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The Great Train Robbery (1903)
– Reviewed by Doug Boilesen
This movie makes my top ten for its impact on the
moving picture industry, its impact on the history of westerns and its impact
on my own young psyche. Action packed
scenes (for its time), innovative film techniques (for its time), the good
guys vs. the bad guys and a dramatic conclusion (for its time) all combined
to produce a movie that would change expectations for future movie-goers.
Unlike Edison’s experimental clips from just a few years earlier (The Sneeze or The Kiss) this is a movie that
told a story. Though only 12 minutes
long, The Great Train Robbery made a strong impression on me as a nine-year
old when I first saw it at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
At the end of the museum’s re-created Main Street, there was The Nickelodeon
and for 5 cents we went in, sat on wooden benches and watched The Great
Train Robbery to the sounds of the accompanying pianist.
Though this was the Age of Television, I was nonetheless transported
back to 1903 and was captivated by the event.
I know museum Main Streets like this one and certainly Main Street
Disneyland can be stereotypes of the best that we associate with the early
twentieth century. But it does create an atmosphere. And seeing this movie in that
period setting was special.
Years later I am still amazed by the technology
and have to wonder what those early movie-goers must have felt as they watched
the first of the great westerns. I
watched a lot of “B” westerns growing up and Shane is in my top 10.
But I think it’s the museum’s Main Street and
the experience of watching The Great Train Robbery in that setting
that was most significant. Looking
back, that event was an important piece in my developing interest in the early
20th century. And if there had been an Edison Phonograph providing
the soundtrack, I’m sure I’d now recall that day as ”The Perfect Day”.
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Click here to view other thumbnail stills and download
the original film (RealMedia)
http://www.wildwestweb.net/great.html
Click here to view the Edison Kinetoscopic
Record of a Sneeze
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc129.1.jpg
Click here to view other early Edison film clips
from the Edison National Historic Site titled Movies
including The Kiss and Serpentine Dance
http://www.nps.gov/edis/video.htm
Click here to view Yesterday's Main Street at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry
http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/YMS/YMSVR.html