Conventional history tells that the 1960s in Britain was a time when the eyes of the fashionable world were focussed on the country, from James Bond to The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Swinging London and Carnaby Street, it seemed to be the centre of the ‘hip’ world – and then, as the decades changed, director Mike Hodges unleashed Get Carter on the world and showed a very different side of life.
Released in 1971, but clearly still with the feel and setting of the late 1960s, the film follows gangster Jack Carter (Michael Caine) as he heads from London to Newcastle to investigate and avenge the death of his brother – and really the plot is as simple as that, which is one of the film’s many strong points.
The film is as no nonsense as they come and Hodges weaves a genuine tight and taught thriller out of the source material (the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis) that shows a side of Britain far grimmer and grimier than anything you might glean from the swinging scene.
In this he manages to combine elements of the ‘kitchen sink’ drama style of the like of A Taste Of Honey with an edge of the glamour of Bond (but with none of its knock about fun) in a startlingly stark and impressive way.
From the very start we know Carter is a ‘villain’ in all sense of the word which is never shied away from and, it’s fair to say, he really has no redeeming features as he makes his way through the movie beating up anyone who might have information to help his mission, and is particularly harsh to the women he encounters.
While this is somewhat uncomfortable in places it feels exceptionally real and true of the character and situation and Caine is terrific, embodying the coldness of the character which only breaks on two occasions that serve to highlight his skill along with that of the writing and make Carter an undeniably iconic antihero.
While he was already an established name by this point with the likes of Zulu, The Ipcress File and The Italian Job under his belt this feels like it sets a new precedent for his abilities and, somewhat oddly, shows a side of him that again came to the fore, in a rather different way, in The Muppets Christmas Carol two decades later.
Elsewhere Hodges and director of photography Wolfgang Suschitzky capture industrial and underworld Newcastle in spectacular form that makes it almost another character in the film, and certainly one that matches the generally grim nature of virtually every other character – to be clear no one we meet really seems to be entirely innocent and has a darkness in one way or another that makes the whole thing impressively bleak.
All of this could easily make for a film that is alienating and frustrating but instead it is gripping and captivating, drawing the viewer into its world and refusing to explain itself or it’s language or setting and manages to be both fantastically cool (in all senses of the word) but exceptionally brutal (making it something of a forebear of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction) and unglamorous despite Caine owning the screen whenever he is on it.
This particular version I have watched is the new BFI restoration in 4K that only serves to heighten the sharpness and impact of the film as it looks and sounds astonishing for a movie that’s more than 50 years old.
Tommy Girard 