Product Description
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Accled 1970s British thriller starring Michael Caine as a
hardened gangster returning to his hometown in search of the
truth behind his brother's death. Though originally from
Newcastle, Jack Carter (Caine) has made his name in London as a
tough enforcer for the crime boss, Gerald Fletcher (Terence
Rigby). On hearing of his brother's death, Carter returns to
Newcastle for his funeral and to investigate his suspicion that
his sibling may have been murdered. After visiting local gangster
Cyril Kinnear (John Osborne), Carter is threatened and advised to
head back to London. Jack refuses and descends further and
further into the city's underworld as his investigations begin to
pay off. His search is merciless, unrelenting and fraught with
danger and it becomes clear that he will stop at nothing to exact
his own brand of justice.
From .co.uk
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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
-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 (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571038484/%24%7B0%7D ) 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
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Synopsis
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A vicious London gangster, Jack Carter, travels to Newcastle for
his bro ther's funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother's
death was not an accident and sets out to follow a complex trail
of lies, deceit and cov er-ups through Newcastle's underworld,
leading, he hopes, to the man who ordered his brother killed.
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