Strong and Moving!

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" met with great success, being the first western and one of the first 'full length' (by the standards of the time) movies. So, two years later he thought to parody it, by changing the bandits to children who commit crimes. Thus, "The Little Train Robbery" was made. While the idea is clever at least, there is no medium closeup of the bandit firing at the camera at the end and because of the lack of this, it has not become nearly as well known.If you've seen the original movie before then you're probably already familiar with the plot: a train is robbed, bandits are caught. The thing isn't even much of a western at all like the original because of the lack of violence (no gun shots are fired and the closest they get is one kid hitting the engineer over the head) and a great deal of it is devoted to the chase scenes, which go on a little too long. It isn't a bad film by any means but lacks the action and attention-holding pacing of its predecessor. Worthwhile for fans of "The Great Train Robbery", but if you haven't seen that yet then you'll have to watch it before giving this one a go.

Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Company is remembered primarily for two things: 1) ripping off the competition whenever possible (done best today by TV's SciFi Channel, but pioneered as a profit-maximizing technique by light bulb inventor Edison), and 2) suing the competition for ripping YOU off (for which Edison's film company was particularly notorious; while point #2 seems on the face of it to be in conflict with point #1, Edison hired the finest legal minds of his day, and they knew that under the American legal system, the litigant with the most money wins 99 percent of the time; if that party also is the most ballyhooed, the victory rate is upped about another percentile). However, occasionally Edison's henchmen contributed other innovations to the film industry, as is the case with THE LITTLE TRAIN ROBBERY (1905). Herein, the Edison crew pioneers the idea that if sex and violence is the top seller for the grown-ups, why not hook the young 'uns on the same while their tender brains are being formed and wired? This worked, of course, which is why modern cinema is as it appears today.

Little Train Robbery, The (1905) *** (out of 4) Porter remakes his own The Great Train Robbery but this time kids are playing the leads in a childish tale of acting out a robbery. While this certainly isn't as good as the film its based on it remains cute throughout with some nice stunts and scenery.Seven Ages, The (1905) *** (out of 4) Cute little love story that shows a couple over seven ages in their lives from babies to old folks. There's not too much story here other than the two's love for one another but this comes off quite nicely.White Caps, The (1905) *** (out of 4) Historically interesting film that deals with the vigilante group known as "The White Caps" who were known throughout Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Like the KKK, this group wore white pillows over their faces but instead of attacking race this group went after those who broke moral issues like beating their wives, harming children and other crimes that make for a bad community. This film shows them going after a man who has just beaten his wife.

This film, made in 1905, is a parody of "The Great Train Robbery," from 1903. The main difference is that the robbers this time are children; therefore, everything occurs on a smaller-scale level. If you liked the first one, consider seeing this movie as well--it is entertaining as well as adventurous.