The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)
"Considered the first narrative film, "The Great Train Robbery" was directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter, a former cameraman for the Thomas Edison Company. Primitive by modern standards, the 10-minute action picture depicts 14 distinct scenes filmed at various locales in New Jersey intended to represent the American West. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, the screen's first Western star, played several roles in the film, including a bandit and a train passenger. Audiences were thrilled and terrified to watch a gunman in medium close-up fire directly at the screen in the film's final scene ... although Porter suggested to exhibitors it could just as easily be shown at the beginning of the film instead"
— The Library of Congress
The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1990.
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The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 silent western short film, written, produced and directed by Edwin S. Porter and starring Alfred C. Abadie, Gilbert M. Anderson, Justus D. Barnes, Walter Cameron, John Manus Dougherty Sr., Donald Gallaher, Frank Hanaway, Adam Charles Hayman, Marie Murray and Mary Snow, as well as several background actors. The film, as the title suggests, shows a gang of bandits sneaking onboard a train in order to rob it and the passengers, but are eventually gunned down by a posse of lawmen who then retrieve the booty.
Why It Rocks
- Considering how hard it can be to adjust to the past due to how it can seem slow, obvious, and yet filled with odd, unexpected touches too far removed from our experiences to decipher easily, this just makes Great Train Robbery an even more amazing achievement as it still remains entertaining over 100 years later. The closest competition it has for being the most beloved from its era is A Trip to the Moon.
- The short is so accomplished, and modern in its outlook and technique, it’s surprising it didn’t leave a greater impact on contemporary filmmakers, as Great Train Robbery was at the time the only 12-minute film that succeeded on both a creative and a commercial level.
- Most of the period’s cinematography focused on delivering the equivalent of “the best seat in the house” to viewers – straight-ahead, eye-level compositions as if viewing the stage from a center seat in a theater. The ability to shift the point of view – going closer into the story or pulling back to show a wider view – is a critical difference between stage and screen. Great Train Robbery takes note of this conceptual leap, as the director’s camera becomes a part of the story, basically as its own character.
- The camera hurtles along the top of a train, picks its way through a forest, and watches a backwoods social. It also adopts oblique angles, high viewpoints, and even tilts, and pans as the story demands. While previous films had used those devices, they were never integrated as fully into a fictional story this long. Porter’s style makes the film’s events seem like they’re actually happening
- There’s also stop-motion photography, matte shots, and the occasional use of color.
- Not only does the director shift positions, but he also shifts time itself; another major difference between stage and screen. Some actions precede others, while actions also occur at the same time. (i.e.: The crooks escape while the stationmaster telegraphs for help; a posse forms while the crooks are riding through a forest.)
- There’s also its terms of narrative. It may not be the first western or the first crime film, but it did set up the elements that would eventually build up the western genre, to the point where it was imitated since: This includes bandits overcoming technology, senseless violence, hoedowns, horse chases, shoot-outs, the innocent in peril and the evil brought to justice.