The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)
The Great Train Robbery | |
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G. M. Anderson Walter Cameron | |
Cinematography | Edwin S. Porter J. Blair Smith |
Distributed by | Edison Manufacturing Company |
Release date |
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Running time |
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Country | United States |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent film made by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It follows a gang of outlaws who hold up and rob a steam locomotive at a station in the American West, flee across mountainous terrain, and are finally defeated by a posse of locals. The short film draws on many sources, including a robust existing tradition of Western films, recent European innovations in film technique, the play of the same name by Scott Marble, the popularity of train-themed films, and possibly real-life incidents involving outlaws such as Butch Cassidy.
Porter supervised and photographed the film in New York and New Jersey in November 1903; the Edison studio began selling it to
Due in part to its popular and accessible subject matter, as well as to its dynamic action and violence, The Great Train Robbery was an unprecedented commercial success. Though it did not significantly influence or advance the Western film genre, it was widely distributed and copied, including in a parody by Porter himself. During the twentieth century, inaccurate legends about The Great Train Robbery developed, claiming it was the first Western or even the first film to tell a story. Film scholars have repeatedly disproved these claims, demonstrating that The Great Train Robbery was a stylistic dead-end for its maker and genre; its commercial success and mythic place in American film lore nonetheless remain undisputed. The film, especially the close-up of Barnes, has become iconic in American culture, appearing in numerous film and television references and homages. In 1990, The Great Train Robbery was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Two bandits break into a railroad
Meanwhile, back in the telegraph office, the bound operator awakens but collapses again. His daughter arrives, bringing him his meal, and cutting him free when she discovers him bound; she restores him to consciousness by dousing him with water. There is some comic relief at a dance hall, where an Eastern stranger (a "tenderfoot") is forced to dance while the locals fire at his feet. The door suddenly opens and the telegraph operator rushes in to tell them of the robbery. The men quickly form a posse and chase the bandits through the mountains. The posse finally overtakes the bandits, and in a final shootout kills them all and recovers the stolen mail.
A standalone final scene, separate from the narrative, presents a medium
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1. Interior of Railroad Telegraph Office
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2. At the Railroad Water Tank
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3. Interior of Express Car
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4. The Fight on the Tender
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5. The Train Uncoupled
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6. The Exterior of Passenger Coaches
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7. The Escape
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8. Off to the Mountains
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9. A Beautiful Scene in a Valley
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10. Interior of Telegraph Office
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11. Interior of a Dance Hall
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12. The Posse in Pursuit
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13. The Battle to the Death
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14. Realism
Production
Background
In the years leading up to The Great Train Robbery, the film industry was marked by much innovation and variety. Some studios, such as the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Lumière company, were best known for short sketches and actuality films presented in a straightforward style,[2] often only a single shot long.[3] However, other filmmakers aimed for more elaborate productions; Georges Méliès's films, such as the 1902 international success A Trip to the Moon, became acclaimed for their visual storytelling, often encompassing multiple scenes and involving careful editing and complicated special effects. Meanwhile, British filmmakers working in and around Brighton, a group later nicknamed the "Brighton School", made many innovations in narrative film grammar, developing framing and cutting conventions that would become industry standards.[4]
The Edison studio, facing growing competition from other American companies, welcomed Porter's ambitious plans.
