Theo Robertson It took me a very long time to finally watch BOXCAR BERTHA. The prime reason for this is simply because it's hard to find. I can't recall it ever being broadcast on television and I'm including obscure cable channels and not just network television. I can't recall it being available on DVD either or being shown in the filmhouse , Edinburgh's foremost art-house cinema. Strangely it is not held in high regard by people who have seen it and it's shocking to see it has an average rating of 6.1 on this site. If there's a film by Scorsese that can be described as "forgotten" this might just be it. How can a film by this great American auteur be forgotten ? Ah I can see why some people might hold it in relatively low regard. The 70s was a zenith for American film making and perhaps only classic Hollywood beats this era. This is an era where "movie brats" came along and made films about angry young people take on the world single handed and anyone who has ever been young and/or angry will recognise the wish fufillment that drives the central narrative of these movies. The downside is that BOXCAR BERTHA is drowned slightly by the films surrounding it. You're often reminded of similar films such as BONNIE AND CLYDE and BADLANDS. If there;s a difference it's that the characters are maybe a little bit too Robin Hood in that they'd never think of robbing the poor and that they're far more sinned against rather than sinners Some people have stated that it's more like a Corman movie than a Scorsese one. I can understand this complaint and it's obvious that the budget is limited but don't forget this is character driven which has always appealed to Marty and while there's lots of incident it doesn't really have much in the way of a core central plot, Can you see Scorsese making a film featuring a mindbending plot ala Christopher Nolan ? Me neither so this type of story is ready made for Scorsese. It's also far more enjoyable than much of Scorsese's latter output where he tries too hard such as GANGS OF NY or his spiritual movies like KUNDUN and SILENCE. In short BOXCAR BERTHA is a film for people who want to live fast and die young but never got round to it

Mark Turner Thank Heaven Martin Scorsese went on to make some great movies. Had he relied on his reputation with films like these we wouldn't be talking about him today. The movie is so bad that you have to check the credits on screen and the box itself to make sure you read it right. Yes, it is the same Martin Scorsese.The story here is of wandering hobo Bertha "Boxcar" Thompson (Barbara Hershey) who travels with her crop duster father until he dies in a plane crash. She takes to the open rails, hitching rides on boxcars and meeting up with consistent lover and union agitator Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine). While deeply in love they never marry. Bertha hustles to make a buck and Bill moves from town to town trying to organize labor unions.Bertha eventually partners up with gambler Rake Brown (Barry Primus) and the two con gamblers where ever they go. In a bad turn of events Bertha accidentally shoots and kills one gambler and the two hit the rails once more. On the road she meets up with Von Morton (Bernie Casey), the mechanic who used to work for her father. The three catch up with Bill and then form a team of thieves.I'd love to tell you what happens here but for those willing to brave this movie I don't want to spoil it. What I can tell you is that this film moves all over the place. It leaps from one scene to the next with little or no narrative structure to it. Characters just suddenly decide to do something and other pop up.Carradine shows why he was never an Oscar contender. His acting style remained constant from one movie to the next, as if the same character was in each role. Hershey, who went on to perform some tremendous roles in her time, is young and just beginning here and it shows. She and Carradine were involved for some time and had a son together, I'm assuming during the time this movie was made.With only one feature film prior to this you can tell this is early Scorsese. Made just before MEAN STREETS this movie has a slapdash feel to it that makes you wonder was it his decision to make it this way or was he forced to do so by producer Roger Corman. In any event I'm so glad he changed the way he did things and gave us so many more movies worth watching than this one.I had seen this movie once before years ago and thought perhaps my memories of it were unkind. Truth be told my memories were kinder to it than my feelings for it this time around. Those who are Hershey fans solely for the reason of glimpsing her nude will flock to this film. Carradine fans who think his performance on KUNG FU was underrated might enjoy it as well. All others would do well to pass it by.Still, for the collectors of all things Scorsese you'll want to make a point of picking his one up before it's gone. It's being released on blu-ray by Twilight Time and as always limited to 3,000 copies. Yes, the quality of presentation by them is as outstanding as always. But no matter how much you polish this it remains a lump of clay rather than a diamond.

