Boxcar Bertha Reviews

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. It is actually pretty obscure and it actually took me a while to finally get my hands on it. However, it is rather unfortunate that it ended up being one of Martin Scorses's least interesting movies. Indeed, after making his directing debut, Scorsese did struggle to make something else afterwards and, after 5 long years, he finally managed to deliver this flick. Well, basically, it was a typical exploitation feature from the 70's produced by Roger Corman, and as a result, the story was nothing really amazing but it was inherent to the genre, I'm afraid. I mean, it is not that it was really bad but you could feel that Scorsese was still searching himself. Still, there were here and there some very nice scenes and Barbara Hershey gave a very refreshing performance with her contagious smile. It is said that after watching this, John Cassavetes told Scorsese that he was way too talented to waste his talent with this kind of movies. Well, a year later, Scorsese would direct 'Mean Streets' and the rest is just history. Anyway, to conclude, even it was obviously a minor effort for this great master, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Martin Scorsese's work.