Inspirations
Porter (and possibly Anderson) drew on various sources when planning the scenario for The Great Train Robbery.[11] Western themes were already popular in films and other entertainment, reflecting the wide public interest in stories about the past and present of the American West. Many American films before 1900 can be classified as Westerns,[12] such as actuality views of cowboy life, staged Western anecdotes like A Bluff from a Tenderfoot and Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene (both 1899), and shots of Annie Oakley and of Oglala and Brulé dancers from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (both 1894).[13] Studios abroad also began telling Western stories early on, with Mitchell and Kenyon's 1899 British film Kidnapping by Indians the first known example.[14] Edison's 1901 film Stage Coach Hold-up, based on Buffalo Bill's "Hold-up of the Deadwood Stage" act, probably influenced Porter directly.[11] Porter may have also been inspired by recent real events related to the American West: in August 1900, Butch Cassidy and his gang had robbed a Union Pacific Railroad train and escaped capture,[15] and in September 1903, Bill Miner's gang made an unsuccessful holdup of an Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company train.[16]
For the film's title and basic concept, Porter looked to Scott Marble's The Great Train Robbery, a popular stage melodrama that had premiered in Chicago in 1896 and had been revived in New York in 1902. The play covers the adventures of a Texas criminal gang who attempt to steal a $50,000 gold shipment from a Wells Fargo office in Missouri. Their initial scheme is for a mole planted in the company to make off with the gold before it leaves Missouri by train; this plan goes awry, and only leads to an innocent man's arrest. However, using information received at a Texas mountain saloon, the gang are still able to stop the train, blast open the car containing the gold, and bring it back to their secret hideout in a Red River canyon. The United States Marshals Service tracks down the gang and finally defeats them in a climactic fight, with cowboys and Native Americans drawn into the fray.[11]
For the narrative style, Porter likely drew freely on various recent popular films, made by filmmakers experimenting with elaborate storytelling.[11] A Daring Daylight Burglary, a British chase drama from the Sheffield Photo Company, has frequently been cited as particularly influential;[2][17] it and another British film, Desperate Poaching Affray, were successfully imported to America and started a decade-long vogue for films centered on chases.[18] A Daring Daylight Burglary's story and editing appear to have supplied the overall narrative structure for The Great Train Robbery,[17][11] though in the latter film the chase is only made explicit in one shot, the twelfth.[19] Porter's plot also profited from the booming popularity of railroad-related film attractions, such as phantom rides and standalone comic scenes set on trains. The Great Train Robbery would treat the rail theme more elaborately than was common, showing its train from various angles and involving it in a dramatic adventure.[20]
Filming
Porter filmed The Great Train Robbery in November 1903. Some scenes were photographed at the Edison studio in New York, and others were done in New Jersey, in Essex County Park and along the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The stream-crossing scene was filmed at Thistle Mill Ford in the South Mountain Reservation of Essex County Park.[9] The cast included Justus D. Barnes as the leader of the outlaws, Walter Cameron as the sheriff and G. M. Anderson in three small roles (the murdered passenger, the dancing tenderfoot, and one of the robbers). Many Edison workers were among the extras.[9] Edison filmmaker J. Blair Smith was one of the camera operators.[9]
According to rumors in a contemporary
Porter's visual style for The Great Train Robbery was not cutting edge for 1903; it is comparable to numerous other films released around the same time, such as
However, The Great Train Robbery successfully collected many popular themes and prevalent techniques of the time into a single accessible narrative.[24] Porter cut his shots together to suggest action happening simultaneously in different locations, as he had done (albeit less efficiently) in Life of an American Fireman.[15] The use of real outdoor locations and violent action helped keep the film dynamic,[15] as did technical strategies such as a matte combining a studio scene with outdoor footage, and three shots in which the camera moves. These three shots add an edge of realism and immediacy, with the frame following the action as if recording real life in a documentary style; one of these shots, showing the robbers making off with their loot, even requires the mounted camera to attempt a tricky diagonal pan, creating a jagged effect.[18]
The final shot, in which Barnes fires at the camera in a framing reminiscent of a wanted poster, is the film's only close-up, and does not function as part of the plot.[15] Porter rarely used close-ups, especially in his later years, preferring to save them for special standalone effects like this one.[25] Edison's promotional leaflet about the film describes this scene as follows:
Scene 14—REALISM. A life size picture of Barnes, leader of the outlaw band, taking aim and firing point blank at each individual in the audience. (This effect is gained by foreshortening in making the picture.) The resulting excitement is great. This section of the scene can be used either to begin the subject or to end it, as the operator may choose.[26]
The catalogue's informal approach to where the scene should be placed was not unique to The Great Train Robbery; Porter's film
Release and reception
