This is an amazing film for 1970, and a good film to watch by itself today. A true gangster story, with no romantics at all. Evil people do evil things, they just do them because they are stupid and degenerated. No social comment is being made, and this is actually the best decision the script writer and the director could make. Only a completly social careless society can let such people 'enjoy the freedom', with the execution squad being the only 'educational tool' it knows. The viewer gets it by itself. The mix of documentary with the true story is discrete and smart. I liked the movie, and gave it 8/10 on my personal scale.

Kate 'Ma' Barker (Shelley Winters) was abused by her family when she was young. She vows to have boys who only supports her. It's 1925. While the Klan is marching in Washington, she and her four boys are raising hell in the rural south. It's rapes, incest, murders, and robbing over the years. They kidnap Sam Adams Pendlebury (Pat Hingle).

This has newcomer Robert De Niro and veteran actors like Shelley Winters. This may be a small budget affair from Roger Corman but the production value looks good. At the very least, the actors are big time doing good work. The subject matter is pushing the envelope. Other than killing Rembrandt, most of the more disturbing stuff happens off screen especially the rapes and incest. There is a big gun fight at the end. These characters have no redeeming value. They have no rooting interest. I wouldn't say that it's fun but it is a matter of fascination. This is a series of bad acts until the shock of them wears out and it's left with a grim march into the woods. The final shootout does have a feel of an exhibition. I'm like one of those picnickers. The problem may be that the dying is done poorly other than shooting yourself in the face. Some better gore would also help. The obvious comparison is Bonnie and Clyde. It definitely has some similarities but not the incest.

Though Bloody Mama has very little to do with Ma Barker and the four fine strapping sons she raised, the film provides Shelley Winters with a role she can overact to her heart's content and no one would notice this side of a slasher flick. It's part that I wish Shelley had done in a more factual retelling of the Barker saga.

She gave her four sons played by Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden, and Robert DeNiro the lack of character and amoral view of life that led them to become criminals, she herself simply went along for the ride on their criminal enterprises. She was far from the mastermind that Shelley Winters is shown to be.

This was one of Robert DeNiro's first parts where he was noticed. You can see traces of later redneck characters that he did in films like This Boy's Life and Cape Fear in his portrayal of Lloyd Barker, the youngest Barker sibling. By the way Lloyd in real life did not end up the way he's shown in the film.

Other parts of significance are Bruce Dern as a character modeled on Alvin 'Creepy' Karpis who was part of the Barker story, but is not mentioned at all here. Another is Pat Hingle playing a kidnap victim of the gang's and a third is Diane Varsi who marries one of the Barker sons.

Roger Corman who produced and directed Bloody Mama gave Shelley Winters a great part and she ran with it. Even though the film is far from the truth about the Barkers, it does show the values those boys had and where they got them.