The Great Train Robbery

“The Great Train Robbery” was the first Western film!

A gang of robbers holdup the local train and its passengers.  When people in the town find out, they form a posse and chase them down.

Only 12 minutes long, “The Great Train Robbery’s” impact has lasted for decades because it created the Western film genre.  Thanks to “The Great Train Robbery”, thousands of Western movies would go on to be made for people around the world to enjoy.

Click here to read our movie profile of “The Great Train Robbery.”

•  “The Great Train Robbery” is the first movie to ever tell a story.  It launched the Western movie genre and is also credited with opening the door for profitable moviemaking in the country.

•  The final shot of a gun being fired toward the camera had a profound effect on audiences. As cinema was in its infancy, many people who saw the film thought that they were actually about to be shot.

• The first Western movie star, Bronco Billy Anderson, has a couple of cameo roles in “The Great Train Robbery.”  After doing the film, Anderson says that he knew that he wanted to be involved with making these types of movies for the rest of his life.

•  Part of the appeal of “The Great Train Robbery” is because it was based on real robberies that were done in the West.  One of the most famous of these was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s robbery of the Union Pacific Railroad in Table Rock, Wyoming.

• American inventor, Thomas Edison, was the owner of the film production company that made “The Great Train Robbery.”  Thomas Edison’s company made the equipment that the film was shown on and he formed the production company to make movies so that he could sell more equipment.

•  “The Great Train Robbery” was selected in 1990 to the U.S. Library of Congress, National Film Registry.