The great train robbery (1903)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The great train robbery |
| Original title | The Great Train Robbery |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1903 |
| length | 12 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Edwin S. Porter |
| script |
Scott Marble , Edwin S. Porter |
| camera | Edwin S. Porter, Blair Smith |
| occupation | |
| |
The First Great Train Robbery (original title: The Great Train Robbery ) is a twelve minute American feature film from the year 1903 , considered the first Western (and partly also as the first action film of) film history applies.
action
14 scenes tell the story of a robbery on a train and the sheriff's pursuit of the robbers .
Two masked bandits ambush the employee of a telegraph office and force him to stop a train at the station with a signal indicating that he is stopping. After the employee is tied up and gagged, a total of four bandits secretly board the train during the stop. When the train starts again, they try to break open the door to the mail car . When the conductor notices this, he locks the safe with the valuables and throws the key out of the moving train. When two robbers are finally able to break open the door, there is an exchange of fire in which the conductor is shot. After an unsuccessful search for the key to the safe, it is finally possible to break it open with a load of dynamite .
At the same time, the other two robbers sneak up on the engine driver and the stoker . This leads to a scuffle with the stoker, who can be knocked down and thrown from the moving train. The train driver can then be overwhelmed and forced to stop the train and disconnect the passenger cars. The passengers are then gathered in front of the train and robbed by the bandits. When a passenger tries to escape, he is shot down. After the valuables have been collected, the robbers board the steam locomotive and leave the scene of their crime. After a while, they stop the locomotive and continue their escape on horseback .
Meanwhile, the tied up telegraph worker is discovered by his daughter and freed. He immediately rushes into town, where he reports on the attack. The sheriff leaves with some of his followers to pursue the robbers. After a chase and an exchange of fire in which a bandit is killed, the remaining robbers initially believe they have escaped their pursuers, but their hiding place is discovered and the robbers are gradually shot in a final exchange of fire.
In a final shot, you see the robber leader in close-up as he draws his revolver , aims directly at the camera and pulls the trigger until the drum is empty.
background
Even if Porter neither created the first narrative film nor was the inventor of film editing , The Great Train Heist, together with Georges Méliès ' The Journey to the Moon, is considered the most famous film of the early years of cinema . The plot is more reminiscent of gangster films , but The Great Train Robbery is considered the first western - although the film was shot in New Jersey , in the eastern United States . The story is based on a published 1896 story by Scott Marble and on a similarly expired raid the gang of Butch Cassidy from 1900. One of the actors, Max Aronson, who appeared in three roles, a few years later under the pseudonym Gilbert M Anderson himself a film producer and director and created the first star of the western genre with the character Broncho Billy played by him . Many Western clichés, such as the greenhorn animated to dance by pistol shots on the ground, have their origin in The Great Train Robbery .
Particularly innovative in this film was the application of the possibilities of film editing, which have only been known since the beginning of the decade. By using parallel montages and jump cuts , Porter managed to jump back and forth between simultaneous events, which increased the tension for the viewer. An inconspicuous cut also made it possible to throw a life-size doll from the train as a "stoker". In other scenes, Porter worked with ellipses to move the plot forward. Despite this dynamic in the montage, the camera itself was still static, but camera pans have already been used in some scenes in order to shift the location within a scene.
The most famous scene from The Great Train Robbery is the final scene with Justus D. Barnes aiming his weapon directly at the camera and firing it. It was said that cinema audiences often panicked at this scene, but these descriptions are exaggerated and were mainly used to promote the film. Porter was aware of the effect of this scene, it has no connection to the other scenes in the film and, according to an instruction for the projectionists, could be inserted either at the beginning or at the end of the film. In German-speaking countries, this scene is best known from yesterday's television series Western , where it was shown both in the opening credits and in the closing credits.
The Great Train Robbery became a huge commercial hit and one of the most successful films by Edison's film studio at an extremely low cost of only $ 150 (adjusted for inflation: $ 4,488). Numerous imitations, in which Edison himself participated with films such as the film parody The Little Train Robbery (1905), testify to the success . In the up-and-coming Nickelodeons , The Great Train Robbery was part of the standard repertoire for years , and the film is considered to be the work that secured the future of the film medium. In addition, this film was considered a guide for other filmmakers until DW Griffith perfected the techniques established by Porter in American film in the early 1910s.
Compared to other works from the 1900s, this film - first released in US cinemas on December 1, 1903 - is in excellent condition. Copies can still be made today of the camera negative kept in the Library of Congress . There are also hand-colored versions of the film , in which, for example, the explosion clouds are colored. In 1990 The Great Train Heist was added to the National Film Registry .
criticism
Joe Hembus states that in The Great Train Robbery, “all upcoming films are laid out, especially of course all upcoming westerns: assault, persecution, showdown , embellished with murder, terror, brutality, humor, using fast means of transport.” The first real film film history is an action film and deals with crimes and criminals, and in this too the film shows the way for the future development of its art.
Web links
- The First Great Train Robbery in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The great train robbery in the online film database
- The First Great Train Robbery in the Library of Congress (English)
- Detailed description and analysis of the film (in English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Joe Hembus : Western Lexicon. 1272 films from 1894–1975. 2nd Edition. Carl Hanser, Munich et al. 1977, ISBN 3-446-12189-7 , p. 268.