I watched GET CARTER again this week, exactly 40 years since it debuted in British cinemas. Initially neglected at the time – it received a single BAFTA nomination (Ian Hendry as Supporting Actor which he didn't win) – nowadays it makes legitimate claim to be one of the all-time great British movies. Its influence is still felt in British drama: on the DVD of the BBC's LIFE ON MARS, they cite GET CARTER as one of the influences for the look and tone of the series and the 1974 segment of RED RIDING owes everything to CARTER.
Written and directed by Mike Hodges, the film centres on Carter (Michael Caine), a London gangster who – against his employer's wishes – travels home to North East England in order to get to the bottom of his brother's sudden death. Everything is linked to the local chief criminal Kinnear (playwright and screenwriter John Osborne), a porn film in which Carter's niece has been coerced to appear and assorted villains determined to stand in Carter's way. There isn't a dull or wasted scene in the entire movie. It's not just a gangster revenge thriller – it's a film of details and social observations of working class and criminal life from the early 1970s. The details of the long train journey up North which accompany the opening credits. The details of life in the bleak and drab Newcastle of 1971 which the affluence of the Swinging sixties has passed by. It's a film in which everyone is either a villain or victim. These characters have little sense of life beyond their limited horizons. Carter is getting out of it all – he's about to flee to South America with his boss's mistress.
It's social realism at its most piercing. Check out the scene in which the hitherto hard as nails Carter sees his niece being abused in a porn film and he starts crying - one of Caine's most memorable and harrowing screen moments. And the final moment on a grey desolate beach early on a Sunday morning under a leaden sky, Carter casting his shotgun into the sea having killed all of the people linked to his brother's death – only to be shot dead by a sniper. This is is a film full of unforgettable moments too numerous to mention here. Superb is every way.
Written and directed by Mike Hodges, the film centres on Carter (Michael Caine), a London gangster who – against his employer's wishes – travels home to North East England in order to get to the bottom of his brother's sudden death. Everything is linked to the local chief criminal Kinnear (playwright and screenwriter John Osborne), a porn film in which Carter's niece has been coerced to appear and assorted villains determined to stand in Carter's way. There isn't a dull or wasted scene in the entire movie. It's not just a gangster revenge thriller – it's a film of details and social observations of working class and criminal life from the early 1970s. The details of the long train journey up North which accompany the opening credits. The details of life in the bleak and drab Newcastle of 1971 which the affluence of the Swinging sixties has passed by. It's a film in which everyone is either a villain or victim. These characters have little sense of life beyond their limited horizons. Carter is getting out of it all – he's about to flee to South America with his boss's mistress.
It's social realism at its most piercing. Check out the scene in which the hitherto hard as nails Carter sees his niece being abused in a porn film and he starts crying - one of Caine's most memorable and harrowing screen moments. And the final moment on a grey desolate beach early on a Sunday morning under a leaden sky, Carter casting his shotgun into the sea having killed all of the people linked to his brother's death – only to be shot dead by a sniper. This is is a film full of unforgettable moments too numerous to mention here. Superb is every way.