character, with most figures remaining indistinguishable in wide shots; the staging inconsistently mixes stylized theatrical blocking with more naturalistic action. The film also leaves many narrative points ambiguous, requiring explanations to be filled in by a live narrator or by audience imaginations. However, The Great Train Robbery successfully collected many popular themes and prevalent techniques of the time into a single accessible narrative. Porter cut his shots together to suggest action happening simultaneously in different locations, as he had done (albeit less efficiently) in Life of an American Fireman. The use of real outdoor locations and violent action helped keep the film dynamic, as did technical strategies such as a matte combining a studio scene with outdoor footage, and three shots in which the camera moves. These three shots add an edge of realism and immediacy, with the frame following the action if recording real life in a documentary style; one of these shots, showing the robbers making off with their loot, even requires the mounted camera to attempt a tricky diagonal pan, creating a jagged effect. The final shot, in which Barnes fires at the camera in a framing reminiscent of a wanted poster, is the film's only close-up, and does not function as part of the plot. Porter rarely used close-ups, especially in his later years, preferring to save them for special standalone effects like this one. Edison's promotional leaflet about the film describes this scene as follows, "Scene 14—REALISM. A life size picture of Barnes, leader of the outlaw band, taking aim and firing point blank at each individual in the audience. (This effect is gained by foreshortening in making the picture.) The resulting excitement is great. This section of the scene can be used either to begin the subject or to end it, as the operator may choose." The catalogue's informal approach to where the scene should be placed was not unique to The Great Train Robbery; Porter's film Uncle Tom's Cabin, released earlier in 1903, had included a boat race scene that was variously advertised as Scene 5 (where it would make some narrative sense) or as Scene 10 (where it would not). Such shots, designed primarily for spectacle rather than for narrative coherency, characterize a popular early-film style later dubbed the "cinema of attractions". Release and reception In 1903, the most common American film venue was vaudeville houses, where films were exhibited as part