The Great Train Robbery is a short ten minute film by Edwin Porter in 1903. It is a silent film with no subtitles, but there is music in the background that I think was added a while after the film was made. I thought this mini-movie was interesting because there was not much cinematography; there was no camera movement, only scene change. This made the film seem like the action was on stage like a play.
The makers of the movie colored some of the character's clothes, like the little girl and the dancing women. This might have been added to represent the good people from the bad people. The robbers wore black, while the good women and little girl stood out because they were beautifully colored. Also, some of the explosions were painted, especially the gun shooting. This made the action seem more dramatic because the shots stood out more.
At around 3:10, the guy on the train changed to a mannequin, which I didn't really catch at first, but I knew that he was fake because they threw a limp body off the train. They did a pretty good job editing for that part. I'm pretty sure the original viewers thought it was real.
The viewers in the 1900s probably thought the gun shot at the very end was real too. They must have reacted similar to the short clip of the train in the station, where the viewers thought they were going to get run over by a train.
Compared to modern film, this lacked a lot of action and a good story line, but I'm sure the people of the 1900s really enjoyed it. The makers did a good job with the tools they had.
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