Get Carter [1971] [DVD]

 

 

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Among English movies, 1971's "Get Carter" is always cited as near the top noir/gangster/crime movies ever made. It was based on Ted Lewis's ferocious book Jack's Return Home, which I understand was based on a true crime; was adapted for the screen and directed by the British Mike Hodges, who's got a gift for this kind of thing. The British best people the cast: Michael Caine in his prime, as Carter; backed by Terence Rigby, George Sewell, Bernard Hepton, Alun Armstrong, and Ian Hendry. Britt Ekland (Mrs. Peter Sellers to you) played the love interest. And well-known English playwright John Osborne plays Kinnear, an important supporting role.

The movie opens as Carter, enforcer/hit man for a London mob, who's carrying on with his boss's girlfriend (Ekland) learns his brother has died back home in Newcastle in circumstances Carter deems suspicious. Against the wishes of his boss (Rigby), he decides to head north to investigate. He travels upcountry on a very smoky train reading the American hard-boiled author Raymond Chandler's "Farewell My Lovely" as he goes. Once home, nothing and no one will dissuade him from finding the truth -- fast and furiously -- and then taking a very bloody revenge on all concerned.

"Get Carter" packs a lot in its less than two-hour length. It preserves, more accurately than any other movie known to me, a snapshot of the sour swinging England of the 70's. And it makes inspired use of the aging industrial city Newcastle. The rusted chimneys against the sky, the graffiti, the miles of streets lined with traditional 2-up, 2-down cottages, the tear-down-candidate pubs and betting parlors with primitive toilets out back. Add the constant overcast sky/rain; the grey menacing northern sea. The little touches are also important: a knitted purple tea cosy, and a chamber pot under the bed at the boarding house where Carter stays. The clumsy provincial kids at a dance hall. And then there's the just right jazz score.

But it's Caine's movie, of course, and the theory goes that gangster pictures depend totally on the power and energy of their stars: consider James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, George Raft. Caine almost shoots sparks as a sexual predator in his phone sex scene: he achieves a double seduction; Ekland on the phone, his landlady in the room with him. His feral smile at a pub cat fight, and at the end of the picture, as he moves to avenge his brother's death, is bone-chilling. Yet he's able to cry at an important-to-the-plot porn movie.

As an actor, Caine, who was born a London cockney, has played gangsters as coldly menacing as they come, and maybe we're lucky he's strictly an actor. One of the smaller gangster roles here, Sid Fletcher, is played by a man called John Bindon, who was, in fact, a London gangster. British director Ken Loach first used Bindon to play a London villain in his now little-seen Poor Cow [DVD] [1967](1967). Bindon went on to work in a number of movies and TV shows, always playing a villain, until he decided working as the real thing paid better. After Bindon took part in a bloody Soho shootout, not even his British duchess girlfriend could save him. He died as a guest of Her Majesty: of AIDS in a none-too lovely jail cell. But Sir Michael Caine is still very much with us, no longer a pretty boy, to be sure; but he still adds something to every picture he makes.

GET CARTER is probably Mike Hodges' masterpiece. It is certainly Britain's gangster-film masterpiece ... complete with unacceptable-in-America ending. THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY and LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS may arguably come close to emulating GET CARTER's success and cult status, but do not equal it. Cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky could have shot the film in black & white with no discernable change of mood or visual nuances: it is set amidst the bleak, industrial decay of early-70s Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The closing slag-heap scenes are in daylight, but the overcast, lowering sky drowns out all colour. Even the signature-tune is plaintively minimalist.

The plot features nasty villains, principal among whom is 'the hero,' surly London gangland racketeer and troubleshooter Jack Carter (Michael Caine at his most impassively impressive, in perhaps his best-ever rôle) who is only slightly more self-righteous than the Geordie 'rural Mafia' he out-villains whilst unravelling the complex web of cover-ups, bribes, double-crosses and sudden violence to determine which villain(s) in particular he will wreak 'orrific vengeance upon for A] them wot done 'is bruvver in, and also later on B] for involving his niece in a blue-film racket. On the train 'oop north' Carter reads Raymond Chandler's FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, but he lacks entirely any of Philip Marlowe's scruples and morals. Carter screws the bird but doesn't bat an eyelid when the car - with her in the boot - is pushed into the river, nor does he flinch a facial muscle when discovering that his sole ally (Alun Armstrong) has been brutally given the once-over.

