6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
During the depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.
Starring: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Victor Argo, Barry Primus, John CarradineDrama | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
What immediately preceded Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, the prolific filmmaker's hard-hitting 1973 crime classic that launched the Goodfellas-driven career we know and love today? A little film called Boxcar Bertha (1971), an unlikely Depression-era romantic crime drama produced by none other than Roger Corman. It's an all but forgotten relic that most cinephiles, like me, have probably never heard of, much less seen. It wasn't exactly well received in its day, and it didn't do much to draw attention to Scorsese or show off his chops. But a select few saw something special buried within its low budget capering. Roger Ebert wrote, "Scorsese has gone for mood and atmosphere more than action, and his violence is always blunt and unpleasant, never liberating and exhilarating, as the New Violence is supposed to be. We get the feeling we're inhabiting the dark night of a soul." Ebert's intuition wasn't far off. Today it's clearer than ever what Scorsese had in him, even prior to Mean Streets. Boxcar Bertha remains a flawed, rather inelegant and derivative genre pic, but you can spot the building blocks of the man who would one day go on to give us the likes of Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The Departed (2006), just to name a scant few.
Screenshots can be a tad misleading when it comes to Boxcar Bertha's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, which is presumably identical to the transfer originally released in 2016 by Twilight Time (via a now out-of-print 3,000-copy Limited Edition Blu-ray). Paused and in still shots, the film can look quite striking. Press play, though, and you'll notice a number of issues. Grain has been preserved but is too inconsistent; sometimes harsh, sometimes soft, sometimes spiking aggressively . Black levels also occasionally swarm with faint noise or, to the opposite extreme, prove susceptible to crush. Then there's the bevy of softer shots; most likely traceable to the source elements and original photography, but minor eyesores nonetheless. None of it amounts to a full-fledged disappointment but taken together, some sequences are distracting. Fortunately, the rest of the presentation is competently restored and fairly proficient. Colors are warm and lively, contrast and saturation are dialed in reliably and handsomely, and the palette is teeming with naturally flushed cheeks, bursts of beautiful primaries, and rich earth tones that lend scenes a dust-strewn appearance which only enhances the believability of humble hand-built homes, dingy brothels, dirty train cars and other impoverished locales. Detail is pretty terrific as well, with refined edges (largely free of any artificiality or halos) and exacting fine textures, especially when it comes to faces, skin and clothing fabrics in close-up shots. Better still, I didn't detect any sign of banding, compression limitations or other anomalies. Some print damage pops up from time to time -- blame the less-than-perfect master that was utilized when creating the transfer -- but none of it amounts to anything too frequent or terrible.
Boxcar Bertha features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that works well as a restored mix from the early 1970s. Voices are intelligible and clear on the whole and prioritization doesn't allow dialogue to get lost in the violence. Vocal tone is rather thin and tinny at times (blame the original elements) but if anything it only enhances the quaint quality of the low budget film. Similarly, effects and music sound quite good, despite a few instances where the entire mix shows its age. There isn't much at all to sincerely complain about -- consider the source and its era -- and I wouldn't expect much more from a mono track than what we're given.
No significant extras are included.
If you're a student at the hallowed University of Scorsese, Boxcar Bertha will be of particular interest to you. Not because it's a great film -- it isn't -- but because so much of what Scorsese develops in the years following its release begin here. Study it to see the building blocks of his art. The dark caper itself doesn't offer much more than that. Sandpiper's Blu-ray release does, though, thanks to a strong video transfer and solid DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix. Neither is perfect but each is more than sufficient to grant Boxcar Bertha new life.
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