The Great Train Robbery (1903) on Netflix
Two bandits force a telegraph operator at gunpoint to signal a train to stop, then knock him out and tie him up. Their gang boards the train and robs the passengers.
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- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/1023,055 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
A gang starts its hold-up in a railroad telegraph office, where two of its men hold the operator at gunpoint and make him signal a train to stop so its engineer will take on water at the station tank. They knock the man out and tie him up. The gang boards the train; two of them blow open a box of valuables in the express car with dynamite while the others force the engineer to halt and cut the locomotive loose. The passengers are driven off the train and robbed of their belongings, and one who runs is shot. The bandits take the money and leave in the locomotive.
Cast
- John Manus Dougherty Sr.as Fourth Bandit (uncredited)
- Frank Hanawayas Bandit (uncredited)
- Adam Charles Haymanas Bandit (uncredited)
- Marie Murrayas Dance-Hall Dancer (uncredited)
- Mary Snowas Little Girl (uncredited)
- A.C. Abadieas Sheriff (uncredited)
- Walter Cameronas Sheriff (uncredited)
- Donald Gallaheras Little Boy (uncredited)
- Shadrack E. Grahamas Child (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to a New York Times report, the Edison Company asked the railroad to lend its tracks and cars free as good publicity for the line, but the directors refused and allowed it only if Edison also shot an advertising film for them. A dummy thrown off the locomotive during filming was mistaken by passersby for a real accident victim.
- Martin Scorsese recreated the close-up in the final scene of Goodfellas (1990), where Tommy DeVito, played by Joe Pesci, shoots at the camera; Scorsese called the shot a reference to The Great Train Robbery.
- Porter may have taken inspiration from two real Western holdups: in August 1900 Butch Cassidy's gang robbed a Union Pacific Railroad train and escaped capture, and in September 1903 Bill Miner's gang botched a holdup of an Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company train.
- The Great Train Robbery was the first film shown at Harry Davis and John P. Harris' Nickelodeon theater, and at nickelodeons around the country it was often the first attraction shown.
- The film's special close-up, unconnected to the story, showed Barnes as the outlaw leader firing his gun directly into the camera, and could either begin or end the film depending on the projectionist's whim.
- The film was copied so widely that the Lubin Manufacturing Company made a shot-for-shot remake in August 1904, changing only small details; Porter himself then directed a 1905 parody, The Little Train Robbery, in which children robbed candy and dolls from a miniature railroad car.
- Porter cut shots together to suggest simultaneous action in different locations, used a matte to combine a studio scene with outdoor footage, and moved the camera in three shots; the shot of the robbers escaping with their loot needed a tricky diagonal pan from a mounted camera.
