2. The Great Train Robbery 1903

Directed by Edwin S. Porter

Synopsis:

A train robbery happens! Yay. The robbers dressed in Cowboy hats and stuff rob the station and tie up the station master, sneak into a train, kill the money guard, take all the money, detach the engine from the train, rob the passengers, escape in the engine, run through the forest. Meanwhile the station master gets free from his ropes , helped by a little girl who looks like a goblin, warns the rabble at the saloon, they chase the bandits and kill them all. At the end some guy shoots repeatedly at the camera. Don't ask me why.

Review

Again a very short film, about 12 minutes long. It is at the same time better and worse than A Trip To The Moon. It is definitely not as interesting or trippy, although it has its moments. However, the variety of locations and scenes make it a much more modern looking film, although only a year has passed since Melies'.

It is a particularly funny film to watch today. Firstly, whenever anyone dies there's a big scene with them spinning around before slowly lying down, arms outstreched. You can almost hear "Oh, Woe is me" or "So long, cruel world" each time someone gets shot. Also particularly fascinating is the little hooded girl, reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood, who releases the station master near the end of the film. The hooded character, the kind of bow on her head, her frantic movement and the poor quality of the image make her look like some kind of goblin, making for an unintentional "What the Fuck?" moment. Interestingly, at the end there is a completely disjointed part of the film, in which one of the gunmen shoots the screen some five times, for no apparent reason other than probably create panic in the movie theatres. Still, it's a very effective scene which has created one of the most iconic images of early cinema.

Again, this is definitely a movie worth watching, very short, very cheap... free, actually, on Google Video. Although more boring than A Trip to the Moon, it is a precious historical document as the first Western film (although some assholes claim it isn't a western because it was filmed in New Jersey and Delaware).

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

The scene where the bandit shoots at the camera has been placed either at the beggining or end of the film. Most modern versions place it at the end.

The bandits were master ninjas. The way they rob a train, shoot people etc., without a sound is one of the high points of Ninjutsu in the States.