How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) I really love to watch these older movies but, to be honest, very few of them really stand out because the majority of them either feature someone dancing, boxing, walking, standing around or just doing something that we've seen in other films. This one here is at least original and lives up to its title. The camera is set up at the end of a road when we see a carriage go by. We then see another carriage coming straight towards the camera and crashing into it. This gives you the idea of being ran over.Funny? Not really but at least the film was somewhat creative and especially when compared to other films from this era. I really don't think the film was all that funny but I can imagine it scaring a few people who saw it back in 1900.

I have to say this 45-second black-and-white silent short movie from 115 years did not do too much for me. I prefer most of the director's other works that I have seen. Cecil M. Hepworth is one of Britain's very early filmmakers and here he asks the audience the question in the title. well how did it feel? Watching this did not feel too good. A bit of a nothing movie and the final twist does not really save the thing either. Maybe it would have been more interesting without the massive spoiler in the title. I'm not sure. But I am sure that this is a pretty weak film for 1900 looking at with what the likes of Méliès, Lumière etc. and even Hepworth himself already came up with. Mostly superior to this very forgettable 4 seconds.

Although movie houses were quite popular in 1900, most of the films were really dreary and uninteresting--the people then just didn't know any better! Most films actually consisted of about a minute's worth of ordinary and mundane activities (such as street scenes, babies, people working, etc.) and the audiences were thrilled. The modern notion of a film was still at least two years away with LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE--an early full-length film (14 whole minutes) with real sets and a plot! In this light, then, it's understandable why this little film is so little and so less than inspiring when seen today--and at least it's creative. The camera appears to have been placed in the road. A wagon and then a car approach the camera and ultimately the car appears to run over the camera person. That's it! Nothing more. We're done. Bye.

Automobiles were still the source of a lot of humour when this film was made so it is no surprise the Hepworth's made a comedy film about the perils of encountering a horseless carriage. The camera is in the middle of the road as a horse and buggy come by. They pass by without calamity and you fully expect some hapless pedestrian to wander into the road just as another comes by. Well guess what? In this movie the camera, and hence the audience, plays the part of the pedestrian. An automobile comes around the corner, drives straight at the camera and . ..well . . .THAT is how it (almost) feels to be run over; the film is a lot more painless than the actual experience. Seeing this film I wonder if the Hepworth's were doing a conscious parody of the 1896 Lumiere film THE ARRIVAL OF A TRAIN AT LA CIOTAT in which the sight of a train coming right at the camera is said to have panicked many people seeing their first moving picture? Perhaps.