Who directed the 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery?

Edwin S. Porter directed the 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery.

Produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, the short film follows a gang that boards a train, robs its passengers and escapes before a posse pursues them. Porter also served as the film's cinematographer, and his editing helped connect separate locations and actions into a coherent chase narrative.

The movie is frequently described as one of the first important American westerns and one of the earliest films to use editing in a strongly narrative way. Its famous final shot shows a gunman firing directly toward the camera, although that image is not part of the story's chronological action.

The film was inspired partly by stage melodramas and real train-robbery stories. It was not the first film to show a robbery or use editing, but its popularity made its techniques highly influential in early American cinema.