antoniocasaca123 Last year I read the words of the great Martin Scorsese about the "crucifixion" by a certain press of the movie "Mother!", one of the most different and interesting movies of 2017. Those words are a reflection of what happens in recent years in the increasingly decadent and uninteresting cinema (mostly) North American. I just saw this "boxcar bertha," Scorsese's second feature, one of three films I had not yet seen of this great filmmaker. It is a "pure" film, of great beauty, with evident (good) influences of the French "nouvelle vague". The film was made with little money and quickly, like almost all the films produced by Roger Corman. Despite this, Scorsese manages to build a beautiful and meaningful film. His personal brand is already evident in this film, anticipating its following "mean streets" and "taxi driver". It's a pity that in America movies like this, unfortunately, nowadays, they have no market anymore.

atlasmb The title role in "Boxcar Bertha" is played by Barbara Hershey who, at the time, was in a relationship with her costar, David Carradine (Big Bill Shelly). This work of fiction concerns the Depression-era South and a group of individuals who were victimized by poverty and racism.Still, one cannot lose sight of the fact that it is a B-grade exploitation film, filled with graphic violence, gratuitous nudity, and glamorized gore. Young director Martin Scorsese gives the film plenty of visual style, but it only serves to glorify the baser elements of the story. Students of his career and his filmic methods can appreciate the variety of shots that populate the film, but it mostly serves as a baseline against which to compare his later efforts.The film has been compared to "Bonnie and Clyde" for good reasons, but Scorsese is hamstrung with budgetary restraints and orders to include more nudity and blood--titillation to appease audiences at the local drive in theater, where it makes a perfect second billing. Any point of view that "Boxcar Bertha" might have conveyed is undermined by contradictory scenes and pointless pandering to lower appetites.

Scott LeBrun "Boxcar Bertha" is an enjoyable, if unmemorable, exploitation film that was one of a number of obvious "Bonnie & Clyde" cash-ins. It's mostly noteworthy for the fact that producer Roger Corman hired a young up and comer to direct it: Martin Scorsese. While admirers of the filmmaker may rightly feel that he's done MUCH better work, this is still a good film of its kind: decently paced, engagingly performed, quite violent at times, and occasionally sporting that Scorsese style.A radiant and gorgeous Barbara Hershey plays a real-life Depression era character named Bertha Thompson. Bertha falls in with an odd group of companions that become her partners in crime: Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine), a union organizer with no burning desire to live the criminal life, Rake Brown (Barry Primus), a cowardly con artist, and Von Morton (Bernie Casey), an old Thompson family friend.Hershey and Carradine, her real-life romantic partner at the time, get some very effective chemistry going, with the latter delivering a likable if somewhat low key performance. It's also irresistible to see Carradine acting with his legendary father, John Carradine (who plays railroad kingpin H. Buckram Sartoris), in a key robbery sequence. Buffs will also recognize beefy veteran character actor Victor Argo as one of the heavies and the equally solid Harry Northup as a hostile, racist cop. Although they don't show up in the movie, two minor characters get named Emeric Pressburger and M. (Michael) Powell!Scorsese was given free reign to do pretty much what he wanted, provided that he stay within the exploitation genre, and under the budget of approximately $600,000. He does a very capable job of telling this story, keeping it watchable all the way through.For those who care, *both* Hershey and Carradine get naked.Six out of 10.

MartinHafer "Boxcar Bertha" is an unusual film. In one of his first films, Martin Scorsese directs a film for Roger Corman. Now this is a problem, as Corman is the king of cheap but successful exploitation films--and Scorsese obviously was trying to make a film better than this genre. The results, though better than you expect, are still not great. This film is much like taking Corman's "Big Bad Momma" and combining it with a less cheap and less exploitational crime film. As a result, it's not quite as silly as this previous film--but the use of lots of nudity and violence betray its exploitation roots.There really isn't a lot of plot in "Boxcar Bertha". It consists of Bertha (Barbara Hershey) taking off her clothes a lot as well as her and the gang (consisting of David Carradine, Bernie Casey and Barry Primus) robbing banks, trains and the like as well as OFTEN escaping from the police or prison. The only thing that really is unique is the strong populist message, as Carradine's character is often talking about unions and socialism. I found all this mildly interesting but that's really all. In fact, the most interesting aspect of the film is that David Carradine appears in some scenes with his father, John. All in all, a film that is not particularly great or bad--somewhere in the middle. Had the film either tried harder to be sleazy and silly OR been more serious and had greater depth, it would be a film I would heartily recommend. As it is, it's just a time-passer.