viewsonfilm.com Before Martin Scorsese trolled the dark alleys, bars, cabs, and pool halls of the seedy New York City Districts, he made a project that was a little less personal when he shot Boxcar Bertha in 1972. That's not to say that it's a bad film. In fact, it's darn good. It just feels like it wasn't exactly his dream picture. You can see little tidbits of his signature style laden throughout even though it sometimes feels like an all out action flick. There's a lingering notion that he just had to make this thing in general in order to get more opportunities to flex his directorial wings. It's also a small film developed by a B movie producer. However, it's alive, ambitious, violent, cynical, and edgy. Taking a sort of Bonnie and Clyde approach, "Bertha" is no doubt a good old fashioned American movie. From the opening title sequence, you can immediately sense a rush of urgency and an aching need for a budding, genius filmmaker to get out.Taking place in the 1930's and based on an autobiography entitled Sister of the Road, Boxcar Bertha is an account of Bertha Thompson (Barbara Hershey) and her lover Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine). They meet, become active train robbers (with the help of some other buddies), and reluctantly get involved in a murder of an important, wealthy gambler. The film chronicles their intersecting lives as fugitives for a quick, fast paced 90 minutes. On a side note, "Bertha" is also an exercise that finds ways to make radical statements about race and gender issues. What's the point you ask? Well, from what I read about this vehicle's background, the railroad south relayed this culture throughout the aforementioned decade.As far as casting goes, Boxcar Bertha is significant in my mind because it's one of those movies where you'd think that everyone in it would later go on to become A-list actors/actresses. One in particular, is Barbara Hershey. She gives a risky, fearless performance that should have catapulted her into superstardom. Yes she's been a working actress for the last 40 years but has never quite equaled her potential here. Watching "Bertha" you sense that she was wise beyond her years (she was only in her early 20's when filming began) not to mention adorable in every singular frame. Along with her, you have solid portrayals of vagabond robbers in David Carradine, Barry Primus (Rake Brown), and Bernie Casey (Von Morton). Again, these are respected actors that have hung around for a long time, just not entirely broken through.Something of note: No one is a bigger fan of Martin Scorsese than me. But I'll never figure out why there is never any controversy over his excessive use of racial slurs and overall lapses of racial bigotry in his films (Boxcar Bertha has a handful of it). When other directors make an attempt at it (Quentin Tarantino comes to mind), they get a lot of criticism from other film critics and even their peers. Scorsese somehow gets a pass. Now this is not a knock on the famed director. It's just one of the great mysteries of his work that I'll never quite understand. Another note: Two actors that share a solid amount of screen time in "Bertha" (Harry Northup and the previously mentioned Carradine) are featured later on in Scorsese's classic, Mean Streets. What's strange is that they make unbelievably small appearances in that film. It's as if they got demoted (ha ha). No really, I'm not kidding. They literally have no lines whatsoever.Overall, Scorsese's second feature film has style and it's far from boring. This flick enthralls you from the get-go. I'd call it the movie equivalent of a sleeve of firecrackers. So to be honest, I'm not sure if a lot of you have taken in "Bertha" (I could be wrong). If you've viewed it, disregard the last comment. If you haven't, then give it a look-see. Oh and if you're wondering whether or not the world's greatest living director shows off with the camera (aggressively I might add), don't worry, you'll get that here. Boxcar Bertha is experimental, exhausting, and full of jump start energy (be aware of the ending though, it's not for the faint- hearted). The tagline for its poster reads, "Life made her an outcast, love made her an outlaw." What can I say; I guess this movie "made" me a fan.

