Edwin S. Porter’s production of this early Edison western, The Great Train Robbery (1903), has become essential viewing for the student of cinema and the collecting enthusiast. For its time, the film was a prime example of the greater attention being paid by filmmakers to story, film structure, and editing.

We have not viewed this edition of the film, but expect it to be the best presentation since it is the most-recent edition of what may be the same video transfer as the Kino and Image editions below.

Also included are more than 130 other films produced by the Edison company, from early experimental films from 1891 through a full feature film produced in 1918, the collection runs the gamut of cinematic primitives shot in the Black Maria studio at Edison’s laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, through actualities, to short dramas and comedies.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This slightly windowboxed video transfer has apparently been made from surviving hand-tinted 35mm print elements, since there are few signs of paper-print artifacts in the picture (one shot contains a persistent white strand of lint that may be on the glass frame of a copy camera). Mere conjecture suggests that the source material may be the preservation print prepared for the “Before Hollywood” touring exhibition of the late 1980s. Some shots are marked with some fine vertical print scratches, the majority of the others are only slightly peppered with dust. After years of viewing Library of Congress preservation prints copied from surviving paper prints, the clarity in this surviving hand-tinted film print is exceptional.

The film is accompanied by a fine music score compiled by Robert Israel and performed by a small orchestra with piano.

This is currently our suggested edition of The Great Train Robbery. Read also our full review of this boxset.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Essentially identical to the Kino edition above, since the program material for both editions was prepared by David Shepard for the original 1994 The Movies Begin videotape boxset, this slightly-windowboxed video transfer has apparently been made from surviving hand-tinted 35mm print elements. The image clarity of this preservation print is exceptional for a film of this age.

Along with the Kino edition, we recommend this edition for its image clarity and fine music score. Read also our full review of this collection.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This midline edition reveals a reasonably-detailed video transfer of a 35mm preservation print from the Library of Congress, apparently copied in whole or part from a paper print. The film is simply clearer and more detailed in other DVD editions than it is here, with (for example) what appears to be paper-print artifacts prominently seen in the watertower sequence. Shadow areas are darker in this edition than in others.

The film is available here in two versions, one a straight (and without musical accompaniment) presentation of the black & white transfer provided by LoC, the other a digitally color-toned version with a canned orchestral music.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.co.uk.