The General, North by Northwest, and The Right Stuff are the main movies we have watched this year in Literature and Film that have characters who hold positions of power. These characters are the army leaders in the General, the government agents in North by Northwest, and the politicians and government officials in The Right Stuff. I feel that all of these movies portray people in leadership positions in a similar fashion. .
The General, a silent film featuring Buster Keaton, shows very little of people with power. This movie mainly focuses on the antics of the main character trying to retrieve his stolen train, however, there are scenes in the beginning and end with military leaders from the South, and scattered throughout are scenes with military leaders from the North. All of the leaders are very serious and stern. In the beginning of the movie Buster is not allowed to join the military because he is too useful as a conductor, the leaders that rejected him were stone-faced and just had him go on his way. The scene that comes to mind with the leaders from the North is when they are at the dining table in the house strategizing for the following days events. All of the gentlemen at the table look to be very serious and accept no nonsense. At the end of the movie Buster is rewarded for his "courageous" efforts in retrieving his train by becoming a military leader himself. The man who distinguished Buster with this new title was very serious and didn't show any emotion or happiness for Buster. The way all of the previous leaders are portrayed is similar to the way other movie leaders are shown.
Roger Thornhill is the man that we get to know in the movie North by Northwest. Roger starts out as an everyday businessman. This soon changes when thugs mistake him for Kaplan a fictional government spy. The people that hold authority in this movie would be the police in general, and the government agents that are behind the fictional Kaplan's identity.
