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.

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

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A little bit impressive, a little bit important because of its director and his subsequent works, "Boxcar Bertha" isn't much as good as it could be due to the forces of circumstances where director Martin Scorsese was simply making a film to Roger Corman, and not being an important part of the process by contributing as an author. If Marty was the author, the creative genius in the writing of this, it might had become an better project than it is. It's importance now lies that this is the movie that leads to the authorial and brilliant "Mean Streets" and the rest is history, and a great one. It goes to show the learning process Mr. Scorsese had to go through to finally make his mark in film history.It stars Barbara Hershey as the title role, a female train robber who joins the union leader Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine) on continuous crimes robbing trains seeking to fight against corrupt railroad establishment. The movie is loosely based on the book "Sister of the Road" a fictionalized account on Bertha Thompson written by Ben L. Reitman. Ordinarily fun like most exploitation films of the 1970's tended to be, "Boxcar Bertha" was a way of Scorsese learning how to film faster and economically. He goes far though. He was already displaying plenty of talent in orchestrating scenes, filming violent moments with a quite impeccable precision. Some of the scenes seem very dated but they can impress a little today (the final shootout was incredibly edited). And there's time to enjoy the fine performances of Hershey, Carradine and Barry Primus.Don't make mistakes, this is no "Goodfellas" or "Taxi Driver". Those are deeper in everything, quality materials and very reflexive. "Boxcar Bertha" doesn't go for the politics, the denounce of social issues (when it could be). Instead, we have an exploitation film with all of its natural characteristics: cheap productions with loads of sex and violence and rebel criminals fighting each other. It's quite hollow, weary if compared to other Scorsese's productions, and such comparisons are quite pointless but whatever. If let alone it can be considered a good movie. And it is a good one. 6/10

To be fair, Scorsese always had a great eye for found images and can compose a good looking shot out of anything, but nevertheless this early, quickly and cheaply shot Bonnie and Clyde wannabe shows so little of the usual dizzying visual flair of later Scorsese projects that it might well have been shot by anybody without losing much. And without Scorsese's name on the thing, this picture would be of little interest now.The rambling, unconnected events of the story jog along so much like a freight car on the rails, meandering from place to place, with random encounters, random crimes and random violence resulting, that it has to be a by-design extended metaphor for life on the road during the Depression. Hopelessness breeds lawlessness is the message here, as it was in Bonnie and Clyde, with crime being the only way an individual could assert himself on the grim world around. It's not a very pretty idea, and since the script generates too little character interest and makes too few interesting observations about its period and surroundings to make one ponder for very long on the ills of the world Bertha inhabits and why she fell into a life of crime. The world is grim and hard, but nothing here is so compelling that the viewer is forced to really confront his view of the setting, the way one does with Hard Times, for example. Above all else, this movie lacks the slick production values, zippy pace and sense of adventure of Bonnie and Clyde, making it occasionally a chore to sit through. This is an exploitation picture that fails to entertain as such, but also fails to engage the viewer as a character or period piece, or as a morality play. Other than trying to make a quick buck off Bonnie and Clyde's lingering goodwill, there was really not much reason to make this picture and little reason to watch it.Basically it is what it is, an early paycheck for both Scorsese and Hershey and an okay if quickly forgettable ramble through the Midwest on Depression freight cars. There are worse ways to spend time, but there are a lot of much better movies made about this period, not to mention by this director.

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.