Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A Masterpiece!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

'Bloody Mama' is low budgeted gangster film directed by Roger Corman. It is a gritty B-movie loosely based on real life Ma Barker who ran The Barker Gang. Not the best gangster flick out there but interesting enough in its heavy exploitation sauce to give it a curious look. The film doesn't idolize the gangster lifestyle but rather showing them merciless sociopaths these kind of people actually were. Corman turns on another twist of sleaze with Ma Barker's incestuous relationship with her sons. Shelly Winters' larger-than-life performance as corruptive and disillusioned Ma Barker in the verge of insanity is just magnificent. Although the performance goes on the edge of hammy, but it is powerful play and undoubtedly entertaining. And one can't go without mentioning the immensely talented supporting cast with strong acting works - Bruce Dern, Pat Hingle, Diane Varsi, Scatman Crothers and Robert DeNiro in one his earliest roles as junky Lloyd Barker.Fast paced, energetic action ride about machine-gun toting mom who robs banks with her sons and speeding past depression era's '70s style supermarkets. Nice piece of enjoyable trash, and it is one of the Corman's personal favorites.

No doubt inspired by the huge success of the big budget major Hollywood studio movie "Bonnie & Clyde", American-International Pictures teamed up with producer/director Roger Corman to make this story of Ma Barker and her sons. But the results are sort of disappointing. I feel I should point out that I didn't find the movie to be awful - the movie is never boring, the production values are okay, the cast (not just Winters but also the future stars) give good performances, and there are some trashy touches that are fun. However, the script should have had a lot more work before filming started. We don't really see what motivates not only the character of Ma Barker, but her loyal sons (who are pretty interchangeable for the most part.) Also, the first half of the movie has some pretty sloppy storytelling, being one vignette after another with no firm story being told. And in the end, the movie can't decide whether it is a serious look at the Barker gang or a trashy drive-in viewpoint.As I said, the movie is not terrible, but it doesn't really work at whatever angle you want to regard it as. It's probably best suited for viewing when you're in a real undemanding mood.

This film is Roger Corman and Sam Arkoff's answer to "Bonnie and Clyde". But not only did they take the theme of Depression-era gangsters, they also borrowed the idea of completely eradicating the facts. I would be hard-pressed to name one thing in this film that was based a real event.That being said, it has some historical merit. Shelley Winters gives a good performance, and has said she was proud of the film (which she oddly enough promoted as a film denouncing violence, despite its clearly violent nature). She even allegedly took a punch to the face, resulting in a nose injury bad enough to get X-rays.Bruce Dern and Robert DeNiro give some of the earliest performances of their careers, and any DeNiro fan who has not seen him in this is really missing out on his humble beginnings. These days, he is past his prime, making cheesy comedies. But have you seen him before his prime?Perhaps most interesting, this was the big-screen debut of cinematographer John A. Alonzo. While he may not be well-known, he did go on to film "Harold and Maude", "Chinatown" and "Scarface" and snagged an Oscar nomination. Not bad for a graduate of the Corman School.

Roger Corman, who specialized in low budget films show an ambitious side in directing "Bloody Mama" a sort of loosely based biographic picture about the criminal family that terrorized rural America during the Great Depression. Mr. Corman evidently took liberties in telling the story, the way he presents it, more as an entertainment than a factual account of the Barkers.Ma Barker, a hillbilly from the backwoods is tired of living in poverty. Her four sons clearly adored her because otherwise it would make no sense of following the old lady into a crime spree unlike the ones the country had seen up to then. The four sons, Herman, a trigger happy individual, Arthur, the quiet one, LLoyd, the junkie and Fred, an openly gay man, way ahead of the times he was living. Herman brought along his girlfriend Mona, and Fred, his lover, Kevin Dirkman, who is one is to believe the material, also serviced a horny Ma Barker.The director achieved a coup just in the mere casting of the film. Shelley Winters, who played Ma Barker, made a terrific contribution to our enjoyment. Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden and a young Robert Deniro are seen as the four sons. Diane Varsi and Bruce Dern are the two of the people the family attracted.