Capture of Boer Battery by British (1900) User Reviews

Run Away

[boblipton · 5/10 · 2 February 2020]

Boers in costume man a battery until four or five soldiers in the uniform of the Gordon Highlanders come up, and the Boers run away.

It's a re-enactment of battle scene in the Second Boer War. Edison's cameramen had already gained a bit of experience in shooting war scenes, reenacting the Spanish-American War. Like those earlier pictures, this was shot in New Jersey, in West Orange. It's a simple reenactment, shot from behind the battery, with a lot of smoke, and no sign of the British until after the Boers start running away.

Director James White was reportedly burned by a cannon.

A Relatively Good Re-Enactment For Its Time

[Snow Leopard · 9 November 2005]

For its time, this re-enactment of a small battle from the Boer War is realistic-looking and full of action. It's probably no longer possible to determine how accurate it may have been in comparison with any actual incident, but the action is staged rather well, and there is plenty of detail that makes it feel almost as if you were watching a real battle. And while it is filmed largely from the Boer perspective, it treats both sides with some respect.

The story starts with an assault by Scots Highlanders on an artillery position held by the Boers. The defenders are pictured as the kind of rag-tag group that usually gains audience sympathy, and the camera films the action from the Boer position, yet it also depicts the Highlanders as a courageous group that keeps coming even against heavy fire.

Not long before this, the Edison Company had filmed and staged scenes from the war between the USA and Spain, and no doubt that experience helped in staging this feature. The technique is far from perfect - for example, at one point a horse completely blocks the camera for a couple of seconds - but overall it does a decent job of portraying a chaotic scene.

"Reenactment" or reality?

[cricket30 · 8/10 · 27 February 2013]

When Tom Edison's henchmen chain an elephant in a squalid city lot in order to film its electrocution death throes--complete with flames shooting up from a hind foot--and the tortured animal keels over dead, is Dumbo REALLY that good of an actor, "reenacting" how Tom tried to win the contract for the Osing Osing electric chair (the lad from Port Huron was an advocate for brutal "direct current," as opposed to what's in our homes today, namely the more humane AC\DC or alternating current that did in Ted Bundy and Ethel Rosenberg, among others). The Edison catalog SAYS the elephant is dying for real in its starring role, and the same catalog SAYS that the Boers are DYING FOR REAL here (especially the two behind the cannon on the left). At least in Wikipedia if someone using a KUNG FU PANDA-type I.D. attempts to assert some "fact" that contradicts what the eye sees plainly in front of it, their assertion must be foot-noted, authenticated, and sourced before being presented as a "fact" for all eternity.

Two Similar Edison Works

[Michael_Elliott · 12 September 2009]

Capture of Boer Battery (1900)

Capture of Boer Battery by British (1900)

*** (out of 4)

A famous battle scene from the Boer War is the subject of these two Edison shorts. In both films the camera is set up right behind the Boer men when we then see the Gordon Highlanders charging them. Both films are pretty much the same in terms of story and action but it appears the second was filmed slightly to the left of the first film. You can tell this because of the houses in the background and how they move between the two films. Overall both films are a pretty good re-enactment and both manage to keep the action moving through their short running time. There are a couple mild goofs in the film but they're minor and to be expected for such early films.