Annie Oakley shows off her shooting prowess for the camera of William Heise and W.k.L. Dickson. She first shoots at targets on a board, and then fires at targets being tossed up into the air by an assistant. This was filmed at Edison's Black Maria studio in New Jersey.This film was more energetic than most shorts from 1894. Oakley's shooting seems to be live and real, especially when shooting at the board. It is hard to tell if she is hitting the tossed targets, but we can still tell the great skill she has. She was probably the biggest star the filmed by the Edison duo in 1894.I give it two out of ten stars.

After watching this 18.61-second film 9 times (twice in slow motion), Iv concluded that Annie hits 7 of 8 fixed targets with her first rifle, but NONE of her upwardly-thrown targets (including one lofted up TWICE by her male assistant; you can recycle targets ad infinitum when you always miss) with her second long gun. In defense of this Old West icon, she probably was not used to performing in a small black box, with the injunction to shoot BEFORE aiming in order to keep any possible "hits" within the view of a stationary camera. To meet the minimum review length requirement for this site, I might add that as a co-founder of B.A.N.G.S. (Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps), Annie's troubles in this flick prove that even the best markswoman sometimes needs an AK or Bushwhacker gun. If poor people deserve food just as much as rich people, they merit assault rifles even more so. Which means the government MUST give the indigent gun stamps to help them get the AKs and ample ammo which are now indispensable to survival in modern America. As they say, if you give a gal a fish, she will eat for a day. But if you give her an AK47, she can shoot all the fish in the barrel!

Like many of the earliest Edison Kinetoscope movies, this one showed a popular entertainment figure performing one of her specialties. It's an interesting attempt, and it's nice to have something preserved on film of Annie Oakley, one of the legends of her day. But the footage that resulted is clearly limited by the constraints of the studio.Like most of the earliest Edison movies, this was filmed inside their 'Black Maria' studio. That setting worked very well in producing movies of various dancers, vaudeville acts, and the like. But with Annie Oakley, it forces her to squeeze her routine into an area much smaller than normal, and while she does a pretty good job anyway, it's clear that under the conditions to which she was more accustomed, she would have done much better.It was not long at all before the Edison film-makers began to film subjects outdoors when it better suited the material. Even then, though, the scale and speed of Oakley's regular act would probably have created an insurmountable challenge to film with the equipment available in the 1890s. All the same, it's nice to be able to see moving footage of her, so as to be able to flesh out this legendary figure just a little bit better.

As the commercial exploitation of the kinetoscope grew, filmmakers realized they needed to produce films that appealed to an audience that included middle-class women. This film was produced with this audience in mind where Oakley demonstrated her awesome marksmanship.Great short film of what is possibly the first film featuring a firearm. Annie Oakley shows off her stuff and looks very good doing it.10* (10* Rating System)