough to write comments for films around fifty years old but when were talking 'silent' there's another dimension of difficulty inasmuch as one is moving into a world of title cards and 26 frames per second. On the other hand a truly great film will suffer comparison with the best of later eras and so it is here. If one is new to Keaton, knowing only that he was a deadpan comedian who performed hilarious yet often dangerous stunts then this will be something of (in the words Oscar Hammerstein put into the mouth of the King Of Siam) a puzzlement; it boasts a more or less straightforward narrative in which engineer Keaton's train is stolen by Union troops during The War Between The States and he sets off in pursuit. Any gags occur naturally within this context rather than being contrived and the film is better for this. I doubt if I can add anything pertinent to previous comments so I'll content myself with reporting that I'm glad to have seen it at last.