Martin Scorsese's second feature was a cheapie exploitation flick for Roger Corman, but it's still marked by some layered performances and ambitious camera work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 14, 2024

You can see the fingerprints of the director that Scorsese would quickly become. His specific attention to detail, his knack for immersing the audience into his well-drawn setting, his fluid use of the camera – it’s all on display.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 18, 2024

Barbara Hershey is a refreshing presence as a woman hopping the rails in Depression-era America.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 24, 2022

Though not always successful, the film does maintain a crudely compelling lifeforce, helped in no small way by the talented leads.

| Jan 7, 2020

Boxcar Bertha is filled with recognizably Scorsese touches.

| Nov 2, 2019

[Martin] Scorsese was anxious to show his chops on a real Hollywood feature and does so admirably (if impersonally) with rough-and-ready style on a mix of true story and exploitation drama.

| Jan 13, 2017

Lots of violence, typical of the Corman exploitation mill, but the film still shows the budding talent of Scorsese in his use of moving-camera and period detail.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 31, 2008

The Roger Corman production, shot on an austere budget in Arkansas area, is routinely directed by Martin Scorsese.

| Mar 31, 2008

Scorsese's second film is one of his weakest, a violent impersonal work that feels like an extension of such rural crime-gangsters features as the exploitation flick Bloody Mama or the arty and better one Bonnie and Clyde.

| Original Score: C | Feb 22, 2008

Part exploitation movie, part visionary cinema, Boxcar Bertha is caught somewhere in between both.

| Jul 29, 2006

Scorsese hadn't developed a personal vision yet, but a few moments during the heat of battle reveal a lively, playful camera. Not to mention the on-target performances by Hershey and her co-stars David Carradine, Barry Primus and Bernie Casey.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 22, 2005

While there is a striking similarity [to Bonnie and Clyde] in general content, background, fine color photography and even the use of hillbilly music, the new, more modest film stands curiously on its own.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 9, 2005

...an often interminable experience.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 18, 2005

Although a Martin Scorsese retrospective could easily survive its absence, Boxcar Bertha is a cornerstone of the director's filmography

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 6, 2005

Scorsese at his most droll and uninspired.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 3, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2004

Scorsese remains one of the bright young hopes of American movies.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Early Scorcese starring hippie Hershey; earthy

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2004

For exploitation-enthusiasts and Scorsese completists only.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2004