MIKE HODGES DIRECTS A KILLER MICHAEL CAINE IN 'GET CARTER'

Title: GET CARTER Year: 1971 Rating: *****

The plot of director Mike Hodges' GET CARTER is simple enough: London-based gangster Michael Caine as Jack Carter returns to the squalor of hometown Newcastle to find out how his brother died, which was supposedly a drunk driving accident that Jack thinks was murder...

Easy so far, sure, but how he figures out the truth is more complicated than memorizing Shakespeare in Klingon... And in the opening scene he's reading Raymond Chandler, a nod to the kind of Film Noir that GET CARTER embraces by the myriad of last names spouted in a dizzying barrage that needs close paying attention to... 

Michael Caine in GET CARTER

But instead of a discovering the truth mystery/thriller it's a nihilistic avenge the truth exploitation that's said to have started the Second British New Wave, providing the usually charming anti-hero Caine his all-time coldest/coolest role. The women involved he either cares nothing about or is about to treat as callously as the men...

The sporadic action is filmed with a 1970's zooming-precision between the voyeuristic documentary-style buildup set against the grungy "crap house" Newcastle landscape — a soulless purgatory where our proverbial shark swims through a maze of piranha (who can only kill if he slows down), making the excessive violence not only common, but commonplace. "Remember," Jack's told before the opening credits. "They're killers... just like you!" And like any noir, GET CARTER is a house built of sand molded from a previous warning.

Michael Caine in GET CARTER with Rosemarie Dunham & George Sewell

Michael Caine is Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine is Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER w/ Ian Hendry

Grungy locale of Newcastle from GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Geraldine Moffat in Get Carter with a LET IT BLEED album

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine in GET CARTER

George Sewell and Tony Beckley in GET CARTER

Michael Caine pays another visit in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Alun Armstrong in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Alun Armstrong in GET CARTER

Michael Caine in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Ian Hendry in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Ian Hendry in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Ian Hendry in GET CARTER

Filming GET CARTER if ever Michael Caine was stoned it was this day

Back when New Tricks old guy Allun Armstrong was a "good lad" for GET CARTER

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER with Geraldine Moffat

Michael Caine as Jack Carter in GET CARTER with Geraldine Moffat

Weak b-plot (Jack's tryst with boss's girl) but Britt Eckland's hot in GET CARTER

Michael Caine in GET CARTER

Michael Caine is Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Michael Caine is Jack Carter in GET CARTER

Petra Markham and Geraldine Moffat in GET CARTER

Petra Markham and Michael Caine in GET CARTER

Petra Markham in GET CARTER

Michael Caine in GET CARTER

Godfrey Quigley in GET CARTER

Michael Caine and Geraldine Moffat in GET CARTER