Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" is a 12 minute simple tale of the title thievery and the pursual of the gang by a mob. Despite its modesty, it may have been more influential on the development of cinema than any other film. Porter's storytelling devices, cutting, and use of close-up laid the groundwork for all subsequent films up to this day, while he simultaneously introducing the Western genre. Watching the seemingly simple film, the quality and look of the film is quite remarkable, as is the final scene (pictured above), which Martin Scorsese would utilize in two of his masterpieces, "Goodfellas" and "Hugo". With "The Great Train Robbery", you can see the framework for modern movies as we know them.