ElMaruecan82 I would love to say that there's a lot in "Boxcar Bertha" that foreshadows the birth of a new talent for American Cinema, that it carries many aspects that would define Scorsese's style, I would love to but I won't do that.I won't not because it's not true, Martin Scorsese's directing is the obvious highlight of the film and what elevates to a level slightly higher than all the other 70's exploitation movies, still, even admitting this would be unfair because it wouldn't take into consideration the chronological context of the film's making. 1972, we're at the pinnacle of the New Hollywood period, the same year "The Godfather" would open the door for the coming blockbusters' era, so when Scorsese made the film, he was only one among many other growing talents of his generation: Sam Peckinpah, Hal Ashby, Dennis Hopper or Arthur Penn. Speaking of Penn, the story is adapted from the autobiography of Boxcar Bertha, a folk local outlaw who was associated with a gang of train robbers in the tumultuous 'Great Depression' days. On that aspect, the film immediately reminds of the much more acclaimed "Bonnie and Clyde", a landmark in the portrayal of modern violence in Cinema. At least Scorsese's second feature film is just the proof that his talent could match more experimented directors, but as far as directing, editing, and bold depiction of sex and violence were concerned, it was nothing new, not even for that time. However, it does have a little something that is waiting to explode, and that will, one year later, with Marty's first masterpiece "Mean Streets". So whatever superlatives can't be said about "Boxcar Bertha", they definitely apply to "Mean Streets". But let's get back to "Boxcar Bertha" since this is what the review is about. The little something I was mentioning was a soul inside the characters, they're not here to appeal to us, but we're supposed to understand the soul behind the actions. They're all outlaws but for once, no one seems to lead the gang, and they're all following what seem to be impulses, pride, love and loyalty, with a romance in the core. Bertha is a young, sweet and innocent girl who discovered love at the same time as violence when her father accidentally dies in a plane accident caused by his boss' stubbornness. And she falls in love with Big Bill Shelley, David Carradine, an idealistic union leader, labeled as a Bolshevik by the railroad baron, Buckram Sartoris, played by no one else than Carradine Sr., John.What follows is the expression of a necessary refusal for subordination in a society dictated by dangerous and heartless rules. Bill and his friend, a black worker named Von Morton, played by Bernie Casey engage in a fight that sets the overall mood of the film, and Bertha's rebellious conscience. Barbara Hershey gives an incredible sweetness to a character that follows her heart, through Bill. She meets in her route; a Yankee rookie named Rake Brown, played by the blue-eyed Barry Primus. Bertha helps him to improve his accent to make it in the hostile South. The man seems to have a certain talent for making enemies and a strange reluctance for fighting, so the inevitable happens. After an accidental shooting where he's saved by the sweet Bertha, they join Bill and Von. The gang is finally constituted.They rob trains, they are criminals but they don't see themselves so, because they're against a dictatorial management that happens to be the real criminal, incarnated by the faces of the two McYvers, killers hired to arrest the gang. Victor Argo and Davis Osterhout with his scary Hitler-like mustache are the kinds of faces that are impossible to root for. But the film doesn't manipulate us into this or these feelings, Scorsese's directing has a way to portray the Great Depression as a moment in American History where the country lost all its boundaries, and when life was also a matter of survival and dignity, so, the line between crime and law, was sometimes imperceptible. And in the South, when the arm of the law could be very loose with the use of shotgun, we know, we're less invited to feel empathetic toward characters but just to follow their journey into a twisted world, where even being a whore was normal. No room for morality, yet, there is something in the heart of Boxcar Bertha that makes us feel for her, maybe it's her loyalty, her devotion to her love, and her ability to transcend the frontiers of the Law, just by love. But it's something more, it's a devouring passion that accepts all the sins of the word for principles, for a sort of cause that goes beyond rational. Bertha doesn't just give her heart, she also gives her flesh, her soul, her beautiful body, so shamelessly depicted by Scorsese's directing. And sometimes, we wonder through the film if this railroad that drives all the narrative will also be a railroad to redemption. "Boxcar Bertha" contains all the philosophical and personal material Marty would express in his filmography, but I guess all it needed was the setting: New York City and more expression of his own tormented soul, the reservoir of his creativity.I like to see "Boxcar Bertha" as the film with which Marty made his bones, tracing a clever parallel between the Great Depression and the gritty Nixon-era years, when disillusions, frustrations was the daily bread of some souls in quest of a meaning in their lives. Bertha incarnates somewhat the purity of a soul that didn't choose her fate, but made the best she could, according to what she believed in. That's the real passion and this is the film that allowed Marty to grow some confidence about his talent, and enrich American Cinema with his own passion.