Journal 1

Option 1 Answer:



I have decided to analyze the film "The Great Train Robbery" for my first journal entry. The film is a silent film, which i noticed immediately. It was the first film that was a narrative. It starts out showing a man being attacked by robbers and they tie him up. The main shot is a panning shot, just showing the main area of the room. The robbers then go to the top of the train, and I noticed that the scene was a little shaky because at that time, in 1903, they did not have all of the high tech camera techniques that they have today. After that the plot basically continues with the robbers getting everyone out of the train. At this time, I noticed a couple of the trademark concepts that justify this as a Western. First of all, the villians are all wearing black, and they have hankerchiefs on. This is what most villians wear in typical Westerns. Another huge action that i noticed that signified that this film was a Western was the fact that the villian shot an innocent person from the back. When this happened, it makes the viewer feel upset, and these concepts are both seen in Westerns. Then the villians take the bags and run to the forest. At this point we are moved to a different scene; the scene where the daughter saves her father. This idea of innocense saving was typical of old Westerns and of that time period. We are then shown parallel editing when we are shown the people dancing, and at the same time showed the villians with the money. The final scene is with the good guys killing the bad guys, with good prevailing. This is another common theme found in Westerns.

There were really no main characters, just the common folk representing "good", and the villians representing "evil". The people on the train act surprised to see the villians, and they act very innocent. The villians act mean and determined. The narrative of the story is told in a very clear way. There is no condensing of time and not much cutting, the whole story is told in alot of panning and long shots. Since it is a silent film, the story has to be told by visuals and by facial expressions, and this film does a very good job of displaying these tactics. For example, when the man gets shot in the back, the camera makes sure that the viewer clearly sees the pain in his face. The conflict within the film is basically good versus evil, in the form of the passengers vs the villians. the conflict, in more literal terms, is the passengers trying to not get harmed from the villians. The film ends with the good guys winning. It definitely has a happy ending, because in most Westerns, the good people prevail, and that is exactly what happened. An impression that I had about this film while I watched it was that i definitely thought it odd that there was no sheriff. Sheriffs are usually present in most Westerns. A huge factor that i thought was a bit strange was the lack of a central character. I thought that made the movie a little bit confusing, but for the most part the film makers did a great job at using what they had at the time to make a good silent movie. (Belton).

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