The hold-up scene from The Great Train Robbery.

Prospecting:
The Edison Co. and Edwin S. Porter

Thomas Edison, the inventor of motion pictures, was also the first to use the new technology to channel the Western myth. Several of his earliest films, dated 1894 and lasting approximately one minute in duration, were recordings of stunts performed in Cody’s Wild West Show. Later, in 1898, Edison recorded two equally short fictional scenes, Cripple Creek Bar-room and Poker at Dawson City. Arguably, it was with these two films that the Western genre was born. But it was not until The Great Train Robbery (1905) that anything approximating the classical form of the genre emerged. Produced at the Edison Manufacturing Company and written, directed, photographed, and edited by the studio’s production-head Edwin S. Porter, the film is today regarded as a landmark in early film narrative. Running just over twelve minutes (approximately 750-800 feet, or one reel), it detailed the train-robbery, escape, and subsequent comeuppance of a gang of outlaws. A familiar motif that reoccurs with stunning frequency throughout the genre was here fresh and groundbreaking. Employing editing techniques never before used, Porter created a film that proved influential on all subsequent dramatic films and set the ball rolling for what would prove to be America’s most enduring and potent of film genres.

Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest chronicles the attempts
of an early pioneer to rescue his baby daughter
from the clutches of an eagle.