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Essential
Films
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The
Great Train Robbery Starring: Justus D Barnes, Gilbert M 'Broncho
Billy' Anderson, Frank Hanaway, John Manus Dougherty Sr. |
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Ion
Martea |
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What's so great about The Great Train Robbery to make it compulsory viewing for most introductionary film courses? It is not the first coherent story. It was not the first film to use editing to achieve a flowing narrative. It was not the first film to introduce special effects. French film directors had done all those things by 1903, culminating with the canonised Le voyage dans la lune [A Trip to the Moon] (Georges Méliès/France/1902). Of course The Great Train Robbery was a groundbreaker for American cinema, and the first blockbuster, but this hardly explains its salience in film history more broadly. Edwin
S Porter was a maverick. His careful staging, his attempts at vertical
and horizontal panning, and of course the introduction of parallel
editing paved the way for the great works of Griffith, Sennett and
Chaplin a decade later. Its role in American cinema made it famous,
but the interesting question is whether Porter's film deserves its
wider critical acclaim. Most
students starting a film course can expect to sit through an old film
in the first two sessions. They may see a Lumière short, and may not
think much of it, but they will be thankful to the brothers for having
'invented' the medium. They might expect The
Great Train Robbery to be a mild, but still rather dull, improvement
on the French films. After a few minutes, though, they will be pleasantly
surprised that the film looks and feels like any other 20th
century feature. There is comedy, suspense, character driven plot,
and even an attempt at art-house imagery, all that without the need
of title cards to explain the story. The fact that the film was made
in 1903 is ignored or simply wondered at. The Great Train Robbery is celebrated for the fact that it looks
like a 'real' film despite its age, but this is to neglect its qualities
as a film in its own right. The film’s novel techniques, such
as panning or parallel editing, are significant in as much as they
helped develop the craft, but not really in what they bring to the
film itself. Porter’s
film is based on the successful Broadway production of the same name
written by Scott Marble, but also on the seizure of the No.3 train
on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks on the way to Table Rock, Wyoming,
by the 'Hole in the Wall' gang on the 29th of August 1900. The story
opens with the attack on the ticket officer, allowing the gang to
get on the train, strategically targeting the carriage transporting
money destined for bank reserves. These opening scenes set the tone.
The establishing long shots are followed by intense action involving
a few edits, and for the first time horizontal panning, directing
the viewer to where the action takes place. It is important to remember
that the introduction of editing used to link two very different settings
was considered disorientating for the audience, so Porter's quick
edits (for the time) were aimed precisely at creating that sense of
action getting out of hand. The small horizontal panning also intensified
this feeling of dizziness, even if for modern viewers it may seem
insignificant or ridiculously slow. The
train setting was an excellent choice for the director, as it allowed
him to employ some technical novelties that can contribute to an establishing
tone for the film. A great example is the scene in which the gang
set an explosive on the moving train (movement is shown by superimposing
a fast moving image behind the train carriage stage set), just after
killing the two guards. The red-yellowish flame (achieved through
colourisation) is effective, particularly because it cuts violently
to the chase on the moving train, without allowing the viewer to stop
and ponder events. The
hijacking of the train and robbing of the passengers (Gilbert M 'Broncho
Billy' The Great Train Robbery is the film that established
the Western, many of its scenes being eulogised in films in the genre
up to the 1980s. The traditional distinction between the good law-men
versus the bad law-breakers was assumed as key in the context. Yet,
arguably, Porter is closer to Sergio Leone than John Ford, in that
the final laugh is on the audience. The closing shot is of the gang
leader (Justus D Barnes) firing a gun towards the camera, while staring
intensely, almost mockingly towards us. This is clearly a revenge
shot. Barnes' stare suggest that beyond the robbery there is a justification,
not one like Robin Hood's, but closer to that of Shakespeare's Iago.
The
stunning originality of Porter's film is therefore not in its technique,
but in the way it challenges our understanding of good and evil. The
gang members are not honourable individuals, yet we empathise with
them because of their skill and commitment to what they do. Porter
demonstrated that film audiences do not root necessarily for good
causes, but for charismatic characters, irrespective of their moral
status. The bandits are the only ones that benefit from character
development, and hence all the wrongs they commit against the other
individuals in the film are not repulsive, because we were not given
time to connect with the victims. The latter are like puppets in a
children's game. It is not surprising then that The Great Train Robbery is often said to be the precursor to film-noir or thrillers. Porter's film suggests that action can bring an audience to a production, but for the film to survive the passing of time and the developments in technology, it requires characters that can engage and keep the spectator in front of the screen. This particular element is unfortunately lacking from the otherwise wonderful A Trip to the Moon by Méliès, leaving Porter in a class of his own, when it comes to tracing back the creation of film narrative.
About the Essential Films series.
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