Why is it that so many viewers enjoy watching a hard-nosed, cold-blooded antihero for a couple of hours, as he engages in a brutal campaign of vengeance? I suppose it's because each of us has aggressive and violent tendencies in our subconscious, no matter how well we might keep them in check with our more rational faculties and compassionate ideals. What would happen, we wonder, if we gave vent to those violent propensities? Mike Hodges understood those impulses when he set about to revolutionize the British crime genre.

Historical Background: British director Mike Hodges was born in England in 1932. He worked mainly in British television, but started making feature films in the seventies, beginning with Get Carter (1971), which he also scripted. Hodges subsequently wrote and directed Pulp (1972). Hodges then took a fling at Hollywood, writing and directing The Terminal Man (1974). Returning to the U.K., Hodges wrote the script for Damien – Omen II (1979), before returning to directing, with Flash Gordon (1980), Morons from Outer Space (1985), A Prayer for the Dying (1987), Black Rainbow (1990), and Croupier (2000).

The Story: Jack Carter (Michael Caine), smartly decked out in three-piece suit, is a professional hit man employed by a pair of London-based crime lord brothers, Sid (John Bindon) and Gerald Fletcher (Terence Rigby). Carter has learned of his brother Frank's death, back in his hometown of Newcastle. Carter suspects that the straight-laced Frank was murdered, even though the official version has it an automobile accident, brought on by intoxication. The Fletcher brothers don't want to stir up trouble with their counterparts in Newcastle, but Carter is determined to learn the truth, even if it means going freelance. Soon, he is on the train for Newcastle, as the credits roll.

Jack arrives in Newcastle in time to see his brother laid out in a coffin and to participate in the sparsely attended funeral. Jack makes the acquaintance of two of Frank's work associates, Keith (Alun Armstrong) and Eddie (Godfrey Quigley), and tries to lift the spirits of his niece, Doreen (Petra Markham), even inviting her to come live with him. Frank also questions Frank's girlfriend, Margaret (Dorothy White), a prostitute who was seeing Frank once a week.

The local Newcastle gangsters are none too happy that Jack is snooping about and send a succession of goons to strong arm Jack into returning to London. Jack reasons that those who have something to hide were likely involved in his brother's death or know something about it. The top local mobster is a man with a Mephistophelean beard, named Cyril Kinnear (John Osborne). Jack invades his heavily guarded country estate and interrupts Kinnear during a high-stakes poker game. Kinnear's henchmen include the bald, frail twerpy-looking Thorpe (Bernard Hepton), who Jack already knows from the old days. Then there is Eric Paise (Ian Hendry), Kinnear's combination chauffeur and bodyguard. Another pair of thugs, Peter (Tony Beckley) and Con (George Sewell), is sent to deliver Jack back to London, but are thwarted, first at the seedy hotel where Jack is staying and later in a shootout at a ferryboat landing.

Jack gains a couple of allies along the way, but invariably ends up using them badly. Keith, who had been a friend of Frank, gets severely beaten up, but it's of little concern to Frank. He leaves the young man some cash and suggests that he purchase a karate lesson. Jack excites the carnal interest of his landlady, Edna (Rosemarie Dunham), especially when she overhears Jack whispering sweet-nothings into the phone to Anna (Britt Ekland) back in London. Jack also makes more than casual acquaintance with the lovely but wild-driving Glenda (Geraldine Moffat), a double-dealing wench who works both for Kinnear and a rival corrupt businessman, Cliff Brumby (Bryan Mosley). Jack suspects them all, but it's not until he catches up with an old school chum and gambler, Albert Smith (Glynn Edwards), and, later, comes across a pornographic video featuring Glenda with Jack's niece Doreen, that Carter is able to piece together the truth about his brother's death. All that remains after that is Jack's relentless quest for vengeance. Jack ends up responsible, directly or indirectly, for six deaths, if I've counted correctly, as well as a police raid that takes down Kinnear.

Themes: Beneath the surface action and violence is a thematic undercurrent that has to do with the hypocrisy of macho attitudes toward violence and pornography. Carter is incensed when his good brother is presumably murdered, but Carter makes a living out of killing men and women, each of whom is somebody else's brother, sister, father, mother, son, or daughter. Carter is also visibly angered when he discovers that his niece, Doreen, has been coaxed into doing pornographic movies, yet back in London, Carter and the Fletcher brothers are observed, in the opening scene, watching pornographic slides, each no doubt starring a young woman or girl who is somebody else's niece, daughter, or sister. Throughout history, men have frequented prostitutes, but nevertheless became incensed if their own sister or daughter took up the world's oldest trade. Carter tells his niece, "Be good and don't trust boys." Then he turns around and seduces Edna and Glenda, murders Glenda and Margaret, and talks erotically with Anna over the phone. This film is not so much about what's right or what's wrong as it is about the hypocrisy of wanting to have it both ways.

