"According to Scorsese, Cassavetes' insistence that he leave drive-in fare behind in favor of something more personal led the young filmmaker to write what would ultimately become "Mean Streets" instead of taking another job for Corman, directing the blaxploitation movie "I Escaped from Devil's Island.""
""Mean Streets," of course, established Scorsese as one of the great New Hollywood filmmakers alongside Francis Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich (both of whom, like Scorsese, got their big breaks from Roger Corman) and began a career that would yield at least a dozen of the greatest American movies ever made."
"The fact is that "Boxcar Bertha" is not only not a "piece of shit," and not merely a better-than-average drive-in movie that transcends its low-budget origins, but a legitimately great film that needs no apology or qualification."
Martin Scorsese's 1972 exploitation film Boxcar Bertha has long been overshadowed by the origin story of his artistic breakthrough. According to Scorsese, mentor John Cassavetes criticized the film as a waste of time, prompting Scorsese to pursue more personal projects like Mean Streets instead. This pivotal moment launched Scorsese's legendary career alongside other New Hollywood filmmakers. However, Boxcar Bertha deserves reconsideration as a legitimately great film in its own right, not merely an apprentice work. The film contains thematic seeds that would develop in later Scorsese masterpieces, demonstrating its artistic merit beyond its historical significance as a catalyst for his career transformation.
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