Edison

film 22 of 103

Annie Oakley

Film Review by Dean Duncan May 27, 2015

It’s really her! Mighty fine shooting, though from that distance even I might not have missed some of those static targets. You can see that they’re caught between effective staging and blocking strategies for the stage or in the arena, and the effective way to catch it on film. They haven’t quite figured it out, but this is still bravely done.

Look closely: Annie misses a couple of those tossed targets. How cool! It’s like G.B. Shaw’s reports of concert performances/musical culture during the time in which he was reviewing. He reports that there was plenty of patience for and with small errors, even an expectation that they would occur. For instance, (Anton) Rubinstein made mistakes in every performance. Whether it’s playing the piano or shootin’, whether it’s elite athletics or your own best skill. Doesn’t mean that a stratospheric performer is any less stratospheric.

Annie’s male helper looks great, and not a bit emasculated.