One can tell from the start, this early, pre Dillinger gangster pic, based loosely I would assume, on a real life woman robber, and her small criminal posse, during the depression, was shot on a stringent sparing budget. This, you can tell quite greatly affects, which could of been a better movie. Signs of life in this, is Hershey, a great actress, who really oozes sexuality, and carves out her role beautifully, while Carradine, and Primus, especially, lend great, and impressive support. We even see a familiar train driver from Tough guys, as well as a few Scorsese regulars, a very young Victor Argo, in particular, who later went on to play an even number of good and bad as**s. Frank violence provides some effectively bloody moments, but this, is quite a forgettable gangster pic. It's great to see father and son Carradine's, square off in some scenes, and the movie has it's moments, but seriously Hershey is the best thing about this. She's an actress who should be wonderfully acknowledged for her great body of work. It's quite frightening to imagine what this film would of been like, hadn't she done this film. She gives a sexy and exhilarating performance, in a film, which disappoints in some stretches of film. Worth a watch though, definitely.

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

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.

David Carradine shows off his lack of depth as an actor.Hollywood would have been better off if Barbara Hershey had never been discovered.Martin Scorsese shows off his penchant for violence without any reason whatsoever.If you want to see an inane film, in which bad guys wreak havoc and men who chase them are completely inept, this is the film for you. No one could believe this garbage. The beginning is silly and the ending is just stupid.The crooks escaped from a chain gang, which didn't have any chains(???), and then the crooks are captured and put on a chain gang again(???). Of course, the crook(David Carradine) escapes again so of course, there can be a big shoot-'em-up at the end. This summary does not do justice. The plot is predictable and is unrealistic.The other problem I had with this film was that the characters don't care what damage they do to other people's lives. In fact, they enjoy hurting whoever they can. Furthermore, Boxcar Bertha is never brought to justice. The film says that it is okay to kill and steal as long as you get away with it.All of the actors are inept. Scorsese didn't add anything with his directing even if the plot is vapid. Avoid this waste of time and watch Raging Bull for a period piece. This is a complete disappointment.