Wonderful character development!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of all time, but it wasn't always that way. Back in the early 1970's he was still finding his way and trying some techniques out. While Boxcar Bertha is nowhere near the quality of Scorsese's later efforts, you can tell there was talent there, just waiting to be exploited.Boxcar Bertha tells the fictional account of two lovers, a union leader and a loner, who find pleasure taking up crime to seek vengeance on what railroad management has done to them. David Carradine and Barbara Hershey star, as Scorsese directs his second feature length film. With plenty of similarities to Badlands or even Bonnie and Clyde, it's hard to figure out exactly what this film has to offer. In reality, it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, nor is the acting all that impressive.With that said, because of where Scorsese is today, it's worth watching. There are plenty of intriguing shots used by the famed director that he would use later on, or even just certain transitions from scene to scene. As a film geek, that was interesting to see. But as far as the film itself, I don't know that you would get anything out of this story. Just go watch Badlands again. That's a much more fascinating take on two young people taking up murder and crime in the west.+Scorsese trying things out-Nothing new added to this style of a story-Acting is sub-par4.6/10

A typically cheap ($600,000 budget) and amateurish Roger Corman exploitation film, 'Boxcar Bertha' is largely significant as Martin Scorsese's first studio feature. The literary inspiration for the film is 'Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha' "as told to Ben L. Reitman" (Macauley, 1937). Masquerading as an autobiography, 'Sister of the Road' is actually a novel. Boxcar Bertha never existed; she is an amalgam of several women—mostly Retta Toble (who married Joe Curran, legendary president of the National Maritime Union, in 1939). Reitman modeled Bertha and her cronies on people he had come to know in his tumultuous life as an anarchist, hobo, whorehouse doctor, birth control advocate, and one of Emma Goldman's lovers. The various incidents described in the book happened to Reitman himself or countless other hobos he met and conversed with over the years. To adapt Reitman's book to the screen, Corman tapped the services of John William and Joyce Hooper Corrington, a married screen writing duo who had penned Corman's previous film, 'The Red Baron' (1971). Their mandate was to fashion a thinly disguised remake of 'Bonnie & Clyde' in order to cash in on the rebellious-but-doomed-young-crooks-in-love motif that Arthur Penn's film had so successfully exploited a few years before. This involved discarding the actual contents of Reitman's book but retaining title, setting, and some characters for a vestige of Depression-era authenticity. Reitman's Boxcar Bertha had been involved in a shoplifting ring but Corman's Bertha (Barbara Hershey), her lover, 'Big' Bill Shelly (David Carradine), and two accomplices—Rake Brown (Barry Primus) and Von Morton (Bernie Casey)—become full-fledged outlaws bent on bringing down rapacious railroad baron H. Buckram Sartoris (John Carradine). In a bloody, apocalyptic ending, the gang's bid to kidnap Sartoris is foiled, Brown shot dead, and Shelly captured and nailed to the side of a boxcar in a way that obviously invokes Christ's crucifixion. Clumsy and cartoon-like in some spots, 'Boxcar Bertha' also exhibits flashes of cinematic brilliance: indications that 29-year-old Martin Scorsese had lots of potential. To this day Hershey and Carradine maintain that their sex scenes were quite real. DVD (2002).

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.

Boxcar Bertha (1972)** (out of 4) Roger Corman produced this quickie "B" movie and handed the directorial duties to a young Martin Scorsese, which was a strange mix of talent. The film, set during the Depression, tells the story of "Boxcar" Bertha Thompson (Barbara Hershey) and her boyfriend "Big" Bill Shelly (David Carradine), two small criminals who decide to go big in order to get revenge on a railroad company owned by an evil tycoon (John Carradine). This film is clearly a low-rent version of Bonnie and Clyde with the sex and nudity factor pumped up to support the needs of producer Corman and while it's not a total success there's still enough interesting stuff here to make it worth viewing. While I wouldn't call the film entertaining it's at least interesting to watch just to see the style of film-making Corman wanted being used by a more stylish young filmmaker. There's no doubt that Scorsese fingerprints are all over this baby and his strong direction really makes the film a lot more entertaining than it has the right to be. The violence in a Scorsese movie would later come front and center but it's also on display here and this is one thing that really stands out. The stylish touches added to these scenes, especially one scene where a member gets killed on a train, really makes them stand out compared to other violent "B" pictures of its time. There are countless slow motion shots of blood gushing out and there are even more stylish edits to show off the violence and Scorsese uses all of them to his benefit in order to come up with one of the most stylish "B" movies out there. The one thing I think was lacking from the director is a sense of keeping the film moving because I felt there were too many instances where the film dragged. Another good thing about the movie are the performances with Hershey really standing out in the title role. The innocent nature she brings the film was great fun to watch and really adds a lot to her character. Carradine isn't as good but he's still quite watchable in his role. The scene chewing John Carradine certainly leaves an impression in his fun, if over the top, performance. While there's a lot to enjoy here there's still no question that we've seen this type of film down countless times before and after. The acting and direction make it stand out but they're still working with a secondary screenplay, which keeps this from being a major winner.