Edwin S. Porter | IMDB v2.1

Edwin S. Porter Dec 31, 2017 2:40:03 GMT spiderwort likes this

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Post by mikef6 on Dec 31, 2017 2:40:03 GMT

Dec 30, 2017 15:04:25 GMT spiderwort said:

Dec 29, 2017 5:30:00 GMT mikef6 said:

When I first saw The Great Train Robbery back in 2002, I was filled with all sorts of thoughts and reflections. Here is what I wrote at the time at the weekly thread on the old boards:

Brilliant, insightful, and beautiful comments, mike. You've captured the film's historical significance perfectly, particularly in regards to the final moments and that close-up of the shots heard "'round the world." Thank you.

I especially love this: "Later, I reflected on how far movies had come and how little they had changed in the last 100+ years. This movie is a priceless historical artifact that shows us just how much the past is still with us."

So true! I grow weary of those who believe that any "old" film is irrelevant and worthless, precisely because it's old. Only the great filmmakers of today seem to understand the relevance of all that came before. Shakespeare's not irrelevant or not great because he wrote centuries ago. And without Porter's films, and those of Melies and the Lumiere Brothers earlier, and of D.W. Griffith's films later (and those of Eisenstein and Kuleshev even later, who invented montage by dissecting and reassembling Griffith's films), we wouldn't have the medium as we know it today. Anyway, that's all by way of saying thanks for your profoundly astute comments.

Thanks for all those kind words. You know, I'm sort of fond of that little essay myself. It's almost like I didn't write it at all. It's not something I'm really capable of - yet there it is. I give all the credit to the inspiration I took from that 115-year-old 11 minute leap of genius. It lit something under me.

Whenever we get those trolls over here who call us old fogies and elitist because we watch dumb ol' black & white movies, I love to point out to them that we foot-in-the-gravers (HA!) usually like movies from every era and that an elitist is one who has a very narrow interest and puts down others that don't share his view - like you, Mr. Troll, with your love only going to "modern" movies and berating all others.