Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
AutCuddly
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
FilmCriticLalitRao
American film 'Boxcar Bertha' is remembered as acclaimed director Martin Scorsese's first true film.It was the film which gave the young American director the chance to pay his homage to numerous classics of American cinema.The credit for this film's success also goes to maverick American producer Roger Corman who gave complete artistic freedom to Scorsese albeit with certain 'artistic' conditions.It is rather funny to note that it was Roger Corman's idea to fill this violent,drama with nude scenes in order to make it more commercially viable ! Based on a true story which took place somewhere in a southern American state,Boxcar Bertha is a great historical document which recreates faithfully what depression did to ordinary Americans ? Tough qualities seen in this film such as anarchy, lawlessness and utter disregard for legal authorities are likely to induce viewers to compare it with 'Bonnie and Clyde'.Boxcar Bertha is a complete entertainer as its fast pace keeps viewers glued to their seats.Religious symbolism for which Scorsese was noted in the later part of his career can also be found in the final scene where the hero is crucified à la Jesus Christ.
JasparLamarCrabb
This early Martin Scorsese film is more Roger Corman exploitation than anything we'd see later on from Scorsese. It's a well-made, expertly acted rift on BONNIE & CLYDE featuring the great Barbara Hershey in the title role. Bertha is a poor country girl who gets mixed up with union leaders and con-men, bank robbery and murder. The film is a successful mixture of comedy and extreme violence with Hershey giving an excellent performance. David Carradine, Barry Primus and Bernie Casey are in the supporting cast. Primus is a standout as a yankee grifter stuck in the deep south. The film is short (under 90 minutes) and hits the ground running, rarely letting up.
Rodrigo Amaro
A little bit impressive, a little bit important because of its director and his subsequent works, "Boxcar Bertha" isn't much as good as it could be due to the forces of circumstances where director Martin Scorsese was simply making a film to Roger Corman, and not being an important part of the process by contributing as an author. If Marty was the author, the creative genius in the writing of this, it might had become an better project than it is. It's importance now lies that this is the movie that leads to the authorial and brilliant "Mean Streets" and the rest is history, and a great one. It goes to show the learning process Mr. Scorsese had to go through to finally make his mark in film history.It stars Barbara Hershey as the title role, a female train robber who joins the union leader Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine) on continuous crimes robbing trains seeking to fight against corrupt railroad establishment. The movie is loosely based on the book "Sister of the Road" a fictionalized account on Bertha Thompson written by Ben L. Reitman. Ordinarily fun like most exploitation films of the 1970's tended to be, "Boxcar Bertha" was a way of Scorsese learning how to film faster and economically. He goes far though. He was already displaying plenty of talent in orchestrating scenes, filming violent moments with a quite impeccable precision. Some of the scenes seem very dated but they can impress a little today (the final shootout was incredibly edited). And there's time to enjoy the fine performances of Hershey, Carradine and Barry Primus.Don't make mistakes, this is no "Goodfellas" or "Taxi Driver". Those are deeper in everything, quality materials and very reflexive. "Boxcar Bertha" doesn't go for the politics, the denounce of social issues (when it could be). Instead, we have an exploitation film with all of its natural characteristics: cheap productions with loads of sex and violence and rebel criminals fighting each other. It's quite hollow, weary if compared to other Scorsese's productions, and such comparisons are quite pointless but whatever. If let alone it can be considered a good movie. And it is a good one. 6/10
drystyx
This never was interesting. It was boring in the sixties, and boring today.It's another of the multitude of stories of self righteous crooks, the chief ones being an attractive couple and a token Negro. The token Negro was the mainstay of the sixties and seventies, serving only purpose, to be someone who said "yassah" to the self righteous white thugs.There's nothing exciting about this movie. There's also nothing that makes sense in this movie. Whatever the motivations are, whatever people are doing, no one knows and no one cares. It's all just a jumbled mess. A bunch of action scenes, lots of shotgun blasts, trains, skin, just for the sake of showing shotguns, trains, cars, and skin. None of it is plot related, but that's because there is no plot.There's nothing horrible about the movie, just nothing good. Just a waste of time.
