Watch The Great Train Robbery For Free

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

...at each new view. because it is more modern than you imagine. and new details are sources of seduction. a story almost perfect. because it has the gioft to present the basic traits of an ideal western, you feel the action and the only close up is legendary. short, a masterpiece.

After films like "A Trip to the Moon", it was discovered that the new artistic medium of film could tell stories. By the time "The Great Train Robbery" was released, cinema was changed forever.The final shot has always been considered one of the most memorable shots in cinema history. In it, a cowboy is looking straight into the camera, holding a gun. Then, all of a sudden, he shoots right at the screen and the film ends. It's fun to note that this shot was payed tribute to in the acclaimed crime film "Goodfellas"."The Great Train Robbery" is, without a doubt, one of the earliest crime films and one of the first films with a regular narrative.For 1903, it is really thrilling and well made. It's full of action, adventure, and inventive/influential filmmaking, there were very few films like it at the time!

This film is like wine. The older it gets, the better the nostalgia. Why would anyone dislike this movie? Of course, to our generation, it's basically dated, but back then it was such a leap forward in film-making. There wasn't that much movies as there is now. It's hard to judge a movie based on a modern understanding of it; after all movies over a century of cinema having touched almost every subject imaginable. I've always wondered what the people who made all these original films would think of the films today, with all the technological advancements. It really is quite amazing to see material like this film still being watch today. To truly analysis a film like this, one must look back at the time, in which it was shot and find the real truths. Myth number one: it's the first movie ever made. The Great Train Robbery is not the 1st. Asking what was the first movie ever made is a bit like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg. It's hard to give a definitive reply. If you consider Edison's Kinetoscope shorts to be movies, the first movies were from 1893, not 1903. Some historian claim that the first ever video footage was 1893's New York Fire Brigade footage. There might a film that earlier than that. The earliest celluloid film was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the Le Prince single-lens camera made in 1888 call "Roundhay Garden Scene". The short films of the 1870s Praxinoscope were and they were seen mostly as acts in vaudeville programs. The film back then, could be under a minute long and would usually present a single scene, authentic or staged, of everyday life, a public event, a sporting event or slapstick. There was little to no cinematic technique, usually no camera movement, and flat compositions reminiscent of the stage. It wasn't until 1890 that film had more of a story. The narrative cinema started with 1895 L'arroseur arose, follow by 1902 'A Trip to the Moon' and 1903's 'Life of American Fireman'. So when the Great Train Robbery came into production. It wasn't anything near new. About it, being the first western. It might be. I do know, it was first western -- filmed in New Jersey. Another myth about the film is that Thomas Edison made it. First off, Thomas Edison didn't really invented film-making. The very first patented film camera was designed in England by Frenchman Louis Le Prince in 1888. Edison took the invention and his work shop improve upon it. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, a Scottish inventor and employee of Thomas Edison, designed the Kinetographic Camera. Thomas Edison wasn't anywhere near this movie. It was written, directed, and produced by Edwin S. Porter. The closest he came was his company distributed the film. I give Thomas Edison, some props, as he did know how to market the film. Inspired by Scott Marble's play "The Great Train Robbery" (1896); the ten minutes long movie, depicts a group of criminals robbing a train and its passengers, escaping in the uncoupled locomotive, and being pursued and killed by a posse recruited from a local dance hall. Apart from the title card and the famous shot of an outlaw firing at the audience, the film consists of thirteen shots, taking place in three interior and a variety of exterior locations. There are no famous silent film inter titles. It was one of the longest narrative films produced. The movie was ground-breaking in the milestone of film making. It contains early uses of what would come to be standard cinematic techniques: composite editing (via multiple exposure), location shooting, intercutting between simultaneously-occurring scenes, cutting within the same scene to compress time, and camera movement. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. The movie was surprising very violent; this was way before any Hayes Codes was established. I was deeply move, how realistic, the movie was to the real life era. It wasn't the same corny Westerns film that came out in the 1930 thru the 1950. It wasn't the over the top, Spaghetti Western of the 1960s & 1970s. This film look like it came from that era. It indeed posed and acted in faithful adaption. I love the fact, that the final shot of a gun being fired toward the camera had a profound effect on audiences. As cinema was in its infancy, many people who saw the film thought that they were actually about to be shot. I can sort of see why. It did had a quite a jump in quick shots. Imagine what that would have been for people who have not yet developed the 'it's only a movie' instinct. I love how the movie influence other future works like the James bond series, with the gun barrel sequences. The final shot is also paid homage in Martin Scorsese's 1990 film, 'Goodfellas' & Ridley Scott's 2007 film 'American Gangster'. 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 movie is in the public domain due to age. Most copies are incredibly well preserved. Others could have wear & tear. In my version, the night scenes were a little too dark. Another fault is that there was no original soundtrack. Films from this period were accompanied by whatever the pianist, organist, orchestra decided to play for the most part. It was later in the silent era when scores were written specifically for the film and many of those no longer survive. Overall: it's historical valuable, and fun to watch. A must watch for any silent film fan.

This amazing picture is only 10 minutes long. So I could watch this while waiting to be taken to school, which I did once. But it's very innovative in that it tells a story to the audience. A group of bandits during the wild west period stick up a train and rob the passengers. Then they steal a train and run off. A posse of armed men pursues them and there is soon a big shootout in the woods somewhere. And that's really about it. But it's influential mainly because it's one of the first films ever to tell a story however brief it may be. It features a very famous shot at the end when one of the bandits looks straight at the camera then he fires at the camera. And then the film ends. Some versions I've found even have colored in aspects, like red smoke or something like that. There are a lot of versions on you tube to watch it so by all means please do so.