Looking only ounces lighter than after her alleged 40 pound weight gain a year or so later for "The Poseidon Adventure", Winters portrays the title character, an outlaw mom based far more on legend than fact. The real "Ma" Barker was reportedly just a rather dense hillbilly who, though she loved, covered for and fostered her criminal sons, was not in any way a mastermind or the instigator as she is shown here. (One theory has her reputation created AFTER she was gunned down to lessen the stigma of the FBI blowing holes in little old ladies.) Winters plays her as a scornful, driven woman who will do virtually anything to escape her run-down, pitiful existence. She runs roughshod over her brood of four sons, slapping them when they sass her and taking them to bed with her in turns! Stroud plays the ringleader of them and suffers the most neuroses and inner turmoil. De Niro escapes from his existence through drugs of any kind. Kimbrough is the least developed (and least famous actor) of the four, but comes off as the sensitive one. Walden does time in jail and winds up as a sexual partner to equally criminal-minded Dern. This quintet, along with Stroud's hooker/girlfriend Varsi, rides across the Midwest holding up banks, kidnapping rich men and just generally causing mayhem anywhere they go. Though certain scenes and certain images linger in the memory (Winters scrubbing her grown boys in a washtub, afro-haired Varsi trotting around topless, De Niro tripping out on glue and dope, Winters packing a machine gun and playing Simon Says with it....) the film remains a fairly disjointed, sloppily constructed affair. It isn't terrible, but it falls short of excellence. The script doesn't seem focused enough and the editing is sometimes rocky. Stroud gives a very intense and thoughtful performance.
Winters is way, way over the top (and her hair color varies wildly throughout the film at inappropriate times.) She indulges herself in some extreme Method acting which isn't always pretty to watch, though she does catch one's attention. Seeing her sometimes similar mannerisms and vocal mumblings in this film casts a slight pall over her better received work in "Poseidon". It's so jarring to see De Niro in such a minor part (not to mention seeing him alongside some of these costars!) that it's sometimes a distraction. Varsi has to have earned a place as one of the all-time career slides. ALLISON MACKENZIE! Then here she is blankly wandering around with awkward tan lines and her nipples at full attention, looking basically out of her head. (She purportedly didn't give a hoot about film stardom, career, et al and it shows!) Dern does a great job. His initial scene, in which it becomes clear that he has more in mind for Walden than just a bunkmate, is delicious. The decent parts just don't add up to a cohesive, enjoyable whole. However, the curiosity factor of seeing that cast together (and doing what they're doing!) calls for at least one viewing. Incidentally, the paperback novelization of the screenplay is quite possibly one of the most vulgar and shocking tomes ever to come out as a movie tie-in!
Winters is way, way over the top (and her hair color varies wildly throughout the film at inappropriate times.) She indulges herself in some extreme Method acting which isn't always pretty to watch, though she does catch one's attention. Seeing her sometimes similar mannerisms and vocal mumblings in this film casts a slight pall over her better received work in "Poseidon". It's so jarring to see De Niro in such a minor part (not to mention seeing him alongside some of these costars!) that it's sometimes a distraction. Varsi has to have earned a place as one of the all-time career slides. ALLISON MACKENZIE! Then here she is blankly wandering around with awkward tan lines and her nipples at full attention, looking basically out of her head. (She purportedly didn't give a hoot about film stardom, career, et al and it shows!) Dern does a great job. His initial scene, in which it becomes clear that he has more in mind for Walden than just a bunkmate, is delicious. The decent parts just don't add up to a cohesive, enjoyable whole. However, the curiosity factor of seeing that cast together (and doing what they're doing!) calls for at least one viewing. Incidentally, the paperback novelization of the screenplay is quite possibly one of the most vulgar and shocking tomes ever to come out as a movie tie-in!