Als sein Bruder unter mysteriösen Umständen bei einem Autounfall stirbt, reist der Londoner Gangster Jack Carter nach Newcastle, um Nachforschungen anzustellen.Als sein Bruder unter mysteriösen Umständen bei einem Autounfall stirbt, reist der Londoner Gangster Jack Carter nach Newcastle, um Nachforschungen anzustellen.Als sein Bruder unter mysteriösen Umständen bei einem Autounfall stirbt, reist der Londoner Gangster Jack Carter nach Newcastle, um Nachforschungen anzustellen.
- Nominiert für 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 Nominierung insgesamt
- Glenda
- (as Geraldine Moffatt)
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This interesting film features thrills , raw energy ,adult subject matter with abundant nudism , lots of violence and enlivened by high-powered performances . Plenty of intrigue, atmospheric music , kinky sex ,noisy action and grisly killings until impressive finale vengeance . It is a movie very violent , depressing charismatic , magnificently set , but always strong , with a perfect abstraction of a climate of moral misery to game with the cold environment and ramshackle scenarios well photographed by cameraman Wolfgang Suschitzky . Adequate musical score by Roy Budd with a rare mixture , the dark psychedelia of the movement "Northen Soul" , so fashionable in the proletarian clubs from the north of England of the 70s .
This British 1971 film "GET CARTER¨ is an original movie and is far superior subsequent 1972 remake , a Black Gangster version titled ¨The hit-man¨, a Blaxploitiation movie regularly directed by George Armitage with Bernie Casie , Pam Grier , Roger E Mosley and Paul Gleason . And remade again (2000) by Stephen Kay , in which Las Vegas avenger goes home to Seattle to learn his brother's death , starred by Silvester Stallone in the title role , Miranda Richardson , Alan Cummings , Mickey Rourke and again Michael Caine at a special appearance .
Certainly he's surrounded in a murky enough criminal environment. The Newcastle of 'Get Carter' is a place with sleazy gangsters betting big bucks and nightclubs with of-the-period music, and women running hotels with weathered looks on their faces. It's here that Carter goes on his investigation, like a hard-boiled detective without mercy. And as he digs deeper into what is at the heart of the mystery- that Frank Carter wasn't a saint, but got duped by the criminal elements and in a pornographic film that brings Jack to tears of rage- it becomes clear he'll have to knock a few heads, and shoot when he must... which is a lot.
Carter might be more unlikable if not for the star in the role. Michael Caine has a look to him in this film that recalls Alain Delon in the Jean-Pierre Melville pictures, specifically Le Samourai. Nothing can really flinch this guy, unless it's something that he actually cares about. But Caine gives humanity to a character that is on the move, almost always, and has to be on his toes when around unsavory characters. I loved seeing how Caine can just be great at looking around a room or a situation or looking over a person, and how when he gets angry, boy you better get out (even if, or sometimes especially because, you're a woman not dishing on what needs to be told). Caine helps a film that needs that star quality- other actors like John Osbourne as the Big Gangster Kinnear and Ian Hendry as Eric do well enough if only good performances- and where the film digs into some subversive, dark terrain, we have to keep watching it to see how Caine can pull it off.
Another perk for Hodges is how he deals with the action. Often his film will feel a little slow-going (never too boring, but of a time period, the 70's, when a story could take a little more time in establishing mood), but when action and violence come up it's genuinely shocking and thrilling. We expect to get some satisfaction seeing Carter getting his payback at the criminals, but here there's a dastardly twist as to how just rotten Carter can be with these figures. He goes to their level, and Hodges lets us go along for the wicked neo-noir ride. Some may find it too dark, or just a little too unrelentingly bleak with what Carter finds and how he gets his revenge. But there's the bittersweet part to it as well, especially in the last act, that makes it worthwhile.
It's a thoroughly unlikable movie, from Caine's seething performance through Wolfgang Suchitsky's overcast Technicolor lighting through the apathetic and evil people who inhabit the movie's world. At the same time, this neo-noir take on the Elizabethan Revenge drama is a brilliant exposition on the dark side. There's no one to admire here, no dark humor. The people in charge are not misfits. John Osborne, as a local crook, isn't a man oppressed by his environment, searching for a meaning that isn't there. He's a smart man who has judged his society accurately and coldly applied its rules to his own profit.
Caine's self-loathing rage is likewise efficiently applied. The police won't come and save anyone, they won't avenge anyone, they won't restore order by finding the bad guys. They are almost unseen, a howling car showing up too late, unable to stop or even notice Caine's spree. There is no justice, just revenge, and application of the rule that mad dogs must be put down.
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Then too, Caine's ice-blue eyes are put to good use in sizing up his targets. And catch that gear shifting in the fast car timed to coincide with Carter's fast action on the bed. At last the subtext of all those sleek auto advertisements is revealed, this time in high octane. I just wish we saw more of Ms. Ekland, both literally and especially figuratively. And if that's not enough, catch that great ending. It's a marvel of imaginative staging and a perfect cap to what's gone before. Anyway, the movie reminds me of a polished piece of glass-- just about as cold and shiny and needing no depth. I couldn't stop looking at it.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesWriter and director Mike Hodges was surprised that a star of Michael Caine's stature would want to play Carter. Caine said "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny." He identified with Carter as a memory of his working class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine."
- PatzerKinnear's LandRover [BYX 564B], driven by Eric Paice throughout most of the movie, is the same vehicle used by the Police when they raid Kinnear's mansion near the end.
- Zitate
Cliff Brumby: [blocking Carter's path] Listen, I don't like it when some tough nut comes pushin' his way in and out of my house in the middle of the night! Bloody well tell me who sent you!
Jack Carter: You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself.
[Brumby takes a swing at Carter, who grabs his hand, punches him, and then slaps him in the face for good measure]
Jack Carter: [as he's leaving] Goodnight, Mrs. Brumby.
- Alternative VersionenDue to deep accents of some characters, the film was partially dubbed for the US release to allow Americans to understand what the characters on screen were saying.
- VerbindungenFeatured in V.I.P.-Schaukel: Folge #7.1 (1977)
- SoundtracksLookin' For Someone
(uncredited)
Music by Roy Budd
Lyrics by Jack Fishman
Sung by Lesley Cline, Mick Gallagher and John Turnbull
Top-Auswahl
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsland
- Offizieller Standort
- Sprache
- Auch bekannt als
- Carter - Asesino implacable
- Drehorte
- Blackhall Rocks Beach, Blackhall Rocks, Hartlepool, County Durham, England, Vereinigtes Königreich(Final Confrontation between Carter & Paice on the beach and by the aerial ropeway coal skips.)
- Produktionsfirma
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
Box Office
- Budget
- 750.000 £ (geschätzt)
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 60.404 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 52 Minuten
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.85 : 1