Men Boxing

Newark Athlete (1891)

Men Boxing (1891)

Newark Athlete is just a brief fragment from the Edison studio, which was apparently just a set up test to check the conditions on the camera. The thing only lasts a few seconds so needless to say the studio wasn't trying to make anything special out of it but thankfully the thing survives so film buffs such as myself can view the early history of film. Men Boxing on the other hand seems to be the studio actually trying to put something fun on film. Two men, both wearing boxing gloves, throw a few punches at one another while smiling for the camera. Some think this once again was just testing the camera but since it contains a tad bit more I'm going to guess the men making it thought this could be something real.

The main purpose of this movie was to test if the kinetograph could capture the fast boxing movements well. Probably at its time this was considered a successful experiment but it's also far from a perfect one. Because of the shooting speed the movie seems to occur in slow-motion and some of the fast movements are blurry. Thomas Alva Edison still obviously had a long way to go before reaching perfection. This movie is one of their earliest experiments, which is sort of notable.

The 'actors' seemed to have fun, since they're both obviously laughing. They wear their normal working clothes, though they took the bother to put on actual boxing gloves and they're Edison employees without doubt. They simply put a rope across the screen to imply that the events were taking place in a boxing ring. But of course the movie was just shot at the studio. The two are just posing and swinging without actually attempting to hit each other.

The first ever real filmed boxing match was the "Leonard-Cushing Fight", from 1884, also shot by William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, just like this short and. Boxing matches on film actually became quite popular at the late 19th century and there was a huge demand for it. Also because of the fact that at that time boxing matches were banned in some states and this would be the only way for people to see a boxing match. Edison's Kinetoscope Exhibiting Company cleverly jumped on to this and their boxing films would eventually turned out to become their most profitable films. So in a way this early movie is a sign of things to come for Edison and Co. and future boxing films and commercialism.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

There have been known to be various genres of film subjects from the silent era that were often copied or changed slightly in one way or another. The Serpentine Dance movies were often remade over and over again because of the negatives wearing out over time (not to mention everyone loved the beautiful color painting that was frequently accomplished on such films); the poultry-yard scenes were copied by other filmmakers because of they proved to be well received by audiences; and the boxing movies were done over and over again because, quite frankly, they were popular due to the controversy of the subject matter. It is the latter genre that I shall be discussing here.

First of all, let's face it: Edison was the dirtiest motion picture company in the United States of America--not to mention also being the first. Their films, with content ranging from animal cruelty to belly-dancing, were quite often frowned upon. We've got scenes of Eugene Sandow standing in underwear (well, not actual underwear), we've got Annabelle Moore showing her ankles and legs, and we've got half-naked men like Corbett and Courtney boxing with eachother. Boxing was very much looked down upon back all those years ago, was even censored in certain states: and it was Edison alone who publicized the sport with this very film.

From the start, "Men Boxing" was obviously not meant to be offensive. Back in 1891, Edison's motion picture business hadn't even taken off yet, and all of their films from 1890 to 1892 were merely camera experiments intended to test the invention. These men shown to be boxing (likely employees of the Edison Co.) are quite clearly amateurs doing a mock imitation. Being taken in the Black Maria Studio, the ring is fake; the 'boxer's' clothing is not realistic to what would've been used in the sport at that time. And yet it is these three seconds that started the boxing genre which would follow.

Like the other experiments from 1891, the lens filming the scene is circular and not square, making you feel as though you're watching it through a telescope. While it's true the first masked POV shots by George Albert Smith were made much later, this film should get credit for innovating a circular view of the action. I doubt you could really discredit Smith for being the first to do masking, however, since it probably couldn't have been helped that the view was taken this way.

Edison himself would also continue to craft the boxing genre as he went along, creating movies of actual boxers performing true feats of skill. This would ultimately result in the world's first feature length movie by Enoch Rector of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight from 1897, distributed by Veriscope. Still, at the moment they were continuing to experiment, as the first publicly-released film in the United States would not happen until "Horse Shoeing" of 1893.

Boxing is first sport ever shown in movie history. This film is not long, nor have quality like Rocky. There are two mens who are boxing and feeling happy about that. They have smile on their faces and I think that they want to film 12 rounds, not just few seconds.

But purpose of this movie is not to make injuries one to another, or became professional boxer. Real purpose is to test camera and show to world that you can record sport events too, not just traffic which is crossing bridge's or people who are moving around their gardens.

Short question, did you notice that ring is fake one? I haven't.

And one fact, first real boxing match was filmed 3 years after this one.

During the years from 1890 to 1892, there was a period of constant experimenting in Thomas Alva Edison's headquarters, as the team led by Scottish inventor Williak K.L. Dickson was working constantly in an idea that would revolutionize entertainment. That idea was the Kinetoscope, a project that Dickson had been developing since Edison told him about the "motion pictures" that other pioneers had began to make (French inventor Louis Le Prince being the first in 1988). Dickson took Edison's ideas beyond and conceived a machine able to show motion pictures through a hole, the Kinetoscope. Many experiments were done in order to discover the best way to produce movies, and what started with the raw experiments codenamed "Monkeyshines", by 1891 it would be a reality: Dickson was now able to produce motion pictures. The tests continued, each time with better quality, and this short, "Men Boxing", is another of those early American films.

Directed by William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, "Men Boxing" shows a scene of a boxing match between two workers at Edison's laboratory. However, this is not a documentary movie like the ones Dickson would make for Edison in the future, the two fighters are only pretending to be boxing in a fake boxing ring (as usual, the movie was shot in Edison's laboratory), in order to test the camera. The scene allowed Dickson and Heise to test the amount of lighting necessary to achieve high quality images, as well as the recording speed the camera needed to capture the different movements of the boxers. While an entirely technical experiment (like most of the early films, this movie wasn't made to be shown to the public), it's interesting to see the two actors having fun in their roles of boxers, almost joking as the entire short seems to be done with a healthy dose of good humor.

When William K.L. Dickson showed his "Dickson Greeting" short to the world, Kinetoscope was born and the era of motion pictures as entertainment was inaugurated. Soon, the Kinetoscope (or "peepshow machine") became widely popular thanks to Dickson's short films that depicted vaudeville acts and folkloric dances from around the world, as well as the short documentaries done for the devise. Like "Monkeyshines" or "Newark Athlete", the short experiment titled "Men Boxing" was a key factor in the success of Dickson's Kinetoscope, as this movie almost has the quality that the inventors desired. Charming and fun, this little experiment, while still incomplete, already shows how fun and entertaining the new medium would be. 7/10