a three-quarter front view of the Statue of Liberty.a three-quarter front view of the Statue of Liberty.a three-quarter front view of the Statue of Liberty.
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Of no particular value
"Statue of Liberty" is exemplary for what was wrong with so many of the Edison short subjects of the time. It shows a complete lack of understanding of how to create an interesting actuality film, ignoring any of the strengths inherent to the still relatively new medium.
The Lumière brothers, thanks to their background in photography, at least knew how to frame and compose an interesting picture. In an even stronger contrast, at the very same time Georges Méliès was constantly pushing this new art form to its limits, combining jump cuts and multiple exposure with stage tricks in order to create one stunning effect after another, really measuring the potential of motion pictures.
But there are also many interesting actualities in Edison's own catalog. Depictions (or reenactments) of important events with famous people, that allowed the audience to get a glimpse of historical moments they were not able to witness in person. The maker of "Statue of Liberty", however, obviously put no thought in his choice of subject at all. People already knew what the statue looked like, and pictures in a newspaper were far more suited for the purpose. As another comment already pointed out, it offers absolutely nothing over a single photograph. It wastes hundreds of frames where one would have been sufficient. To make matters even worse, the camera being fixed to the boat makes the statue slowly drift out of the frame.
There are so many interesting films to watch from the 19th century, if you can find them. Even the bad ones are usually worth watching today, simply because they give you a glimpse of life as it took place over a hundred years ago, or because they give you an idea of what that society was interested in, how they thought about the issues of their day. None of this is true for "Statue of Liberty", and I cannot help but suspect that back then, people found it just as pointless as you would find it today. The irony? That reading about why you should not bother watching it probably took you longer than it would have taken you to watch it and find out for yourself.
The Lumière brothers, thanks to their background in photography, at least knew how to frame and compose an interesting picture. In an even stronger contrast, at the very same time Georges Méliès was constantly pushing this new art form to its limits, combining jump cuts and multiple exposure with stage tricks in order to create one stunning effect after another, really measuring the potential of motion pictures.
But there are also many interesting actualities in Edison's own catalog. Depictions (or reenactments) of important events with famous people, that allowed the audience to get a glimpse of historical moments they were not able to witness in person. The maker of "Statue of Liberty", however, obviously put no thought in his choice of subject at all. People already knew what the statue looked like, and pictures in a newspaper were far more suited for the purpose. As another comment already pointed out, it offers absolutely nothing over a single photograph. It wastes hundreds of frames where one would have been sufficient. To make matters even worse, the camera being fixed to the boat makes the statue slowly drift out of the frame.
There are so many interesting films to watch from the 19th century, if you can find them. Even the bad ones are usually worth watching today, simply because they give you a glimpse of life as it took place over a hundred years ago, or because they give you an idea of what that society was interested in, how they thought about the issues of their day. None of this is true for "Statue of Liberty", and I cannot help but suspect that back then, people found it just as pointless as you would find it today. The irony? That reading about why you should not bother watching it probably took you longer than it would have taken you to watch it and find out for yourself.
helpful•72
- Anamon
- Jun 7, 2009
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