Get Carter

Get Carter is a rough tough no nonsense British gangster flick.

Michael Caine plays Jack Carter who seems to have been in London so long. He has lost all traces of his Geordie accent.

Carter travels back to Newcastle on the train to attend his brother Frank's supposedly accidental death. Carter is not convinced that his death was an accident and makes a few enquiries.

Carter also plans to go to South America with his mistress and asks his niece Doreen to join him there. When some henchmen arrive late at night trying to force Carter to get the next train back to London. It confirms that his brother's death was murder.

Carter's search takes him to an underworld gangster called Kinnear who seemed to have coerced Doreen to take part in a pornographic film. Carter's brother found out about it. It also leaves Carter distraught as it is alleged that he might be Doreen's real father.

Michael Caine has always said that he was never happy with the portrayal of British gangster in movies. They are shown to be stupid or funny when they are actually brutal.

He shows Jack Carter brooding with a sense of quiet menace. Almost amoral with businesslike violence and he's always ready for an opportunity for some casual sex.

Director Mike Hodges has a documentary type setting but has gone for a hard boiled detective approach as Carter investigates. The story does get complex as it deals with people plotting against each other and betrayal.

Carter's mistress is the girlfriend of his London crime boss. The movie is set in a working class part of Newcastle which itself is going through change. There is a character called Brumby who is involved in the renewal of the city.

Hodges also adds some nice lurid touches to the grittiness. When Carter telephones his mistress in London from Newcastle for some phone sex. The landlady of the boarding house rocks back and fro in her rocking chair as she listens on. There is also some humour. When Brumby suddenly disappears and the police arrive. One of the architects that Brumby had a meeting with notes that they are unlikely to be paid.

Get Carter was a movie that was always shown on television late at night usually in an edited version. It was only from the 1990s onwards it started to acquire a cult reputation. It was cited as an influence by American directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh.

An excellent noir cinema produced by Michael Caine and very well directed by Mike Hodges ; an extremely tough movie burdened by cruel murders and seedy characters , based on a novel titled 'Get Carter' by Ted Lewis from 1970 . This brutal , austere crime-thriller focuses a cheerless enforcer Jack Carter (Michael Caine) , a tough , amoral gangster who works as a killer at the town . Magnificent Michael Caine in the title role , he's a hit-man who returns home to investigate his brother's death by some mobsters . Two-fisted Jack in order to revenge his sibling , vows vengeance and spontaneously meets sleazy characters (Ian Hendry, Mosley) in the middle of sinister bands war and running afoul into underworld . When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident , London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate and meets nasty characters who may have been involved . Carter aware the murder of his brother at the hands of a "gang" opponent led by a mobster (John Osborne) . As he decides to travel his natal Newcastle to investigate who is responsible . This city in northern England is portrayed as a cool place , foggy , sordid , rainy , dirty , gray and industrial aspect . Carter starts moving in this ambient , full of sad pubs , horse races , buildings almost in ruins , piers of black water and ravaged aspect postindustrial , which had almost erased from his memory . While we see as his facade of sophisticated and elegant Londoner gentleman with exquisite manners , educated pose, and expensive costumes , begins collapsing , leaving see the lascivious, malleability and cold killer . All of this ends up in the discovery of X film involving his niece what angry Jack Carter enormously . This triggers a wave of violence that sweeps the the underworld lumpen in northern England . Carter keeps the things moving along until ending vendetta. The end of the film is like a summary of the entire story for the scenarios that uses austere bleak and cold environment.

This interesting film features thrills , raw energy ,adult subject matter with abundant nudism , lots of violence and enlivened by high-powered performances . Plenty of intrigue, atmospheric music , kinky sex ,noisy action and grisly killings until impressive finale vengeance . It is a movie very violent , depressing charismatic , magnificently set , but always strong , with a perfect abstraction of a climate of moral misery to game with the cold environment and ramshackle scenarios well photographed by cameraman Wolfgang Suschitzky . Adequate musical score by Roy Budd with a rare mixture , the dark psychedelia of the movement "Northen Soul" , so fashionable in the proletarian clubs from the north of England of the 70s .

This British 1971 film "GET CARTER¨ is an original movie and is far superior subsequent 1972 remake , a Black Gangster version titled ¨The hit-man¨, a Blaxploitiation movie regularly directed by George Armitage with Bernie Casie , Pam Grier , Roger E Mosley and Paul Gleason . And remade again (2000) by Stephen Kay , in which Las Vegas avenger goes home to Seattle to learn his brother's death , starred by Silvester Stallone in the title role , Miranda Richardson , Alan Cummings , Mickey Rourke and again Michael Caine at a special appearance .

This film has a stunning Michael Caine play cold-blooded gangster Jack Carter on a quest for vengeance. Carter never wavers, he never strays from his path, he is like a surgical instrument that cuts down everything in his way with clinical precision without passion or mercy. If the Terminator were a human character, he would be Carter. Alfred he is not (hint: that's a Batman reference) . One of the best British crime flicks ever. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Michael Caine stars in "Get Carter," a 1971 film co-produced by Caine, who was sick of the parts he was getting. Well, the role of Carter is certainly a terrific part. Ian Hendry and John Osborne also star.

Carter, a London gangster, returns to his home town of Newcastle for his brother's funeral. When he is offered a ticket out of town, his suspicion about his brother's death grows stronger. His investigation leads him to a pornography ring and lots of bad guys.

There's lots of violence in this film as Carter dispenses with anyone who's in his way without even blinking. He's mean as they come. Caine is fantastic, and he's surrounded by effective evil-doers.

There's nudity, too, as well as phone sex. If you like this type of gangster movie, you'll love this. Well-directed by Mike Hodges.

London criminal Michael Caine returns to Newcastle for his straight-arrow brother's funeral. The police say he got drunk and killed himself in a driving accident, but little bits don't add up. Caine pokes around Newcastle's dirtier side and becomes convinced it was a murder. But who and why?

It's a thoroughly unlikable movie, from Caine's seething performance through Wolfgang Suchitsky's overcast Technicolor lighting through the apathetic and evil people who inhabit the movie's world. At the same time, this neo-noir take on the Elizabethan Revenge drama is a brilliant exposition on the dark side. There's no one to admire here, no dark humor. The people in charge are not misfits. John Osborne, as a local crook, isn't a man oppressed by his environment, searching for a meaning that isn't there. He's a smart man who has judged his society accurately and coldly applied its rules to his own profit.

Caine's self-loathing rage is likewise efficiently applied. The police won't come and save anyone, they won't avenge anyone, they won't restore order by finding the bad guys. They are almost unseen, a howling car showing up too late, unable to stop or even notice Caine's spree. There is no justice, just revenge, and application of the rule that mad dogs must be put down.