Production Values: The screenplay for this film was written by Ted Lewis, based on his own novel Jack's Return Home. It's an unrelenting noir style approach, devoid of sentimentality. Jack Carter is a quintessential antihero, who cares about nothing except doing his job – which is murder – and, to an extent, his family. Even his concern for his family is limited to taking revenge (for his brother's murder) or doling out money (for his bereaved niece). Carter is a man with plenty of wrath but little warmth. Nevertheless, viewers are subtly encouraged to root for Carter because the story relates to a situation in which his brutal and ruthless approach to life is being exercised against an injustice. Carter becomes an avenging angel. Writer Lewis and director Mike Hodges do a commendable job building the narrative before giving way to the shower of violence, so that when it occurs, our sympathies are well established.

This film was important in the history of British crime films, which had hitherto presented the criminal element as amusing fools, as in The Ladykillers or The Lavender Hill Mob. Get Carter brought a new toughness to British crime films akin to the film noir long popular in America. At the same time, Hodges added a touch of the artfulness of European art films, giving his film a distinctly British quality.

This film was shot entirely on location, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, providing the film with a gritty realism. The interiors are cramped and the exteriors dominated by industrial and labor class squalor or, conversely, the contrasting decadent opulence of the crime lords who have struck it rich. Filming on location also brought out the best from the extras and secondary performers. The people populating the background of the film look every bit as real as the settings. For scenes involving extensive dialog, Hodges used a lot of static camera placements so that viewers would have the feeling of being there as an eavesdropper. When Carter is snooping about, Hodges used mostly slow pans, to mimic Carter's process of cautiously evaluating the setting. During the action scenes, Hodges relied mainly on tracking shots. Hodges and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky provide skillful framing for many of the shots. The mod and moody soundtrack by Roy Budd only asserts itself occasionally, but is effective when it does.

In 1971 and for much of his career, Michael Caine had that rare kind of screen presence that one associates with a young Sean Connery or a Harrison Ford. Caine also had an unusual degree of versatility to go with that charisma, playing film roles ranging from light comedy to violent drama. It may be a bit perverse, but many viewers enjoy watching a cool, single-minded avenger at work, even if it entails cold-blooded murder. Caine's performance as Jack Carter is one of his very best outings as an actor. Caine's debut as an actor was a supporting role in Zulu. Some of his best roles since were in The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Educating Rita (1983), The Whistle Blower (1986), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Death Becomes Her (1992), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Austen Powers in Goldmember (2002).

Britt Ekland's role in Get Carter is relatively minor, though plenty sexy. Her other work includes The Wicker Man (1973) and Scandal (1989). More deserving of co-star billing, I think, would have been Geraldine Moffat as Glenda. There's a nifty bit of editing in Get Carter that intercuts between Glenda driving her sports car and she and Carter making love at her apartment, with similar moves involved in each case. Also effective, if less glamorous, is Rosemarie Dunham as Edna. Among Carter's adversaries, the standouts were Ian Hendry as Eric, John Osborne as Kinnear, and Tony Beckley as Peter. Hendry, who Carter describes as having eyes like "piss-holes in the snow," is best known for roles in Repulsion (1965), Theatre of Blood (1973), and The Passenger (1975). Osborne is best known for his Shakespearean work in theater. Beckley also played in Chimes at Midnight (1966). All in all, the casting is very good. Some of the extras are delightful, such as one guy with no teeth and another with five fingers on one hand, along with a thumb!

Bottom-Line: The best of the extras on the Warner Brothers DVD for this film is an interesting commentary track featuring director Mike Hodges, star Michael Caine, and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky. These are intelligent, charming gentlemen, making the track well worth a listen. There's a music-only track, which is rather pointless, since it is punctuated with long periods of silence. There are optional English or French subtitles.

This film is one that's reputation has actually grown over the years, as tastes have changed and violent film noir has become more widely accepted. It's also one of the least dated films from the seventies that you'll encounter. It continues to look fresh and realistic.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age