The Great Train Robbery

I found The Great Train Robbery to be very interesting. It was a silent film made in 1903 by Edwin Porter about men robbing train stations. I thought it was engaging to see all the gestures and movements that the actors made. Because there was no audio to the movie, the actors had to make up for it through exaggerated gestures. If the movies today had as intense gestures as back then, then I feel like the movies today would be much more comical. In addition, I found it interesting how the screen play had a couple things that were in color: fire and a woman's dress. I wonder why it was decided to make the fire and dress in color when everything else was in black and white? I think it is interesting how this screenplay is essentially about violence. I am curious to know why violence is so common in movies, both today as well as back then. Why are people so interested to watch people shoot others? Overall, it was fascinating to see how much movies have changed from the early 1900s to now.