THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903) B/W "silent" 10m dir: Edwin S. Porter

w/Marie Murray, Bronco Billy Anderson (Max Aronson), George Barnes, Frank Hanaway

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films: "Bandits tie up a telegraph operator and rob a train, celebrate their success, but are arrested by the posse.

"Although it was made in a suburb of New York (Patterson, New Jersey), this is the first western. It is also the first important American film. Its script [by director Porter], sophisticated for 1903, was loosely based on a popular play and on true stories and derived to some extent from several successful 'chase' films made in Britain. Porter used both studio sets and exteriors, tricks similar to modern process shots, and a pan for dramatic effect (the horses waiting for the bandits). This 'feature' film was an enormous success in the Nickelodeons and increased their popularity.

"One of the bandits (Barnes) is shown in a close-up at the end, firing at the audience. [Although Sadoul identifies the shooter as Barnes, FilmFrog's other sources claim the man to be Anderson.] According to the Edison catalogue, this shot could be shown at the beginning or the end of the film. It is not therefore a sequential element but is similar to the pictures that had been used for some time to open or close a lantern show."