Origin: This soundless film, The Great Train Robbery (directed by Edwin S. Porter), was released in 1903. It tells a story of, well, a great train robbery. Pity we couldn't hear what was happening. All jokes aside, this silent film is an innovative classic from this time period. It incorporates many new filming techniques that we are now familiar with but were back then amazing new innovation. For example, the film used dummies in the more violent fight scenes, something not used before. Also, according to Jennifer Rosenberg, the film was among the first to use a technique called crosscutting. Crosscutting is when the movie goes between two different scenes that were happening simultaneously. Another experiment with the camera is that instead of avoiding the constant stable picture, the director had the camera pan occasionally in order to follow the riders shown at one point of the movie, deviating from the standard of just holding it in one place. Additionally, instead of using just one set, the crew traveled to as many as ten different sets during filming.
Purpose: What was new about this type of movie was that it was a narrative style film, telling more of a story than other movies with a beginning, middle, and end. The Internet Movie Database says that the movie was also meant to be an exciting action movie, the first of its kind. Although you may think it was boring, for the time period, this was one of those edge-of-your-seat movies that one couldn't look away from. This movie was meant to be a thriller. For example, the last scene, in which the man fires point blank at the audience (you), is supposed to be new and exciting, and scare the audience.
Value: This film tells us about the new styles of film used in this time period. It also shows that film was becoming a more and more popular way of expressing stories. People were taking more risks in cinematography in order to entertain their audience. As the film industry grew, as did the variety of movies. The movie can also be telling the story of the many train robberies that occurred in the US during and before that time, such as the Canyon Diablo and the Fairbank, train robberies that happened in Arizona in 1889 and 1900, respectively. The June 1999 edition of Wild West magazine summarizes an 1889 robbery known as the Wilcox train robbery which shares similarities with the film. This movie could also be an attempt to highlight the problems during this time period. The film was made in the progressive era, and Drew Todd, a film historian reports that during this time, many silent films were an attempt to highlight the increased problems in the time, such as crime. There was also concern about cities filling rapidly with immigrants and the poor, some of which who formed criminal gangs, which could also be highlighted in the movie.
Limitations: This movie does not tell us much about other styles of film that were around at the time, such as the fantasy film La Voyage dans la Lune, a famous film that talks about a trip to the moon (for those of you who don't speak French), with a lot of fantasy type events involved.
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| A famous scene from La Voyage dans la Lune where a rocket lands on the moon's eye. ouch. (image from wikipedia) |
Overall, this is a new film with new ideas for the time period. It was one of the first nickelodeons (movies with a nickel admission, not the kids channel on TV), It also set a precedent for new movies of all genres, but especially action.
Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000439/
http://www.historynet.com/the-wilcox-train-robbery.htm
file:///C:/Users/Home/Downloads/ebscohost(18).pdf
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-fairbank.html
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