Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Flash, Full length, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, Restored, NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 2
• Studio: A2ZCDS.com
• DVD Release Date: October 3, 2005
• Run Time: 149 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000BNMX38
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,542 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Studio

Examine 50 of the best short films produced by Thomas Alva Edison in 1903 and 1904 in this rare 2-DVD set from A2ZCDS.com "... Thomas Edison was more responsible than any one else for creating the modern world .... No one did more too shape the physical character of our present day civilization.... Accordingly, he was the most influential figure of the millennium...." The Heroes Of The Age - Electricity And Man In Thomas Alva Edison, we see a rare combination of scientist and inventor. There were others who were similarly blessed, but few could match Edison in his tireless pursuit of scientific investigation. In a lifetime that spanned 84 years, The Wizard of Menlo Park gave the world well over a thousand devises that have made life easier. One other aspect that sets this great man apart was the fact that he often converted his invention to a commercial venture. Fabulous examples of this are the electric bulb and the phonograph. Never one to rest on his laurels, Edison began tinkering with the idea of bringing motion and sound to photography. He believed in hard work, sometimes working twenty hours a day. Edison was quoted as saying, "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Edison’s efforts resulted in the invention of the kinetograph (a motion picture camera) and the Kinetoscope (a peep-hole motion picture viewer). Although Edison’s assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, performed most of this work in the 1880s and 1890s, it was Edison’s vision, genius and perseverance that saw the project through to fruition.

Product Description

Can you imagine a life without electricity, without recorded sound and without movies today? We take such inventions so much for granted that we hardly spare a thought for the inventor. Yet, Thomas Alva Edison has singularly brightened up our world both literally and figuratively. Entertainment was never the same after the first moving pictures was screened. These silent short films were at once entertaining, and informative leaving audiences both awed and amused.

That a lot of planning went into these early productions is pretty evident from these clips. What we see in these clips, in effect, are the forerunners of modern feature films - complete with plot and story line - and documentaries, which serve to edify the viewer on a wide array of subjects.

It is a delight to view these clips, which are simple in context and remarkably clear in perception and presentation. The lack of sound - an understandable omission- is more than made up for by the gentle humor, acting skills, the background settings and the logical sequence of events that characterize these early celluloid ventures.

What impressed me about these clips - besides their vintage value - is the excellent manner in which they have been preserved, despite the passage of over a century. To put the significance of these clips into perspective, I cannot help but borrow and paraphrase Neil Armstrong’s famous quote "These films were a short step for man but a giant leap for the world of entertainment."

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Strong Historical Perspective, July 14, 2006

By 

Bart (Montpellier, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of Motion Pictures - Early Films by Thomas Alva Edison 1903-04 (2-DVD Set) (DVD)

This is the second DVD set I've bought on the history of motion pictures and once again I was not disappointed. This time around you get to learn about how Edison first created the first motion picture projectors and then how he figured out how to make the original movies. Interestingly, the first films did not really have any plot and just look like moving photographs. Then, Edison got the idea that the movies could be used to tell stories, so he spent time figuring out how to use cuts and fades to explain to people what he was trying to get across. This is how the orignal real movies were made and we get to see the first efforts that would eventually lead to modern Die Hard Films.