After his brother dies, London gangster Jack Carter (Michael Caine) returns home to Newcastle to solve the mystery - no matter what it takes.
Get Carter is one of those movies that I have heard so much about that I never bothered to watch it until now. The one element I was familiar with was Roy Budd’s jazzy theme.
What a chilly, uncompromising vision.
It is easy to see why it had so many pretenders - and what those pretenders miss about Mike Hodge’s masterpiece.
I do not use that word lightly - this movie is one.
I do not think I have seen Michael Caine like this:
Looming, taciturn, utterly selfish, completely unflappable, and seemingly willing on violence.
Carter’s background is a mystery, and his relationship with his family just as murky - is his rampage motivated by the knowledge he is Doreen’s (Petra Markham) real father? We never find out.
All we learn is from his actions, and his disregard for human life - Keith (Alun Armstrong) who is beaten for helping him; he locks another character in the boot of a car that ends up in the sea.
He is a force of nature.
Acting as his opposite both within and without the text, Ian Hendry is vicious and unglamourous as Eric - where Carter is completely locked down and sociopathic, he is riddled with the guilt of a thousand sins. Driven by his own demons and jealousy at the state of his career, the venom of his performance was apparently based in genuine resentment toward contemporary Caine.
Filled with great Newcastle locations ( the parking building, the beach) Get Carter has a desolate, drained beauty.
Director Mike Hodges and DoP Wolfgang Suschitzky (who used to work in documentaries) give the film a deglamorized feel, taking in the film’s violent events with a dispassionate, dead-eyed perspective.
The film is filled with great un-flashy filmmaking. I was obsessed with the scene where Carter confronts Glenda (Geraldine Moffatt).
The camera is placed ata remove, in a wide shot showing Carter slowly ascending the stairs on one side of the frame while Glenda (Geraldine Moffatt) takes a bath, completely oblivious.
He overtakes the frame as he reaches her floor, as she incriminates herself further in his niece’s demise.
While Carter’s vengeance carries a certain visceral thrill, the film never feels like it is reveling in his rampage.
That scene I previously referenced is terrifying - but by keeping us at a literal distance, it emphasises Glenda’s vulnerability.
We are never truly aligned with Carter, and by foregrounding his callousness, his campaign feels more like an excuse for violence, rather than some kind of righteous act.
A cool film, but not in the way its most ardent admirers believe it to be, Get Carter is a great film.
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