This is unlike most other Scorsese films. It is the only one
to feature a woman in the central role and one of only a handful set outside of
the East Coast. As a result it feels amongst the least Scorsese-esque of his
films. The direction is fairly straightforward. There are no trademark long
tracking shots, very little popular music and cutting is slow and traditional.
One area in which Scorsese does stick to type is with Bertha’s moral ambiguity.
At the beginning she is a sweet young girl but towards the end she is a woman
who will do anything it takes to survive and appears to enjoy the wilder side
of life. The film also contains Scorsese’s trademark violence, especially in an
unexpectedly brutal final scene.
Showing posts with label Boxcar Bertha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boxcar Bertha. Show all posts
Saturday 5 May 2012
Boxcar Bertha
Martin Scorsese’s second picture and the second in my Scorsese in Sequence feature is Boxcar Bertha. Bertha Thompson (Barbara
Hershey) is a young woman whose father dies in an aircraft accident. With no
money and no home she travels around the Depression hit South aboard railway
boxcars. Along the way she meets ‘Big’ Bill Shelly (David Carradine), a Union
Man and suspected Communist. The two of them begin a relationship and along
with Yankee, Rake Brown (Barry Primus) and ‘negro’, Von Morton (Bernie Casey)
take to robbing trains as a means of surviving.
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