Get Carter (1971) (BD)

I first heard about Get Carter when watching an episode of Bad Movie Beatdown give a scathing analysis of the 2000 remake of Get Carter starring Sylvester Stallone, and Mathew Buck (the host of BMB) used the original Get Carter to help prove his points on how awful the remake was. I was enticed by the original when watching his review and I've been hesitant to get the DVD since they were expensive (due to being discontinued). However, it's available on Amazon's Video on Demand and since I have a large computer monitor with full HD (my Alienware Aurora desktop is like a mini home theater system), I bought it to watch on my computer, and boy am I glad to have seen this one!!STORYGet Carter is about a London gangster named Jack Carter (Michael Caine) who finds out that his brother Frank died in a car accident due to drunk driving, but Jack thinks that it was caused by something else and travels north interrogating who he believes is responsible for his brother's death and dish out revenge. However, on his path of revenge, Jack uncovers secrets about Frank that complicate his situation with the gangs he's confronting.CHARACTERSGet Carter is similar to the Martin Scorcese masterpiece Taxi Driver (1976) where practically the entire movie revolves around the central character, and in this case, it's Jack Carter. This can have its ups and downs because only the central character is well developed, but I'll let this pass because as stated before, the movie is really all about Carter and it feels pretty realistic as Carter is mostly on the move to get what he wants, so it feels pretty understandable that we can't really sit down and get to know the rest of the characters, so to speak. To also cover this, the supporting cast don't feel like cliches but rather like real people and don't act in contrived manners just to convenience the plot. Of course, it's Jack Carter that makes the show, and it's certainly a showcase for the justified acclaim surrounding Michael Caine. Carter feels and acts like a real gangster because while he does have some compassion for certain people, he's largely a cold-blooded maniac who only cares about his own goals and could care less about others he bumps into and will get rid of people that stand in his way. To give an example, when Carter gets close to nabbing the men who killed his brother, he gets rid of Frank's former frequent prostitute named Margaret, who snitched to his rivals about Jack's whereabouts earlier, he forcefully gives her a fatal injection of heroin and dumps her body near a body of water by the mansion of rival gangster Cyril Kinnear, then calls the cops on him the morning after a booze and sex-fueled party and they all get arrested (with the cops believing Margaret died because of Kinnear). Also, I love that Carter isn't perfect with his planning as he just dives into confrontations without weighing out the pros and cons, which has a very dire consequence at the end of the movie. In short, Caine's performance is riveting and his portrayal of a British gangster is top notch, with supporting cast feeling very believable.PLOTTINGThe plotting for Get Carter is quite excellent because while you immediately know in the beginning that Jack's brother was killed in a car accident, and that you see Jack plot out revenge, his acts of revenge aren't immediate. Jack casually sniffs out who he thinks is responsible and when Carter's boss is telling him to movie back to London by sending his goons to intimidate him, he begins to see that things aren't as simple as he initially thought. This gets further entangled when at around 3/4ths of the movie, Jack finds out that his niece was forced into a pornographic film by Kinnear and this new burden destroys Jack even more inside. Also, going back to the "dire consequence" stated earlier, the ending for this feels very appropriate and especially in American cinema where there's almost always a happy ending, the end to this movie is a nice change of pace from the contrived norm.SETTINGWriter and director Mike Hodges did a great job with choosing the setting. To capture the grit revolving around the story, he had the movie filmed in Tyneside, which is rampant with industrial complexes, smoke-filled bars, strip clubs, and dilapidated apartments. This was a wise choice because that particular setting really gives off a low-class quality that's inseparable to the gangster feeling. To further enhance the feeling of grittiness, there's no flashy editing techniques anywhere in the movie (the only one that's close is the first person view of the train during the opening credits, but I wouldn't even call it flashy), giving it a very realistic feel that's enhanced with the low quality camera used to film the movie (this is evident by the amount of grain in the picture). THIS is how to make a crime thriller, none of this flashy, polished BS like Smokin' Aces (one of the worst movies I've ever seen).SOUNDTRACKThe soundtrack for Get Carter is quite fitting because with the use of contemporary music at the time (funk-fueled jazz), it further enhances the feeling that you're in a slimy city in England in the early 70's. The funky jazz fits very well with the atmosphere, and for the movie's darker moments, there's some dark synthesizers utilized for the scenes and capture the mood really well.VIDEO ON DEMANDIf you can find it for a decent price, I suggest you get the DVD copy of Get Carter because with the video I purchased with Video on Demand, I noticed that there were several moments where the picture quality would get a little artifacted (such as with the opening credits). I'm disappointed by this because video with some artifacting is expectable of YouTube, but not when you're purchasing a video file from Amazon, which is a universally lauded website.FINAL WORDIf you love gritty and down-to-earth early 70's crime thrillers, then Get Carter is essential. Skip the flashy remake, it has none of the spirit the original has.