In 1903, the most common American film venue was vaudeville houses, where films were exhibited as part of a varied bill of entertainment; other informal venues also sometimes showed films.[28] The Edison Manufacturing Company announced The Great Train Robbery to exhibitors in early November 1903, calling it a "highly sensationalized Headliner". To secure copyright, they submitted a rough cut of the film (about fifteen feet longer than the final cut) to the Library of Congress, where it survives as a paper print.[24] The final release print was made available in early December 1903.[24] Edison sold it to exhibitors for US$111, as a 740-foot reel.[29] The first known showing of The Great Train Robbery was at a New York City dime museum, Huber's Museum. By the following week it was appearing at eleven venues in the city area, including the Eden Musée, a major amusement center.[24] Edison advertisements touted the film as "absolutely the superior of any moving picture ever made" and a "faithful imitation of the genuine 'Hold Ups' made famous by various outlaw bands in the far West".[30] Several prints of The Great Train Robbery survive; a few of these were heavily edited and altered by their owners, but most are in their release state, and at least one is hand-colored.[24]
The Great Train Robbery was a major commercial success for the Edison company.[31] It played as the headlining attraction in many vaudeville houses, and showed up frequently at two other entertainment venues that proliferated across the country in the following years: immersive venues where the spectator took simulated railroad journeys, such as Hale's Tours of the World,[32] and a new kind of film venue, the nickelodeon, where The Great Train Robbery was often the first attraction shown.[19] It was the first film shown at Harry Davis and John P. Harris' Nickelodeon theater.[33] Overall, it may have had the biggest success of any film made before 1905.[34] Its popularity was helped by its timely subject matter (as train robberies were still a familiar news item),[35] as well as its striking depictions of action and violence.[34] Unusually for the time, the film was even described in detail in the New York Times; the anonymous reviewer criticized most of the players, but praised the horse riding and stunts, concluding: "All this is the result of poor acting, but the results are certainly astounding."[21]
The film was also widely imitated and copied; the
Legacy
In the decades after The Great Train Robbery, various inaccurate legends developed, exaggerating its historical significance.[40] By mid-century, mistaken claims that it was the "first Western" or even the "first story film" were common.[31] Critiquing these inaccurate legends and citing the film's actual lack of impact on the Western genre, historian Scott Simmon comments that in fact the film's "main surprise in retrospect is how it led nowhere, either for its creator or the genre, beyond serving loosely as a narrative model for gun-wielding crime and horse-chase retribution."[39] Claims about historical priority continued to be repeated by general-audience writers into the early twenty-first century.[41]
Later film critics, abandoning the exaggerated claims, have tended to explain the film's significance mostly in terms of its wide popularity and Porter's influential action-driven storytelling. William Everson and George Fenin dubbed it "the first dramatically creative American film", while Robert Sklar praised the film's capacity "to unite motion picture spectacle with myth and stories about America that were shared by people throughout the world."[24] Historians have cited The Great Train Robbery as Porter's most important film,[42] and noted it as a popular early film that collects numerous important Western tropes, such as "elements of fisticuffs, horseback pursuit and gunplay".[31] Film historian Pamela Hutchinson highlights especially the iconic close-up scene, "a jolt of terror as disconcerting as a hand bursting from a grave":
It's an especially violent act, both in real terms, and cinematic ones. The narrative momentum of the film is cast aside, then the fourth wall of the screen is broken by his gaze, only to be further ruptured by his bullets. Placed at the opening of the film, it might act as a trailer for the shoot-'em-up action to come. As a coda, it's a warning to the audience that it's a wild world out there, and the violence continues even after the train robber case has been closed.[15]
The Great Train Robbery was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1990.[43] In popular culture, numerous films and television shows have referenced the film and the iconic Barnes close-up:
- Historian James Chapman compares the James Bond gun barrel sequences, conceived by Maurice Binder, to the close-up.[44]
- The Batman episode "The Riddler's False Notion" (1966) guest-stars silent film icon Francis X. Bushman as a film collector who owns a print of The Great Train Robbery.[45]
- The German ZDF series Western von gestern (1978–1986) uses the Barnes close-up for its opening and closing sequences.[46]
- The final scene of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990), in which Tommy DeVito (portrayed by Joe Pesci) shoots at the camera, recreates the close-up as a homage.[15] Scorsese has commented that the shot is "…a reference to the end of The Great Train Robbery… And the plot of this picture is very similar to The Great Train Robbery."[47]
- The Breaking Bad episode "Dead Freight" (2012) pays homage to The Great Train Robbery, with a matching final shot.[48]
See also
References
- ^ Pratt 1973, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b c d Cook 1981, p. 19.
- ^ Thompson & Bordwell 1994, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Thompson & Bordwell 1994, pp. 16–19.
- ^ Musser 1990, pp. 314–315.
- ^ a b c d Thompson & Bordwell 1994, p. 22.
- ^ Cook 1981, p. 20.
- ^ Musser 1990, pp. 325–327.
- ^ a b c d Musser 1991, p. 253.
- ^ Musser 1990, p. 352.
- ^ a b c d e f Musser 1991, p. 256.
- ^ Everson 1969, p. 14.
