drqshadow

4/10

More significant as a landmark than a film, _The Great Train Robbery_ is a very early American picture that stumbles through a basic plot (the title is all the summary you'll need) while experimenting with the medium. I’d probably have better appreciated this had I not immediately preceded it with _A Trip to the Moon_, from the previous year, which tries harder stunts, shows greater creativity and tells a more exciting, enjoyable story. This whole production only runs for about twelve minutes, but it could’ve been five. There’s just that much wasted motion. We linger to see everything through to its end, whether that means securely binding and gagging a KO’d station clerk or redundantly snatching valuables from every one of the train’s fifty-odd passengers. There’s no hurry to any of this; a dozen total minutes of screen time and we’ll burn thirty seconds watching the robbers mosey back around to ensure a flimsy cardboard set door has been securely fastened. Points for being studious, I guess. The experience is reminiscent of a lackadaisical theme park ride, where it’s important to slow down and loop the important bits, just in case a few passengers aren’t looking the right way. I’m willing to cut a little slack in this respect, given their age, but the acting and effects work are both so comical that I couldn’t help a few laughs. The quick cut where an engineer is swapped for a limp dummy, then tossed off a moving train, had me downright cackling. I’m sure that was more convincing a hundred-plus years ago, when audiences were allegedly terrified by this film’s closing shot of a no-good rascal, firing his weapon directly at the camera. Now? Well, at least they make the practical pieces, like all the hulking real-life locomotives, a little more impressive by contrast. Even as trailblazers go, this is a pretty bumpy ride. I can admire the gumption and ingenuity, but that’s about it. And not even those are up to par with the era’s very best.

CinemaSerf

0/10

This opens with quite a menacing scene from Justus D. Barnes who points his pistol right between our eyes.... Then you have to feel a bit sorry for "Broncho Billy" Anderson who proceeds to get himself tied up, shot and generally manhandled as a ruthless gang raid his railway office then hold up the train robbing both the strong box and the passengers. Luckily he is eventually able to raise the alarm and a posse is soon on the trail of the thieves - but will they escape? It's barely eleven minutes long, this, but packs loads of action into that time and the photography uses indoor and outdoor space to good effect, offering us a degree of continuity of story and imagery that builds nicely to quite an exciting shoot-out in conclusion. It's not so hard to tell the real from the fake, but that doesn't really matter - the whole thing is groundbreaking and well worth a gander.

JN2012

0/10

Firstly, I feel honoured to be the first to write a review for this prestigious short; secondly, I found it to be… good. I can’t claim any more than that, though it is heavily influential. The narrative is unlike many other short, silent films as it actually sucks you in until that fantastic final shot. But was it perfection? No. Is it worth watching? Of course, I’m sure any of my fellow cinephiles can waste ten minutes for this cinematic curio.