Get Carter
Shown: 22 January 2001
Sponsored and introduced by David
Gainsborough Roberts
UK 1971
95 minutes
Directed by Mike Hodges
Leading players - Sir Michael Caine, Ian Hendry and Britt Ekland
Synopsis
This film, in my opinion, is Michael Caine's finest movie. It has been long overlooked and underrated. Perhaps the grim, harsh reality of the Newcastle underworld was too strong for moviegoer's tastes in the 70's after the swinging sixties. Jack Carter (Sir Michael Caine) dressing like Ron or Reg Kray, travels north of Watford Gap, where only wild people live according to cockney legend, to deliver justice to gangsters who have killed his brother.
This is, still, the era of the mini skirt, cigarette smoking, noisy electric shavers, chunky cuff links and rough pubs (I'll have mine in a thin glass Carter tells a moronic barman). The quirky music, odd camera angles and short, clipped scenes all add great atmosphere to a disturbing tale of a lifestyle most of us know nothing about. Great character actors make the action compelling.
Thorpy (Bernard Hepton), Keith (Alun Amstrong with hair) and Cliff (Bryan Mosley of Coronation Street fame) are absolutely first rate. Fletcher (real life villain John Bindon) is an added attraction. Anna (Brit Ekland) adds the glamour while Eric (Ian Hendry) and Cyril (playwright John Osborne) are more than suitably sinister.
Remember this was the era of the Krays, Richardson and Rachman and such people did exist. "I work at Woolworths" Doreen (Petra Markham) tells Carter who replies "That must be very interesting" is typical of a dialogue which should not work but does. This film is not for the faint-hearted. It is gutsy and violent but, above all, it has an awsome realism. I love it !
David Gainsborough Roberts
