Did you know that America’s first movie was a western?

            That’s right! The first American movie was a western—The Great Train Robbery, which was released in 1903. 

It is true that motion pictures existed before this film was directed by Edwin S. Porter, but this twelve-minute movie “was the first film to use modern film techniques, such as multiple camera positions, filming out of sequence, and editing the scenes into their proper order afterwards.”[1] The movie was a huge hit in theaters and was also shown in traveling carnivals, such as the Pawnee Bill Show. The Paducah Evening Sun called The Great Train Robbery a “vastly exciting dramatic spectacle, which made New York rub its eyes in wonder during 747 performances.”[2] Also exciting to the newspaper was how the film makers had “employ[ed] a real engine and train of cars.”[3] 

            Enjoy the movie that established the foundation of American cinema for the past 112 years!

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[1] Sharon Packer, Movies and the Modern Psyche, (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2007), 20-21.

[2] The Paducah evening sun. (Paducah, Ky.), 23 April 1907. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052114/1907-04-23/ed-1/seq-2/.

[3] Ibid.