The Great Train Robbery

Often cited as one of the earliest standouts in the history of cinema (the only earlier example is usually A Trip to the Moon), The Great Train Robbery is a ten minute western that thrilled and excited early filmgoers. It has also become valued amongst film historians as being an important step towards several narrative-building techniques that have become an intrinsic part of film storytelling (such as cross cutting). A lot of it might now seem simplistic or indicative of the typical theatrics that were part-and-parcel of the silent film era, but it's important to remember the sheer distance of time that seperates The Great Train Robbery from our modern lives (it was made nearly 110 years ago) and I think it retains some extra worth as a tangible link to another time - a window into the past that has been preserved for future generations to enjoy.

I'll break down the plot into it's five main sections for interest's sake...

• The film starts out with some cowboys who rob a train and its passengers before escaping on horseback.
• A little girl then frees the tied-up trainguard.
• Meanwhile, the police are having a little dance in a saloon with their wives. The trainguard bursts in and alerts them to what has happened.
• The police catch up with the cowboys and have a climactic gunfight in the woods.
• The film ends with one of the cowboys firing directly into the camera - a dramatic full stop that amazed early 20th century audiences, and remains the most influential aspect of the film.
  

What I found impressive was the scene where the train rolls into the station in the background (you can see it through a window as the main action carries on in the foreground). We take this kind of thing for granted now but it would've been carefully organised and staged by the director, and it's the sort of thing that can only be done in film... what impressed me about it most was that it's done in such an offhand, understated way. The focus is on the characters interacting in the foreground as this very real train moves past the window - it's just not something that audiences at the time would've been accustomed to seeing, their closest frame of reference would be a theatre or stage experience where the action is very static and certainly didn't involve real trains. I think that's pretty cool.

Also of note are the theatrical deaths of a train guard and an escaped passenger. They seem very over the top now, but the action is compensating for a lack of sound - it's larger than life because it's like a mime show. I think The Great Train Robbery also gets points for having explosions and an actual fight on top of a moving train (the first in cinema?), making it the precursor for all action films.

DIRECTOR: Edwin S. Porter
WRITER/SOURCE: Edwin S. Porter and Scott Marble, based on the play by Scott Marble.
KEY ACTORS: Gilbert M. Anderson, Donald Gallaher, A.C. Abadie, Justus D. Barnes

RELATED TEXTS:
- This film originated as a stage play of the same name, in 1896.
- Edwin S. Porter was heavily influenced by the British film A Daring Daylight Robbery, made earlier the same year.
- Producer Thomas Edison also had Edwin S. Porter direct The Little Train Robbery in 1905, a parody version that featured an all-child cast.
- Another train robbery-themed western was produced in 1923, called The Great K & A Train Robbery.