FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

He_who_lurks While many of Edison's earliest films were mostly of athletes and dancers doing a remarkable feat for the camera, "Blacksmith Scene" is entirely different. It actually has a staged scenario, with actual acting and props. While the "narrative" is nothing special (just several men hammering on an anvil and drinking beer) it's interesting to see how blacksmith scenes became a popular subject in early filmmaking.To begin with, there were many early film genres that originated from somewhere. There were actualities, one-gag joke films, dance films, phantom ride films, crime films, chase films, trains-arriving-in-stations films, and I don't know what else. Another popular subject was blacksmiths. This film began that genre, and what followed were various remakes (the two I know of are the Lumiere Bro's "The Blacksmiths" and Georges Melies's "Blacksmith in his Workshop" which is now considered a lost film). Thus, with this film another early film genre was born.Also, this Edison short is known for, like I said, the staging. While the Lumiere's "The Blacksmiths" is probably more an actuality as it looks more like the real thing, this one is interesting simply because it's an attempt to display a fictitious scene on film. Not saying the actors are exactly great; the thin one on the left barely takes a sip, showing it's obviously an empty bottle they're "drinking" from. As always, this one is only worth seeing for the historical interest, not for entertainment, and one can obviously not expect too much of it. On the historic side, it is thus a must-see.

kobe1413 William Heise and W.K.L. Dickson work together on this short of the Edison Manufacturing Company. It was the a scene of three men working as blacksmith. They all strike the iron between them, then they take a break as one man hands another a drink. This is celebrated as the first narrative scene ever committed to film.This was an important step forward for the Edison team as they had previously only filmed performers doing a routine, such as the "Newark Athlete", or filming themselves, such as the "Dickson Greeting". Here they purposely stage a scene in their studio so that they can make their audiences believe they are watching actual blacksmiths at work.I give a 2 out of 10, as it only really needed to be scene as a historical document.

Clark Richards I found this film on a DVD collection of short films. I believe the title of the DVD was the 'Treasury Collection', of which there are at least 4 volumes. It's hard to rate this film along the same standards one would rate, 'Casablanca' or 'Citizen Kane', because it isn't so much a movie with a plot, it's just a steady shot of some Blacksmith's working. The film couldn't have been longer than a minute. The one thing that I found to be interesting was that of being able to look back through time. It's kind of funny that in this day and age of 'Reality' teevee, the first movie sold to the public for viewing was a movie that was nothing more than a slice of everyday humdrum reality.10/10. For being able to cross over into the 1800's.Clark Richards

James M. Haugh The Black Maria movie studio at Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory (see comments on "Men Boxing" for a description) was used, from 1892 until 1900, to produce as many as 300 films. "Blacksmith Scene" was filmed in this studio and is generally regarded as the earliest known commercial film. It was filmed by the vertical-feed Kinetograph camera using 1-1/2-inch celluloid film newly developed by the Eastman Company.To make this film 'commercial', it was necessary to have a way for the public to view it. A Kinetoscope was developed for that purpose. The Kinetoscope (a peep-show machine) was used for a public exhibition; given at a meeting of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on Tuesday May 9th, 1893. Over 400 people lined up to view the film over a two hour period.