Bloody Mama (1970) Review

"You just rob banks and stay out of trouble."

-Kate "Ma" Barker

After a troubled childhood, Kate "Ma" Barker (Shelley Winters) has grown up to be an extremely dangerous person, but a loving mother.  After her boys are forced to flee their home after raping a woman, Kate and her sons form a violent gang and start taking money and lives across the country.  As the law closes in and the tension rises, will Kate's sons stay in line or will she have to put them in their place?

What Works:

I went into this film knowing nothing about it besides that it was directed by Roger Corman, who is known for making extremely low budget films and that is the case here.  I was really impressed with what Corman was able to do with his budget and we get an exciting and engaging film in the end.  This all goes to show that you can make a good film without a big budget.

Shelley Winters is really incredible in the lead role.  She even manages to outshine Robert De Niro who plays one of her sons.  She has a great screen presence and manages to be the most frightening character in a film full of dangerous people.  Her best moment is in the climax with everything crashing down around her.  Her despair and eventually snap from reality is fascinating to watch.  

The rest of the cast does a good job as well.  These are all dangerous people and every scene with them has some tension.  You never know when somebody is going to snap and do something crazy.  It definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.

We get two car chases in the film and both of them are really well done and a lot of fun.  One involves a pregnant woman leaning out the window of a car and duel-wielding pistols.  What more could you ask for?  The other is even better.  The Barker family forces four hostages to hold onto the side of their car as they race away from the cops.  They were hoping the human shields would deter the police from shooting at them, but that didn't work out.  It's a bizarre and hilarious sequence and, again, really impressive stuff for such a low budget film.

There are also some really dark, but funny moments.  They are few and far between, but they work better because of that.  They caught me off-guard and got some genuine laughs out of me.

Finally, facing the end, one of Kate's sons shoots himself instead of getting taken by the police.  This movie doesn't have much gore in it, but we get one shot of a head exploding and it's glorious.

What Sucks:

The overall narrative of the film isn't very strong.  It mostly feels like a series of vignettes, which is fine, but they aren't really connected by an overarching story.  There should have been more of an overall story between some of the Barker's at the very least.

Verdict:

Bloody Mama caught me off-guard.  It's really impressive for such a low budget film; it has a head explosion, solid car choices, and excellent performances, particularly from Shelley Winters.  The overall narrative isn't great, but the movie is entertaining and exciting nonetheless and it certainly has got it going on.

 9/10: Great