This feels a lot closer to what a modern viewer would call a movie than did any of the Georges Méliès films I wrote about last time. It’s very short, lasting only 10:24, but it tells a complete story, with scenes taking place in varying locations. Where everything in Méliès’ films appeared to be shot on a theater stage, The Great Train Robbery is shot in a telegraph office, inside a saloon, and even outdoors in a sort of forest. There is one scene in particular that jumped out at me as a true cinematic moment, when a train pulls into a station, and we see it arrive through the window of the station agent’s office. The train pulls in and stops at exactly the point where the camera can best catch it. It’s all very simple stuff by today’s standards, but it represents one of the earliest moments of a director placing a camera just so, to capture something that will happen at just the right spot. In other words, it’s filmmaking! This isn’t to disparage Méliès one bit. His work is incredible in its own way. It’s more that The Great Train Robbery is one step closer to modern movie-making.
Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way. The Great Train Robbery was released on December 1, 1903. It is directed by Edwin S. Porter, who had already directed 81 previous short films. This is the one he is best known for. It’s considered the first western.
Gilbert Anderson, who plays three roles in this film, went on to become the first western movie star. How fitting that he starred in the first western! He became known as “Broncho Billy,” and went on to star in more than 300 films, many of which were westerns. He was also involved on the production side. In 1907, he and George Spoor co-founded the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, which was one of the very first movie studios. Besides making Broncho Billy westerns, Essanay put out films starring Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, and many others.
I watched this years ago, on the same rented video tape I mentioned last time, a collection of early short films, and it was fun to see it again after such a long time. I don’t own a copy of The Great Train Robbery, but fortunately it is in the public domain, and I watched it online. Here’s a link to the video I watched, which I found on the Internet Archive.
Next I’m watching: 7 more short films from Georges Méliès
The Great Train Robbery (Dec. 1, 1903)