Top 1-5 Firsts in Feature Films

Although this list has some overlap with a previous one, it concerns feature films alone, and I felt that Listverse needed to have a list like this compiling the first films to achieve things that are commonplace today. Enjoy, and please comment! This list is in chronological order, thus it is ordered from 1 – 10 as opposed to the norm.

1 The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906

First: Full-Length Feature Film

This film documents the life of Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly. It was made for about $2,250 and shot entirely in Melbourne, written by John Tait and starring his sister and friend, Elizabeth Kelly and Nicholas Brierley respectively. The National Film and Sound Archive released a new restored edition made with the remaining 17 minutes of film in 2006.

2 The World, the Flesh and the Devil 1914

First: Color Feature Film

Very little is known about this English film, made for £10,000. It uses the Kinemacolor process whereby two color filters are used in taking the negatives and only two in projecting the positives. The camera resembles the ordinary cinematographic camera except that it runs at twice the speed, taking thirty-two images per second instead of sixteen, and it is fitted with a rotating color filter in addition to the ordinary shutter. This filter is an aluminum skeleton wheel. The plot is to do baby swaps and mistaken identities, “with a few gratuitous thrills and spills thrown in for good measure.” It should be noted that this was preceded by a 2+ hour long feature color documentary called “With our King and Queen through India” – that is not included here because it is a documentary.

3 The Fall of a Nation 1916

First: Feature Film Sequel

This film is the sequel to the groundbreaking The Birth of a Nation (1915, pictured above), and was directed by Thomas Dixon, Jr., a Ku Klux Klan supporter who wrote the novel on which the first film was based. The film is about America being unprepared for war against Europe, and although not as bad as the first film, is controversial for its support of the Ku Klux Klan, calling them “a great, veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.” The first is so important for its pioneering use of camera techniques such as close-ups, deep-focus and jump-cuts, and it smashed box office records, grossing a then record $10 million. Although disgraceful, this film holds a 100% fresh rating on movie review compiling website Rotten Tomatoes, film critic Roger Ebert explains “‘The Birth of a Nation’ is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil.

4 El Apostol 1917

First: Animated Feature-Length Film

This is a 1917 Argentine animated cartoon, and also the world’s first animated feature film. It was written and directed by Quirino Cristiani, and consisted of a total of 58,000 frames played over the course of 70 minutes (which would have meant 14 FPS). The film was a satire, with President Hipólito Yrigoyen ascending to the heavens to use Jupiter’s thunderbolts to cleanse Buenos Aires of immorality and corruption. The result is a burnt city. The film is believed to have been well received by audiences at the time. Despite this, no known copies of the film have survived.

5 Marked Men 1919

First: Remake of a Feature Film (The Three Godfathers – 1916)

According to Wikipedia, this is the first ever feature film remake. It is a Western retelling of the nativity, specifically the story of the Three Wise Men of Orient. The same director later remade it as 3 Godfathers with John Wayne, and Harry Carey, Jr. Interestingly, Harry Carey, Snr (pictured above) starred in the first two films!

Nice Film ^o^