"In the late 1950s, I spent two years in compulsory national service. I found myself on the lower deck of a Royal Navy minesweeper in the UK’s Fishery Protection squadron. This brought me into contact with the fishing communities around these islands, in ports such as Grimsby, Hull, Lowestoft and North Shields [very close to Newcastle-upon-Tyne], where I eventually set much of the [Get Carter] film. For two years, my middle-class eyes were forced to witness horrendous poverty and deprivation that I was previously unaware of. I went into the navy as a newly qualified chartered accountant and complacent young Tory, and came out an angry, radical young man."
Sorry, the first line of the above post seems to have been missed off. It reads: Director Mike Hodges had a letter in The Guardian newspaper on 27 May 2022....
The 19 year old me went to Newcastle from Scotland with a pal to visit his brother for a few days round about `79 or `80. I have been back a couple of times since and it is now like a different world. The Newcastle I saw back then was properly dangerous. Feral dogs roaming the streets and people getting shot by protection racketeers and everything seemed just filthy and poor, in the short vignette I experienced. The same area now has gleaming new buildings and trendy sorts sipping cocktails in a light and clean architects vision. The `70s really was crap in the UK. That's why the art was so good. Thanks for your insightful review.
I love your astute observation about crap and good art. Get Carter mirrored the grittiness of US films such as French Connection and Midnight Cowboy - the start of the golden 70's - both set in a frightening New York. Now everything is clean and antiseptic but the new movies are vanilla productions usually underlining the sensitivity of the filmmakers. Give me Pelham 123, Taxi Driver, Long Good Friday, Mean Streets, Clockwork Orange, or even the Sweeney any day.
Pure gold from the beginning to the end: every detail does reach the maximum aestethic and aestatic level: camera, cast, direction, script, locations, cars and of course music (the real starring actress) are the non plus ultra: never levelled, it cant be levelled
Michael Caine in the title role of Get Carter is the seminal British gangster movie, closely followed by Bob Hoskins portrayl of Harold Shand The long Good Friday, and Bob Hoskins again in Mona Lisa with Cathy Tyson showing the seedy underbelly of vice and criminal exploitation. The Roy Budd soundtrack is brilliant darkly full of suspense, the Bass line is simple yet carries the urgency and tedium of the train journey from Kings Cross to Newcastle perfectly
Another excellent synopsis and critique of another masterpiece my friend, do keep em coming. The movie depicts the dirty, gritty and deprived backstreets of the era that people born since will find hard to believe ever existed in our country. Its only 50 years ago, how things have changed (thankfully) I think Cain's decision to make this film was one of his best, it enabled him to stretch his acting skills and show he was far more versatile than many thought. A truly great film, great writing, directing, acting and scenes.
All true - and it says a lot about Caine's convictions that he chose to play this harsh part to show the kind of realities he knew from growing up in East London.
John Osborne is in Get Carter. And I don't intend to be mean to the chap would made this video, but describing Osborne as the bloke who wrote the screenplay for the film The Look Back in Anger..is like saying Harold Pinter is known because he wrote the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman. Osborne was the incendiary bomb of post WW2 British Theatre. Next to Pinter, the most famous dramatist of the 50s and 60s, and a real piece of work. It must have tickled him pink to play the evil oozing pornographer. Some might say type casting. To know him was to be hated by him. Nobody hated so viciously, artfully, and unremittingly as Osborne. But he could really write. I think his best play is Inadmissible Evidence. It isn't for the faint hearted. It is almost monologues delivered by the main character who hates everything, but above hates all the women in his life. There aren't really any acts in the play, it is more a series of women walking on stage, who have been foolish enough to make the unforgivable mistake of caring about him, and he just verbally shreds and bullies them, degrades and mocks them, in horribly wonderfully written invective. It is watching domestic violence take place, pretty much. The thing is...this is what the main character in Osborne's first huge play, Look Back in Anger is like too. Just younger. IN other words....it is just Osborne. When one of his ex wives died, he wrote that he was only sorry he hadn't had time to come spit on her grave. I really wonder what it was like working with him on Get Carter.. To say his reputation was sinister would be hugely understating things.
Great review of an excellent film. Another solid film which is so much more than the sum of it’s parts. I think the scene where Carter watches the porn movie and every piece of his brother’s murder starts to fall into place is superb, Michael Caine really commands the screen and you feel the sadness and hurt that Jack Carter is feeling. And never forget, when in Newcastle order your beer “in a straight glass”!
I was aware that Newcastle publicans became sick and tired of people ordering "in a straight glass". Get Carter was requested several times and I was glad to do it - but I've done three Caine films now and probably shouldn't do another one for a while. Btw, I have a copy of the novel (that was a great find!) and am getting GBH by Ted Lewis from the library. Always good to hear from you!
@@Vlad65WFPReviewsMichael Caine is such a prolific actor. I can’t remember the actual question but in response to a survey I listed 5 films, 3 of which had Michael Caine in the lead role. On RU-vid there are videos of Michael Caine being interviewed by Michael Parkinson for his BBC talk show. I recommend them wholeheartedly, well worth looking for.
Thanks. I think there was also some talk from the studio about not killing off Carter and having him in a possible sequel but that didn't happen. In the novel, as I recall, Carter's fate was left slightly in the air.
