Get Carter (1971)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Mike Hodges

Writers:

Mike Hodges (screenplay)
Ted Lewis (novel)

Release Date:

18 March 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

What happens when a professional killer violates the code? Get Carter!

Plot:

When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Car Race | England | Nudity | Neo Noir

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Jack Carter
Ian Hendry	...	Eric
Britt Ekland	...	Anna
John Osborne	...	Kinnear
Tony Beckley	...	Peter
George Sewell	...	Con
Geraldine Moffat	...	Glenda (as Geraldine Moffatt)
Dorothy White	...	Margaret
Rosemarie Dunham	...	Edna
Petra Markham	...	Doreen
Alun Armstrong	...	Keith
Bryan Mosley	...	Brumby
Glynn Edwards	...	Albert
Bernard Hepton	...	Thorpe
Terence Rigby	...	Gerald Fletcher

Runtime:

112 min | West Germany:103 min (cut version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | West Germany:18 (nf) | Australia:M | Canada:14A (video rating) | Finland:K-18 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (cut) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | Ireland:(Banned) (original rating) | Ireland:18 (re-rating) | UK:X (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Trivia:

There are two sound tracks for the US and UK releases of the film. At the start of the movie, Carter is with some Cockney gangsters watching a porn film. The voices of the Cockney gangsters were re-dubbed for the US market as the US distributor believed the accents would be too heavy for the American audience to understand.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene when Jack Carter goes into the cafe and asks Geraldine "Where's Albert", you can see the rear end of Kinnear's big blue Cadillac car parked in the street outside.

Quotes:

Jack Carter: Frank wasn't like that. I'm the villain in the family, remember?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Take a Look at the Lawman: The Making of 'Life on Mars' (2006) (V)

A Masterpiece of Grittiness

This is one of Caine's best roles and undoubtedly one of the greatest gangster/crime films ever made. It is unrelentingly harsh, gritty, and bleak in showing the nasty world of Carter.

Few characters are truly likable or admirable and most have a mix of good and bad. This applies to Carter himself and even the bystanders or victims. Everyone is portrayed as flawed somehow, even those who are tragic. This is one of many aspects that adds to the realism of this film.

This grittiness is true not only of the world of crime, but the entire world of the early post-industrial Northern England, once at the forefront of the industrial revolution but by then a depressed backwater that had yet to feel the true benefits of recent social and economic changes. It thus provides some subtle social commentary as well, although one may easily miss it.

In addition to its raw grittiness, the film is also very intense. There is a building tension throughout, and a palpable that things are not right. At the same time, the events, in particular the action and violence are rather slow but relentless.

In fact, the way the film presents the violence and action is one of the keys to its greatness. It is an unusual, fascinating, and very powerful depiction. There isn't gore or even lots of blood or the like and, like the rest of the film, it generally progresses slowly and calmly. It's not exhilarating or glamorous, but instead deliberate, relentless, and, above all, cold. The coldness of the violence and how Carter in particular, but others as well, kill and hurt in an unfeeling, perfunctory manner makes it seem all the more harsh.

Another interesting aspect of the film is the juxtaposition of the idea that someone can force or change events around him against the feeling that one can merely react to events beyond his control. Both of these themes seem to clash in Carter and his actions, for one of these themes may at times appear to be what's happening, yet in the end it seems that the other exerts its dominance.

Ultimately, this is superb, extremely gritty, and powerful drama. It contains action and violence, but it is not an action film and most expecting a non-stop action film, with flashy fighting, "getting the bad guys," etc. may well be bored.