The History in Historical Fiction: The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery poster
From Oscar’s Gift:

I liked it best when he talked about the moving pictures. He described the moving picture The Great Train Robbery so many times that I felt I’d seen it myself and could replay it in my dreams. I imagined myself hiding with the masked bandits behind the water tower, waiting for the train to arrive. I wanted so bad to see a moving picture that I could hardly stand it. Oscar told me he would take me to one, if our town ever built a Nickelodeon and my mama let me go.

Many of the narrative and film techniques in the 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery became industry and western movie standards. Watch the entire film: