9/24/2024
Synopsis: A train robbery.
The Good: This film is 11 minutes long but it can tell you more about film making and storytelling than many I’ve seen this year. You can’t see any faces, not really. There’s no dialogue, everything is shot from a stage play angle and the film is fuzzy and blurry and grainy but the story has a coherent beginning, middle and end. Every movement (exaggerated due to the roots of stage plays) is intentional, clear and expressive. This is new technology finding its footing and as such, it exposes a lot of the things hidden in later productions.
The Bad: There’s a scene near the end that exposes something about humanity that bothers me. Nearly 100 passengers (it seems) leave the train, all lined up by three gunmen….but no one moves. Everyone obediently gets robbed even though they could massively overpower these men, but one might or two might get injured. Aside from that, the editing was still in its infancy and a lot of scenes skip and jump where the film was cut, making scenes difficult to follow.
Best Line: * silence *
Fun Fact: The final scene, the man (Justus D. Barnes) shooting at the camera, was the inspiration for the final scene in GoodFellas (1990), where Joe Pesci replicates this.
Verdict:
Technical: 5
Entertainment Value: 7.1
Genre Rating: 7.5
IMDb Score: 7.1
Total: 6
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