An art form is generally at its best in infancy. Think the Iliad, Gregorian chant, or the Venus of Willendorf; these are works of art free from metaphor, allegory (the greatest sin in art), and cliche. They exude the sheer joy of creation, even in their tragic dimensions. All art since refers back to these foundations, creating a hall of diminishing reflections.
Silent film is perhaps the last true art we will ever experience (unless video games count). Of course, cliches abound, but they are so old that Jung renamed them the "collective unconscious," thinking we are born with them, and perhaps we are, but I doubt it. A better explanation may be that pure art requires what will eventually become cliche.
The General (and another silent I saw recently, Sunrise) seems to derive from a place deep in my own memory. I felt like I had seen it before, though I knew I had not. The film doesn't really mean anything, and the plot itself is irrelevent. The General, and movies like it, derives its power from somewhere deeper than something as superficial as meaning.
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