Review of Boxcar Bertha (1972) by Filmgrinder S — 13 Apr 2013

Martin Scorsese's first "conventional" film came from the exploitation school of Roger Corman. It provides all the nipples, squibs, and atrocities required of his teacher, but is impossibly injected with the bright young thing's thematic desires and visual hopes.

Barbara Hershey gets the job done with her dim bulb ambition, and the sexual conquests of the even dimmer bulbs around her. Mmmmm, maybe that's unfair. David Carradine's Big Bill Shelley is certainly the figure of Hoffaesque rabble rouser.

And Bernie Casey is a brilliantly charismatic loyal goon with a flair for harmonica when his hand doesn't clutch a shotgun. But the characters are less interesting than their director's flourishes.

The climactic railroad dick showdown is surreally kinetic, with characters nearly levitating, Evil Deadlike as they accept the blasts from Casey's boomstick. I don't think a shootout had ever been attempted in such a dreamlike fashion, all the while, a poor hero slips off into the distance, crucified to a moving train.

A solid film with an epic finale. VF.