The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Nov 4th, 2008 by cm1

Fast Download: The Great Train Robbery (1903)

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The clerk at the train station is assaulted and left tied by four men, then they rob the train threatening the operator. (They) take all the money and shoot a passenger when trying to run away. A little girl discovers the clerk tied and gives notice to the sheriff, who at once goes along with his men hunting the bandits.
It’s hard to assign “The Great Train Robbery” a rating, as it shouldn’t really be watched as a film the way we watch films now. But from a historical perspective, it’s fascinating, and is an excellent example of the use of film editing, an art form then in its infancy and now an award category recognized every year at the Oscars.
Before this movie, it wasn’t customary to tell multiple story lines simultaneously, but here, various activities going on in different locations are intercut to create suspense. D.W. Griffith would use this technique much more ambitiously (and combine it with many other developing film techniques) in “The Birth of a Nation” over ten years later, but credit must be given to “Train Robbery” for blazing a trail.
Also, this is the movie famous for the shot of an outlaw shooting a gun directly at the camera. I can’t imagine what effect this had on audiences at the time, who were probably diving behind their chairs for cover.