Love Michael Caine movies, and this is a good one. Typical 70s style movie

Michael Caine is brilliant as Jack Carter, the hard-hearted gangster from North England who heads back north from London to find out who killed his brother and, no question, to get them right back. Hard to imagine what viewers expected to see in this 1971 film -- a blend of "Alfie" and James Bond, perhaps, a sexy rascal with a gun? But no. This movie is the starting point for "SexyBeast" and "Lock, Stock and Barrel" and "Reservoir Dogs": unapologetic, brutal, cold-eyed. And Michael Caine having phone sex with Britt Ekland before that term was ever devised? Deviant and ... mmmm ... engaging!As great as this movie is, the camera work is not always brilliant, the editing is too-often 60s-groovy, and the plot could use one more level of refinement to make it just a bit more streamlined and clear. But given how crummy so many movies now are, this not-quite-perfect four-star movie is dang good!I wish writer/director Mike Hodges had gone on to make more movies in this vein. It'd be interesting to find out why Hodges didn't become his country's Scorsese with this as his "Mean Streets".Note to anglophiles: the scenes of Newcastle in 1971 with its hard stone little houses and outhouses out back, treeless gray streets, tarted-up girls in mini-dresses on chill gray nights with the shadows of the new council blocks rising on the horizon, are priceless. If you ever want to get sentimental about an age gone by, those images will serve as a bracing corrective!And note to Michael Caine fans: hard to imagine that Mike Hodges wrote this movie with anyone else in mind other than this amazing film actor. Does he just make it look easy? If he's one of those lucky ones who does not have to try: well, thank God for him. Yes, thank God for Michael Caine.

Good old Michael Caine movie. Dated now but still a good watch even better as the special edition 4K disc.

Le DVD commandé est conforme à la demande.

ハードボイルドの傑作！日本語の字幕があればさらに良かった。こんなヒーローは今の世の中にはちょっといない。

Eine weitere Feder am Hut des fantastischen Michael Caine. Mehr möchte ich dazu gar nicht sagen.Vielmehr möchte ich hier auf die vorliegende Blu-Ray aus Großbritannien zu sprechen kommen - bzw. auf das Fehlen einer ebensolchen deutschen Scheibe. Auf der GB-Version fehlt der deutsche Ton. Möchte man den klassischen Gangsterfilm jedoch ungekürzt sehen können, muss man seit Jahren auf den Träger von der Insel zurückgreifen. In Deutschland ist der Streifen in der ungekürzten Fassung noch jahrelang indiziert. Warum - das wissen nur die Pfeifen von der FSK. Deshalb: Die GB-Blu-Ray genießen, die immerhin mit englischen Untertiteln versehen ist. Wer also den gesprochenen Slang des Films nicht versteht, kann vielleicht immerhin Englisch lesen und kommt so dazu, GET CARTER und Michael Caine in einer seiner besten Rollen sehen zu können.

Don't fall for cheap imitations starring Sly Stallone. This is the real deal. Caine is quite brilliant as Carter. And the lavishly packed 2-disc version is a real treat for film buffs, with and 80-page booklet and loads of extras, incl. 2 commentaries. I hope that I one day will upgrade my Blu-ray player to a 4K player, but even though I can't take full advantage of this Special Edition, it is well worth having for the ordinary Blu-ray. Top Mark.