Cattle Driven to Slaughter (1897)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

. . . might be the question uppermost on everybody's mind after around a dozen confusing viewings of the items labeled #30 (TEXA$ LONGHORNS) and #45 (CATTLE DRIVEN TO SLAUGHTER) on the American TAXPAYER-FUNDED site for Part One: Inventing the Movies, The Edison Collection, at the Library of Congress (LOC) web site. The film footage for these "two" pieces IS IDENTICAL, except that there is no title card for LONGHORNS, which the LOC index misplaces as being shot in 1896 (when another copy of the same footage is correctly labeled with its July 31, 1897 origin date under the SLAUGHTER title). I've seen some functionaries at my nearest secretary of state's office that seemed just as slow as the sloths in the ZOOTOPIA trailer, but even THEY would look like whiz kids next to the folks at the LOC who have done such a slip-shod disservice to we, their employers, is messing up the Edison film collection in numerous instances, this snafu just being one of many. (The IMDb folks were not taken in by the LOC Kerfluffle, as they did NOT create a page for the imaginary TEXA$ LONGHORNS item.)

Cattle Driven to Slaughter (1897)*** (out of 4)Edison short shows us various long-horn cattle as they are sent through some gates and on their way to the slaughter house. This 25-second clip really doesn't offer anything special but it's a curio from the "film everything you can and sell it to the public". This type of "film" was all there was in 1897 so I'm sure people back then got a kick out of it even though today people would scratch their head as to why this is entertainment.Available for viewing at the Library of Congress website.

A simple documentary slice, 29 seconds long, of a cattle drive. Filmed by Thomas Edison, July 31, 1897, according to its credit.I don't know how to evaluate these simple early films. My scoring was arbitrary.It can be viewed at the Library of Congress website, specifically,