Today's porn industry enjoys a semi-glossy veneer of stylishness with most of the porn 'stars' being in control of their careers, but back in the heady days of the early-1970s 'blue movies' were exploitationist, gritty, sleazy and dirty, complete with poor-quality film and the absence of sound. GET CARTER's ending is unexpected (the only similarly-unexpected ending I can think of is Sergio Corbucci's IL GRANDE SILENZIO [1969]), and yet fitting for the film's ongoing theme of bleakness and pessimism. Including the final fade-out.

The film features neat cameos by Ian Hendry (as Eric Paice, the scheming chauffeur with the I-am-a-baddy shades) and noted playwright John Osborne (as the menacing Cyril Kinnear). Memorable is Carter's somewhat unpleasant 'seduction-to-telephone' of moll Britt Ekland back in London whilst observing his Newcastle landlady rocking in her chair barely containing her surging hormones ... until Ekland's oafish 'owner' enters the room and cannot imagine what she is doing unclad, "You got gut-ache or something ...?"

Steven Soderbergh's "requiem for the hard man" THE LIMEY (1999) may look like a 1990s version of GET CARTER: just released from Her Majesty's pleasure, well-'ard Terence Stamp goes out to Los Angeles to find out why and by who's hand his daughter was done-in. The Chandleresque dialogue includes a high London slang content and Stamp knocks the opposition about with machine-gun resonance, but there the similarities end ...

Hollywood made a 'GET CARTER 2000' ... HOW DARE THEY ...!!!

Get Carter is a 1971 britisg gangster movie that all others must compare too but few can claim to be as stylish,as reflective of the area it is based in at the time,to have such great quotes,to have such a soundtrack and of course be as influential,Get Carter is all that wrapped in a bloody bow.
Michael Caine plays Jack Carter who is a mobster working in london who is from the north of england,newcastle to be precise who heads home to attend his brothers funeral and although his brother is alledged to have died by accident Jack isnt convinced and sets about opening doors to the truth and at whatever cost.
Carters revenge is brutal and swift and in the end must be considered one of the coolest gangsters ever portrayed on the big screen,such is his ability to just do what he does and do it brilliantly is acting at its finest.
The film didnt go down well upon initial release i believe but total film regards it as the greatest british movie in any genre and thats high praise indeed,dont watch the remake with stallone,watch this.

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5.0 out of 5 stars DVD 'Get Carter' , starring Michael Caine.
Best, classic British gangster movie; solid,gritty plot, almost 'documentary-style'. Forget Caine's lightweight 'Italian Job', buy this one. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Brian Stokes

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice DvD for your collection.
Get Carter is a very good British crime/revenge film. It's a very realistic and unapologetic look at one mans self-destructive violent rampage against British mob. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Janis Livens

4.0 out of 5 stars "Caine is Carter"
Despite this film being pretty violent, I have to admit that it is Michael Caine at his best.

Caine simply plays a London Villain by the name of Jack Carter, who is... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mr. Alan M. Foster

5.0 out of 5 stars My kind of film
My all time favourite 'Geordie' based film, never get tired of watching it Mr. Caine at his very best - they don't make them like this anymore! such a shame.

Published 6 months ago by P. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
One of the best movies of all time in my opinion! Caine gives of a dark brooding menace throughout this film, probably one of his best performances. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mr. P. Dawson

5.0 out of 5 stars A collector's item!
When I first saw this film, it was before colour TV was widely available in Britain. The black and white version was like film noir; grainy, atmospheric and menacing. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Ian Hunter

3.0 out of 5 stars this film deserves a better DVD!
This is a very poor quality DVD for what is widely considered to be one of the greatest British films ever made. Read more

Published 9 months ago by RG Parish

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic gangster movie!
I highly reccomend this film to people, its very grim and realistic in parts but keeps you gripped throughout. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Pablo80

5.0 out of 5 stars This is how gangster movies should be made....
Michael Cain is unforgettable as Jack Carter, a London based villain who returns home for his brothers' funeral in Newcastle and unravels the dubious circumstances behind his... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Ctwilliams

5.0 out of 5 stars Iconic
From the music the cast the story the setting comes one of the best films ever made. A masterpiece which speaks for iself.

Published 13 months ago by Andrew W. Buckley

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