Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2475 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Romanian, Arabic, Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Released in 1971 (the same year Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange hit the screens, which must make 71 the annus mirabilis for violent films set in Britain), Get Carter opens with gangsters leering over pornographic slides and ends on a filthy, slag-stained beach in Newcastle. It's a low-down and dirty movie from beginning to end, and possibly the grittiest and best film of its kind to come out of Britain. The granddaddy of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and all its ilk, director Mike Hodges' Get Carter offers revenge tragedy swinging-60s style, all nicotine-stained cinematography, shabby locations and the kind of killer catchphrases Vinnie Jones would die for ("You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me, it's a full-time job. Now behave yourself", says Michael Caine's deadpan anti-hero Carter before inflicting a few choice punches on Brian Mosley, aka Coronation Street's Alf Roberts, to name but one example from Hodges and Ted Lewis' exquisitely laconic script).

Presenting the dark horse in his family of loveable Cockney geezer roles (Alfie, The Italian Job), Michael Caine plays the title role of Jack Carter, a man so hard he barely registers a flicker of regret watching a woman he's just had sex with plunge to her death. After taking the train up to Newcastle as the credits roll and Roy Budd's chunky bass-heavy theme tune plays, Carter returns to his hometown to attend his brother's funeral and investigate the circumstances of his death. Not that he's all that sentimental about family: he shaves nonchalantly over the open coffin, and shows affection to his niece Doreen (Petra Markham) by cramming a few notes in her hand and telling her to "be good and don't trust boys". Gradually, Carter unravels the skein of drugs, pornography and corruption tangled around his brother's death, which brings him up against supremely oleaginous kingpin Kinnear (played by the author of Look Back in Anger John Osborne) among others. A remake starring Sylvester Stallone is in the offing, but quite frankly it will be a 30-degree (Celsius) Christmas night in Newcastle before Hollywood could ever make something as assured, raw and immortal as this. --Leslie Felperin

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Audio Commentary With Michael Caine
Director Commentary
Cinematographer Commentary
Music Only Soundtrack
3 Trailers
Chaptering
Interactive Menus
Arabic\Bulgarian\English\Romanian

Synopsis
A small-time street tough from London finds himself enmeshed in a web of deceit, blackmail, and murder when he investigates the circumstances surrounding the death of his brother in Newcastle. GET CARTER is a hard-as-nails crime movie, featuring a brutal performance by Michael Caine that stands as one of his best. The film is based on the novel JACK'S RETURN HOME by Ted Lewis. It was remade for a blaxploitation audience a year later as HIT MAN, and in 2000 Sylvester Stallone starred in a remake, with Caine making an appearance in the film as well.

Customer Reviews

You're a big man, but you're out of shape ...
Get Carter is probably Mike Hodges' masterpiece. It is certainly Britain's gangster-film masterpiece ... complete with unacceptable-in-America ending. The Long Good Friday and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels may arguably come close to emulating Get Carter's success and cult status, but do not equal it. Cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky could have shot the film in black & white with no discernable change of mood or visual nuances: it is set amidst the bleak, industrial decay of early-70s Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The closing slag-heap scenes are in daylight, but the overcast, lowering sky drowns out all colour. Even the signature-tune is plaintively minimalist.

The plot features nasty villains, principal among whom is 'the hero,' surly London gangland racketeer and troubleshooter Jack Carter (Michael Caine at his most impassively impressive, in perhaps his best-ever rôle) who is only slightly more self-righteous than the Geordie 'rural Mafia' he out-villains whilst unravelling the complex web of cover-ups, bribes, double-crosses and sudden violence to determine which villain(s) in particular he will wreak 'orrific vengeance upon for A] them wot done 'is bruvver in, and also later on B] for involving his niece in a blue-film racket. On the train 'oop north' Carter reads Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, but he lacks entirely any of Philip Marlowe's scruples and morals. Carter screws the bird but doesn't bat an eyelid when the car - with her in the boot - is pushed into the river, nor does he flinch a facial muscle when discovering that his sole ally (Alun Armstrong) has been brutally given the once-over.

Today's porn industry enjoys a semi-glossy veneer of stylishness with most of the porn 'stars' being in control of their careers, but back in the heady days of the early-1970s 'blue movies' were exploitationist, gritty, sleazy and dirty, complete with poor-quality film and the absence of sound. Get Carter's ending is unexpected (the only similarly-unexpected ending I can think of is Sergio Corbucci's Il Grande Silenzio [1969]), and yet fitting for the film's ongoing theme of bleakness and pessimism. Including the final fade-out.

The film features neat cameos by Ian Hendry (as Eric Paice, the scheming chauffeur with the I-am-a-baddy shades) and noted playwright John Osborne (as Mr. Big, who is out of shape). Memorable is Carter's somewhat unpleasant 'seduction-to-telephone' of moll Britt Ekland back in London whilst observing his Newcastle landlady rocking in her chair barely containing her surging hormones ... until Ekland's oafish 'owner' enters the room and cannot imagine what she is doing unclad, "You got gut-ache or something ...?"

Steven Soderbergh's "requiem for the hard man" The Limey (1999) may look like a 1990s version of Get Carter: just released from Her Majesty's pleasure, well-'ard Terence Stamp goes out to Los Angeles to find out why and by who's hand his daughter was done-in. The Chandleresque dialogue includes a high London slang content and Stamp knocks the opposition about with machine-gun resonance, but there the similarities end ...

Hollywood made a 'Get Carter 2000' ... HOW DARE THEY ...!!!

One of the most compelling British movies ever made
This film hits the spot in every critical category. Brilliantly shot from a palate of greys and dark brown, Newcastle looks mean and unforgiving. Caine produces possibly his best performance,utterly convincing in the lead role. The plot never loses pace and the one liners are still great down the pub! A true crime classic that makes Lock Stock look like a cartoon. Check out the commentary for a DVD extra worth having.

Bleak Houses....Brit-Gangster classic
Has Sir Michael Caine made a better film than this ? The answer is a resounding NO.
Set in early Seventies Newcastle this is simpy the best British film of the decade,maybe even the century.
Caine plays a menacing thug who has returned to his hometown to bury his brother and find his killers.As he slowly meanders around the city he starts to draw together the threads of the tale regarding his brothers death.He seeks brutal revenge on the killers and the shocking ending leaves the movie even bleaker than you could imagine.Retribution...simple retribution.
Caine is brilliant,the cinematography captures the grey,cold North east and nobody steps outside the gritty,social-realist world created.A young Alun Armstrong impresses and legendary playwright John Osborne is a steady presence as a local crimelord.
Disturbing,bleak and 100% English, this is a must see of Seventies cinema.