Battling Butler / The General with Jamelle Bouie

One of narrative cinema’s earliest training sequences, and one of cinema’s most famous trains – that’s right, we’re covering Buster Keaton’s 1926 films BATTLING BUTLER and THE GENERAL. Gentleman, scholar, and action movie aficionado Jamelle Bouie joins us to unpack this week’s double feature, providing some essential historical context for THE GENERAL’s unfortunate Civil War  setting. Plus, Ben starts researching how one buys a train.

Guest Links: 

Read Jamelle’s writing at The New York Times

Listen to Unclear and Present Danger 

Subscribe to Unclear and Present Danger Patreon

Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes.

Follow us @blankcheckpod on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X!

Buy some real nerdy merch.

Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord

For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices