Yeah baby, talking about the 1971 Michael Caine classic and not the abomination that was the remake of Get Carter that starred Stalone. Get Carter is just a brutal, brutal movie that has Michael Caine taking on the mob underworld in a very well paced revenge flick that has a lot more to offer than just shotgun blasts and death. No, Michael Caine brings his charming Britishisms to the role of a revenge seeking killer of mob men and makes for supremely satisfying action flick.
Get Carter stars Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a powerful British gangster out for blood. His brother has been murdered in Newcastle, prompting Carter to declare a one-man war on other racketeers. Carter must also get his niece out of the life she is leading as an actress in pornographic films. Now that he is a loose cannon, Carter must be eliminated. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Get Carter is a gangster film that pulls no punches on the nudity, violence and balls out action that Michael Caine just calmly walks through on this movie. Now I realize that a lot of people don’t think of Caine as an action star or that he has it in him to be a vicious action man, more like they think of him as a British royalty or butler. But this movie, that pretty much puts to rest any concerns that you have with Caine being a man of action. Get Carter is the movie that finally brought him into the conversation of action stars with this movie showcasing his abilities in the revenge genre. A movie that makes the audience root for a mob assassin who also happens to be part of the gangster scene. So no honor among thieves, Carter is out for pure vengeance in honor of his slain brother. The mob man Carter throws it all away in the underworld and goes out killing as a marked man the world he left behind.
It’s always fascinating to me when I watch a movie with all the characters being seedy, bad men, that you are in the end rooting for a bad man to take out the other baddies of the movie. It just takes one morally right thing for a bad guy to inhabit to turn them into someone we want to see succeed. In this case we are watching a man who is seeking justice for his slain brother, take apart the mob in a rather dapper fashion. You are rooting for a bad guy, while still seeing this street justice happen on screen, makes you a bit tingly cheering for the supposed wrong side of the law. But the movie works well thanks to the directing of Mike Hodges who makes Caine into a well rounded criminal with morals. Sure he does bad things, but he is quiet and stoic when not toting around a shotgun and throwing people off buildings. He might be ruthless but Caine is able to make him into a sympathetic character that is more than just a mobster.
The action of the movie violent, but more done with cutaways than straight up seeing the brutality of the kills. There aren’t scenes where Carter is just murdering dozens of baddies, which I think works better in action movies and fits the narrow field of view that Carter has on his revenge quest. Too many modern action flicks think large scale action fights work best for an audience, but limiting the destruction and anger of death to just a few unfortunate baddies make the deaths and violence that much more visceral. It makes the culling of the villains gratifying when you realize that death or action scene is limited to between a few people. This mobster movie brings that edge to it along with some melodrama, never letting you forget the goal that Carter is out to achieve.
If you ever wanted to see a solid Michael Caine action flick, Get Carter is a must for anyone looking for just that. The solid, melodrama revenge flick is one of the best out there and the America remake lost that sight when it just turned it into a mayhem, violent ride of death and revenge, losing a bit of the subtlety that made the original something memorable. Plus it is Michael Caine out for revenge, how often do you get to see that?
