A powerful and defining moment in Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha (1972) is the film’s climactic scene where Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine) is crucified on the side of a moving train. This symbolic act of martyrdom not only underscores the film’s themes of sacrifice and resistance against oppressive systems but also foreshadows Scorsese’s later exploration of religious imagery and martyrdom in his work, particularly in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). | History of Cinema