This is How Movies Should Be Made

Brilliant and touching

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Edison Studies was the first film company in the USA; their first films, which were Kinetoscope shorts and were very brief, were not released to the public at all as they were merely tests. Such is the case with "Men Boxing", a film so short being called a minute long on IMDb is technically not true. It's only a couple secs actually, and while only a film test that would never be released to the public it also is a bit fun. We see two young men in a boxing ring (both unidentified to this very day, I believe) swinging at each other. While Edison filmed boxing matches later in 1894 that were of true athletes, this short is obviously a test and the 'boxers' really have no idea how to box at all. That said it doesn't really matter as for 1891 it's slightly amusing and manages to be fun within its brief run time. Worth the watch if you wanna see a very old film from the silent era. A 7 outta 10 for the historical value, an 8 outta 10 because it can still amuse today.

read the overwrought film notes for this short on disc 1 of the 4-disc set, THE INVENTION OF MOVIES, from Kino Co. (2005). The so-called expert contends that the "boxers" featured here are "disciplined, toned athletes," but to my eye these jokers in white shirts and dress pants obviously are "fleshy tinkers." All their punches are pulled, and they are grinning like jackals at the thought that ANYONE in the rough and tumble times of the 1890s COULD mistake them for "athletes." Since this was a camera test for Edison Manufacturing Company, it's clearly an "inside joke" met only for the girls in the New York City red-light districts where these guys spent their nights wilding (one look at this 12.13-second piece proves these guys were unlikely to have merited wives OR girlfriends!). Close observers will notice that this already brief film IS THE SAME THING SHOWN FOUR TIMES, but guys never can get enough of looking at themselves pretending to be sports heroes. Note that the rope behind the "boxers" meant to suggest a boxing ring is one of the first uses of art direction in the movies.

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.

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