Why The Great Train Robbery is considered a classic

 

The Great Train Robbery was a film that was ahead of its time. This silent movie, created in 1903, showed a bunch of robbers going on board a train and stealing the money aboard it. This movie was immediately and incredibly well received. In fact, in this film description from the Edison Film Catalogue issue 200 (January 1904), it says as follows:

"This sensational and highly tragic subject will certainly make a decided `hit' whenever shown. In every respect we consider it absolutely the superior of any moving picture ever made… will increase the popular interest in this great Headline Attraction.”

The Great Train Robbery also introduced some new filming techniques. While the robbers are attempting to get on the train, you’ll notice that there is a background of trees superimposed on a window, giving you the feeling of the movement of the train. While the robbers and the good guys are shooting each other, the train feels like it is in constant motion, just as a train should be.

Notice the moving trees in the window on the right.
 

An interesting bit of The Great Train Robbery was the ending. Instead of the usual ending where the robbers are killed by the posse, an extra scene is added. Barnes, the leader of the robbers, takes a gun a shoots it towards the audience. Imagine seeing that for the first time, keeping in mind that movie making was still very much in its infancy. This could easily be the first time in history that a movie “broke the fourth wall” and could have actually startled the audience.

 

The famous final scene- Barnes breaks the fourth wall.

 

Why Battleship Potemkin is considered a classic

 

 

Potemkin is a silent film based on the poor treatment of Russian sailors. There are several classic moments in this movie that are harsh and realistic. One of these moments is when all of the soldiers attack Odessa, and no matter what was in their way, they killed everyone. This was a very realistic moment. I believe the hardest thing to watch during this sequence was when the baby in the cradle fall down all those steps. Despite being hard to watch, however, the realistic manner of the scene and of the movie is one of the reasons it’s labeled as a classic.

 

 

There were also parts of the movie on the ship that felt very real. The mutiny of the crew, the disgusting food they had to eat, and even the officers. The officers were heavily stereotyped to make the scenes on the ship feel realistic. The costumes and the ship itself makes the viewer believe that they are actual there, even with all of the captions being displayed throughout the movie. It’s almost like the viewer is part of the uprising.

The Potemkin crew look disgustedly at their rotten meat.

 

The cast and the extras in “Potemkin” must have been really difficult to get. There were so many people in this movie, the majority of them being in the Odessa scenes or as part of the crew. Give a lot of credit to Sergei Eisenstein, the director or “Potemkin” for finding all these extras, getting the right cast, and above all, making this film a true classic.

Why Public Enemy is considered a classic

 

 

Public Enemy is a famous gangster movie created in 1931. This was one of three famous gangster movies created around this time- the others were Scarface and Little Caesar. I think this movie is a classic for several reasons. For one, it was mirroring a lot of what was going on in the United States at the time. The government was having problems stopping gangsters from smuggling in weapons and other things.

One of most famous and well known scenes in Public Enemy is when Tom Powers is having breakfast with his wife and shoves a grapefruit in her face. It was interesting to see a little bit of comedy in such a serious movie like Public Enemy. That combination must have been innovative for its time.

I think one of the most impactful scenes in this movie was when Tommy shoots the horse that killed Nails Nathan. He showed absolutely no remorse- he heard that a horse, a completely defenseless creature, killed his friend and mentor and he just went up and shot the horse. He even went so far to ask which particular horse was at fault. It’s a classic scene that shows just how ruthless Tommy Powers actually was.

The relationship between Tommy and his family was very interesting. His mother was completely oblvious to what was going on, even when Tommy and his brother Mike kept fighting each other. It also created an interesting dynamic.

Finally, the ending is upsetting but it’s clear the viewer saw it coming. When Tommy returns home dead, and Mike has to show their mother, it was a very sad but realistic ending. Tommy wanted to live the gangster life, and that is what he got for doing that.

Why Citizen Kane is considered a classic

 

Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” is considered by many to be a classic, but why? Let us start but looking at the superb acting done by Orson Welles. Except the brief scene where Kane is a child, he plays every age of Kane, from when he was in his 20’s to when he was an old man at Xanadu. Despite Welles only being 26 at the time, many of the moments in ‘Citizen Kane’ were exemplified by the excellent make-up used to portray his age.

Another bit that makes this a classic is the innovative film techniques used in the film. For instance, near the beginning of the movie (and once again near the end) Welles uses an interesting camera technique that has the camera move across the roof of a building and dive in through the skylight. This kind of technique had not been seen before and may people were astounded by the usage of it.

The famous "Camera through Skylight" scene.

The “Rosebud” mystery further brought home the point of this movie being a classic. At the very beginning of the movie, Kane says a single word- “Rosebud”- as he is on his deathbed. This is then subtly referenced throughout the rest of the movie, as every time the man interviews someone from Kane’s past, it is brought up. When it is finally revealed what “Rosebud” is, it’s a real tearjerker in some respects, and the viewer knew that it couldn’t have been anything else.

The famous last word of Charles Foster Kane- "Rosebud"

 

Finally, the news reel at the beginning of the movie is marvelous. It has the viewer witnessing what has happened to Kane in the eyes of the people of the world before going into the specifics of the people involved. It begs the question; after the news reel is finished and you have watched the movie, do you really think that Charles Foster Kane was a bad person? A misguided person? It gives you the opportunity as the movie progresses to make your own decision on the matter.

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