Thanks for another great review. Knowing that Carter's killer was on the train with him is so intriguing. I was thinking about getting the book to see if there is an explanation when I saw your comment about having a copy. Is the movie faithful to the book? And another "fun fact" coincidence that I found in "Get Carter A British Film Guide" by Steve Chibnall is that Michael Caine's stand in on the film was a guy named Jack Carter.
Hi, Peter. The movie is true to the tone of the novel but the final confrontation with Eric is different and, as noted in the review, more open-ended. (also note that Lewis wrote 1 or 2 Carter sequels). I had wondered if the movie's sniper was traveling from London because Carter's boss suspected the affair but then I observed the sniper is assigned by Kinnear so the whole thing is wonderfully ambivalent. Great note on the stand-in. I think I read that Caine also named his dog Carter.
Just a quick side note: In the new HBO series Our Flag Means Death, Rhys Darby plays an inept pirate captain, and with his hair done a certain way, it totally strikes me that he looks like Michael Caine, circa 1970. It's kind of uncanny. They could be brothers.
I remember reading a comment from Michael Caine where he said he always thought he was working class, When he went to Newcastle he realised he was middle class! A great film. Fun fact - the original novel 'Jack's Return Home' isn't set in Newcastle, it's set in Scunthorpe. Probably Scunthorpe wasn't as gritty as Newcastle.
Hi Rogue. After your email I scanned the beginning of the novel and Lewis certainly made Scunthorpe very gritty (I was very lucky to find a used Pan edition of the novel in my Safe North American Home) - and he did include the famous "thin glass" line - though he doesn't use the word "Scunthorpe" very often.
@@Vlad65WFPReviews I think Scunthorpe is still pretty gritty, just read a news article about an incident there with two police officers hurt and a man shot by the police. Then again, that's not unusual anywhere in the UK these days!
BTW, there was a blaxploitation version of "Get Carter". It's called "Hit Man" and it stars Bernie Casey and Pam Grier. It's interesting, but not nearly as good.
New subscriber here and love your channel with its focus on history and British films(which I am a huge fan of both). Maybe a suggestion for the future, looking at the British Raj era in India. Either the TV series, The Jewel In The Crown( the better choice) or David Lean's A Passage To India. I love them both and I am a huge David Lean fan but I like the more news/factual approach of "Crown". Anyway, now catching up on all your videos and keep up the great job you are doing, thank you!
Welcome aboard and I will look for your comments in future. I realize this is a very small "niche" but it is one I care about and this certainly connects me with other Brit-show lovers. Passage to India will be added to my list. I have done Lean's Great Expectations but want to avoid big titles like Lawrence, Kwai and Zhivago as those have been analyzed to death. And I just rewatched Ryan's Daughter recently and thought it was very good but tarnished by being "too epic" for the subject matter and by the weak performance of Christopher Jones. But it is worth watching for the storm sequence alone - on the biggest screen you can find!
@@Vlad65WFPReviews Thanks for the response. Ryan's Daughter was my very least favorite David Lean film and even hard for me to sit through. Way too long and maybe he was getting older and was having a hard time trying to edit it down. Sadly, as you probably know, the reviews were so bad he was devasted and retreated from making another film until "Passage". This is very sad as he probably had a few more great films in him to make and "Passage" ended up being his swan song. Also, if you have not seen "Jewel In the Crown" check it out as it is probably my favorite mini-series ever! "Jewel" was a more realistic presentation of why and how the British Raj came to an end. Happy viewing!
I remember Jewel in The Crown from the days when Masterpiece Theater was stronger than it is now. On Ryan's Daughter, yes, I recall Pauline Kael was particularly savage and the result - as you said - was 1 or 2 fewer wonderful films that Lean might have made. As a aspiring movie reviewer back in the day I read a lot of PK and was often intrigued by her essays - even when I strongly disagreed with her opinions, which was often. I have to admit to fast-forwarding a bit through Ryan. All the stuff with the spring flowers seemed a bit heavy handed but later Lean admitted that his male love interest was so insipid that he had no choice. If I recall, Lean had seen Jones in an earlier film in which he had been dubbed (Lean didn't know that), so he was surprised when he actually had to work with the actor. Lean also wound up redubbing Jones in this film too. My other memory of Ryan was that fabulous Leo McKern almost got badly hurt and almost lost his fake eye during the massive storm sequence.
Watched for 1st time in years, as bfi released in beautiful restored image and sound. As you say Point Blank is very close companion, as is Lee Marvin's prime cut. GC is superb, dark bleak, unblinking and Caine in top form as not so much a malicious gangster but one unafraid of anything or at least so numb to the world around him he doesn't care. Surprised you didn't mention Tony Beckley (Italian job-camp Freddie) with his shock of dyed blonde hair and unthinking violence. Guy Ritchie may believe himself to be Hodges equal. That though is not the case as Ritchie does nothing more than pastiches of superior movies. Get carter truly a repellent British gangster classic.
Excellent stuff sir. For light relief = go to Ray's Reviews on YT of Get Carter. Very British sense of humour. Another is done by Morgoth on this film. He lives in Tyneside, so is intimately familiar with the whole area.
