| @Aaron_Kashtan - I tried to keep the categories simple, though just about any film first can be debated. Sure, Snow White was the first feature length cel-animated film, but most people don't know what that means. True though about the great train robbery. That's easily contestable, though it is often cited as the first narrative film, there are plenty of Edison films that could be considered narrative (I've watched tons of them). However, the use of different scenes occurring in different locations and the use of a story arc (however small of an arc it may be) make it the first "true" narrative by the standards of what we today would call a narrative. Though, like I said, that one especially is easily contestable. Also, you've got it backwards: Ben Hur was made exactly 10 years after Birth of a Nation (just go to imdb).
@Rockgolf - Oh, yeah, you're right (mostly). I just got on imdb and it's just called MASH. |