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.
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.