The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter, a former Edison Studios cameraman. Actors in the movie included Alfred C. Abadie, Broncho Billy Anderson and Justus D. Barnes, although there were no credits. It was filmed in Milltown, New Jersey. The film was inspired by Scott Marble's 1896 stage play, and may also have been inspired by a 1900 train robbery perpetrated by Butch Cassidy. At twelve minutes long, The Great Train Robbery film is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of then-unconventional techniques, including composite editing, on-location shooting, and frequent camera movement. Although the film is often described as one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes are shown to be occurring simultaneously but in different locations, in fact the scenes of the train robbery and the telegraph operator are told independently, with no intercutting of shots. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. Techniques used in The Great Train Robbery were inspired by those used in Frank Mottershaw's British film A Daring Daylight Burglary, released earlier in the year.[4] Film historians now largely consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first American action film and the first Western film with a "recognizable form,"[5][6] although it post-dates the British short Kidnapping by Indians (1899) by several years. 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".
The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter, a former Edison Studios cameraman. Actors in the movie included Alfred C. Abadie, Broncho Billy Anderson and Justus D. Barnes, although there were no credits. It was filmed in Milltown, New Jersey. The film was inspired by Scott Marble's 1896 stage play, and may also have been inspired by a 1900 train robbery perpetrated by Butch Cassidy. At twelve minutes long, The Great Train Robbery film is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of then-unconventional techniques, including composite editing, on-location shooting, and frequent camera movement. Although the film is often described as one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes are shown to be occurring simultaneously but in different locations, in fact the scenes of the train robbery and the telegraph operator are told independently, with no intercutting of shots. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. Techniques used in The Great Train Robbery were inspired by those used in Frank Mottershaw's British film A Daring Daylight Burglary, released earlier in the year.[4] Film historians now largely consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first American action film and the first Western film with a "recognizable form,"[5][6] although it post-dates the British short Kidnapping by Indians (1899) by several years. 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".