Title: The Great Train RobberyGenre: Short, Crime, Western
IMDB User Score: 7.5/10 Stars
Year: 1903
Language: English
Format: Silent, Black & White
Length: 12 Minutes
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Producer: Edwin S. Porter
Screenplay: Scott Marble, Edwin S. Porter
Photography: Edwin S. Porter, Blair Smith
Music: ?
Cast: A.C. Abadie, Gilbert M. “Bronco Billy” Anderson, George Barnes, Walter Cameron, Frank Hanaway, Morgan Jones, Tom London, Marie Murray, Mary Snow
Oscar: No
Oscar Nomination: No
Budget: ?
Revenue: ?
Reason it’s Significant:
- The first western film ever made
- The most commercially successful film of the pre-Griffith period of American cinema
- Has spawned hundreds of imitations
- The first movie featuring Gilbert M. Anderson, the actor who portrayed famous “Bronco Billy”, who has appeared in over a hundred different films
- One of the first “narrative” movies, featuring a level of narrative sophistication almost unheard of at the time of its release
- The final scene is one of the most infamous in movie history, and caused 1903 movie going audiences great distress and alarm upon first experiencing it
- Most likely the direct inspiration for the James Bond opening “gun barrel” credits
- First cinematic instance of the “make someone dance by shooting at their feet” cliché
This is a great little movie. It’s very basic, but very effective at what it does. The plot is simple: A small group of bandits rob a train. But the way it’s done is what makes it revolutionary. The movie has an excellent sense of narrative. Unlike prior movies of the time, such as A Trip to the Moon (1902), every scene in this movie serves to further the plot. This makes it feel a lot more like what we as a modern audience consider being a “movie”, as opposed to most movies of the time which were really more like random skits.
The action scenes are what make this movie, and I found them to be surprisingly engaging. In fact, while watching this I was thoroughly reminded of the opening sequence to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). The film is filled with intense gunfights and harrowing rough-and-tumble melee combat, as people throw each other from train cars and dodge bullets. Most of this is fairly engaging although, this high action combat is where my one major complaint about the movie derives from. This was before the time of sophisticated safety precautions and stunt actors. So, to avoid killing the actors, they had to slow the train down A LOT during the scenes that involved people falling off the train. This is especially noticeable during a fight sequence on top of the coal stack. You can see the trees in the background moving along at a snails pace compared to how fast the train should be moving. I know its kind of nitpicky to critique the special effects of a movie made in 1903, but this REALLY threw me out of the experience.
Despite all this, the real show stealer is of course the very final shot of the movie. The scene of the bandit unloading his six-shooter directly into the camera is still one of the most famous in cinema history. While it may seem laughable to us today, this shattering of the fourth wall scared the hell out of some older movie goers, many of whom were attending a movie for the very first time when they went to see this film, as they thought they were really being shot at. Even today I found it to be a little creepy. The sudden drop out of the ever-present whimsical black-and-white movie soundtrack to replace with the cold dull pounding of the bullets is definitely jarring. I’m not sure if there is some moral message meant to be attached to this shot, but whatever its purpose is, it’s definitely unnerving. This movie is not only the father of all western movies, but it is a credit to the genre, standing as a testament to the ingenuity of the earliest film makers.
Producer: Edwin S. Porter
Screenplay: Scott Marble, Edwin S. Porter
Photography: Edwin S. Porter, Blair Smith
Music: ?
Cast: A.C. Abadie, Gilbert M. “Bronco Billy” Anderson, George Barnes, Walter Cameron, Frank Hanaway, Morgan Jones, Tom London, Marie Murray, Mary Snow
Oscar: No
Oscar Nomination: No
Budget: ?
Revenue: ?
Reason it’s Significant:
- The first western film ever made
- The most commercially successful film of the pre-Griffith period of American cinema
- Has spawned hundreds of imitations
- The first movie featuring Gilbert M. Anderson, the actor who portrayed famous “Bronco Billy”, who has appeared in over a hundred different films
- One of the first “narrative” movies, featuring a level of narrative sophistication almost unheard of at the time of its release
- The final scene is one of the most infamous in movie history, and caused 1903 movie going audiences great distress and alarm upon first experiencing it
- Most likely the direct inspiration for the James Bond opening “gun barrel” credits
- First cinematic instance of the “make someone dance by shooting at their feet” cliché
This is a great little movie. It’s very basic, but very effective at what it does. The plot is simple: A small group of bandits rob a train. But the way it’s done is what makes it revolutionary. The movie has an excellent sense of narrative. Unlike prior movies of the time, such as A Trip to the Moon (1902), every scene in this movie serves to further the plot. This makes it feel a lot more like what we as a modern audience consider being a “movie”, as opposed to most movies of the time which were really more like random skits.
The action scenes are what make this movie, and I found them to be surprisingly engaging. In fact, while watching this I was thoroughly reminded of the opening sequence to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). The film is filled with intense gunfights and harrowing rough-and-tumble melee combat, as people throw each other from train cars and dodge bullets. Most of this is fairly engaging although, this high action combat is where my one major complaint about the movie derives from. This was before the time of sophisticated safety precautions and stunt actors. So, to avoid killing the actors, they had to slow the train down A LOT during the scenes that involved people falling off the train. This is especially noticeable during a fight sequence on top of the coal stack. You can see the trees in the background moving along at a snails pace compared to how fast the train should be moving. I know its kind of nitpicky to critique the special effects of a movie made in 1903, but this REALLY threw me out of the experience.
Despite all this, the real show stealer is of course the very final shot of the movie. The scene of the bandit unloading his six-shooter directly into the camera is still one of the most famous in cinema history. While it may seem laughable to us today, this shattering of the fourth wall scared the hell out of some older movie goers, many of whom were attending a movie for the very first time when they went to see this film, as they thought they were really being shot at. Even today I found it to be a little creepy. The sudden drop out of the ever-present whimsical black-and-white movie soundtrack to replace with the cold dull pounding of the bullets is definitely jarring. I’m not sure if there is some moral message meant to be attached to this shot, but whatever its purpose is, it’s definitely unnerving. This movie is not only the father of all western movies, but it is a credit to the genre, standing as a testament to the ingenuity of the earliest film makers.
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