THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903)

The Great Train Robbery (1903) A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.




Origin

The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short Western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter. At ten minutes long, it is considered a milestone in film making. Despite it’s brevity and it’s relatively simple nature, the Great Train Robbery is essentially the prototype for the whole of the action movie genre.


Purpose

The film used a number of innovative techniques including composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. The film is also the first to introduce the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes appear to occur simultaneously but in different locations. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. Here is the full movie if it intrests you enough to want to see it. Enjoy :)








Value

This film is valuable to learning about film during the early 1900s because we can see how raw the photage is and how it uses the innovative techniques like I mentioned earlier. The “greatest living filmmaker”, Martin Scorsese even paid direct homage to this film, and the influence it has had on film, in his own film Goodfellas. With such high expectations going in, and with such a wealth of films that have come since, The Great Train holds up remarkably well considering.



Limitations

Due to limitations in camera technology, and mobility, there is no movement at all in the shots. As far as cinematography goes, it falls into the same category that a lot of older silent movies do. A little boring. The camera is put into place, and the action simply happens in front of it. Not super exciting, but again, considering when it was made, this isn’t all that surprising, or bad.