Bank Robbery, A (1908)
** (out of 4)
This early Western is not a good film but it's got a rather interesting history behind it as it features real outlaws and heroes. Director Tilghman was a U.S. Marshall and we have Al J. Jennings a real train robber. In the film Jennings and his gang hold up a bank and head off for freedom but they are tracked down by real gunfighter Frank Canton and well as legendary sheriff Heck Thomas. If you do a search on any of these names you're bound to find some interesting stuff to read. One needs to remember that this film was made before the D.W. Griffith techniques really took over so it doesn't feature very much editing and the majority of the shots are long ones, which makes it hard to notice any of the legends or get a good look at them. On the whole I'd say Tilghman certainly wasn't a filmmaker because this is a fairly poor shot. The production values are extremely cheap and what's worse is the fact that the director couldn't tell a story. The film has one extremely long sequence after another and without title cards at times it's hard to follow what exactly is going on. Different people just enter the story at different times and it takes a while to figure out what they're doing in it. Another problem is that the film uses some early panning shots, which are downright horrid to the point where it seems like the cameraman fell asleep and simply fell over. There's one sequence where a cowboy rides off on his horse and the camera is suppose to pan and follow but the horse must have taken off too fast because it takes forever for the camera to pick it back up and follow it. I think history buffs will want to check out these real-life people but the film holds very little interest outside of that.
** (out of 4)
This early Western is not a good film but it's got a rather interesting history behind it as it features real outlaws and heroes. Director Tilghman was a U.S. Marshall and we have Al J. Jennings a real train robber. In the film Jennings and his gang hold up a bank and head off for freedom but they are tracked down by real gunfighter Frank Canton and well as legendary sheriff Heck Thomas. If you do a search on any of these names you're bound to find some interesting stuff to read. One needs to remember that this film was made before the D.W. Griffith techniques really took over so it doesn't feature very much editing and the majority of the shots are long ones, which makes it hard to notice any of the legends or get a good look at them. On the whole I'd say Tilghman certainly wasn't a filmmaker because this is a fairly poor shot. The production values are extremely cheap and what's worse is the fact that the director couldn't tell a story. The film has one extremely long sequence after another and without title cards at times it's hard to follow what exactly is going on. Different people just enter the story at different times and it takes a while to figure out what they're doing in it. Another problem is that the film uses some early panning shots, which are downright horrid to the point where it seems like the cameraman fell asleep and simply fell over. There's one sequence where a cowboy rides off on his horse and the camera is suppose to pan and follow but the horse must have taken off too fast because it takes forever for the camera to pick it back up and follow it. I think history buffs will want to check out these real-life people but the film holds very little interest outside of that.