- ^ Simmon 2009, pp. 6–8.
- ^ Anonymous 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hutchinson 2016.
- ^ Musser 1991, pp. 258–59.
- ^ a b Pratt 1973, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Musser 1991, p. 259.
- ^ a b Musser 1991, p. 260.
- ^ Musser 1991, p. 261–64.
- ^ a b Anonymous 1904.
- ^ Barnes 2004, p. 54.
- ^ Lusted 2014, p. 74–77.
- ^ a b c d e f Musser 1991, p. 254.
- ^ a b Pratt 1973, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Pratt 1973, p. 36.
- ^ Lusted 2014, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Thompson & Bordwell 1994, p. 20.
- ^ Pratt 1973, pp. 34.
- ^ Smith & Selzer 2015, p. 71.
- ^ a b c d Everson 1969, p. 15.
- ^ Musser 1991, p. 264.
- ^ Seiler 2013, p. 73.
- ^ a b c Thompson & Bordwell 1994, p. 23.
- ^ a b c d Everson 1969, p. 16.
- ^ Slide 1994, p. 17.
- ^ Evina 2004.
- ^ Musser 1991, p. 320.
- ^ a b c Simmon 2009, p. 8.
- ^ Everson 1969, p. 14–15.
- ^ Lusted 2014, p. 73.
- ^ Thompson & Bordwell 1994, pp. 19.
- ^ Gamarekian 1990.
- ^ Chapman 2000, p. 61.
- ^ Eisner & Krinsky 1984, p. 93.
- ^ ZDF 1978.
- ^ Cousins 2002, p. 160.
- ^ Vacano 2020, pp. 260–61.
Works cited
- Anonymous (March 13, 1904), "'The Great Train Robbery,' as Rehearsed in New Jersey", The New York Times, p. SM3
- Anonymous (October 31, 2019), "World's first Western movie 'filmed in Blackburn'", British Broadcasting Corporation
- Barnes, John (2004), "Mary Jane's Mishap: An Early British Film Re-examined", JSTOR 3815559
- Chapman, James (2000), Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-12048-6
- Cook, David A. (1981), A History of Narrative Film, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393013707
- Cousins, Mark (2002), Scene by Scene: Film Actors and Directors Discuss Their Work, London: Laurence King, ISBN 9781856692878
- Eisner, Joel; Krinsky, David (1984), Television Comedy Series: An Episode Guide To 153 TV Sitcoms In Syndication, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, ISBN 0-899-50088-9
- Everson, William K. (1969), A Pictorial History of the Western Film, Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press
- Evina, Frank (October 2004), "Copyright Lore" (PDF), Copyright.gov, United States Copyright Office
- Gamarekian, Barbara (October 19, 1990), "Library of Congress Adds 25 Titles to National Film Registry", The New York Times, retrieved July 22, 2009
- Hutchinson, Pamela (February 2016), "Endings...: The Great Train Robbery", Sight & Sound, British Film Institute, p. 112
- Lusted, David (2014), The Western, London: Routledge, ISBN 9781317874911
- Musser, Charles (1990), The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
- Musser, Charles (1991), Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company, Berkeley: University of California Press
- Pratt, George C. (1973), Spellbound in Darkness: A History of the Silent Film, Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society
- Simmon, Scott (2009), The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre's First Half-Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Slide, Anthony (1994), Early American Cinema (rev. ed.), Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, p. 17, ISBN 9780810827226
- Smith, Michael Glover; Selzer, Adam (2015), Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-85079-7
- Thompson, Kristin; Bordwell, David (1994), Film History: An Introduction, New York: McGraw-Hill
- Vacano, Koen (2020), "Breaking Bad as Mirror of Medea: A Case for Comparative Reception", in Rijser, David; de Pourcq, Maarten; de Haan, Nathalie (eds.), Framing Classical Reception Studies: Different Perspectives on a Developing Field, Leiden: Brill, pp. 245–271, ISBN 9789004427020
- ZDF (1978), Western von gestern, ZDF, opening and closing
- Seiler, Robert (2013). Reel Time: Movie Exhibitors and Movie Audiences In Prairie Canada, 1896 to 1986. ISBN 9781926836997.
External links
- The Great Train Robbery (1903) on YouTube
- The Great Train Robbery at IMDb
- The Great Train Robbery at the TCM Movie Database
- The Great Train Robbery at AllMovie
- The Great Train Robbery at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Great Train Robbery at Filmsite.org