Review of Get Carter (1971) by Amanda J — 31 Jan 2009

Thought this was gonna be 3 1/2-, 4-star movie...it's good, but dated in certain ways. I liked how England looks in this movie, where the seedy parts actually look seedy intead of weirdly glamorous (as in a Guy Richie film or even a rap video), and Michael Caine is good when he's scaring the bejesus out of the limo driver.

The violence against women is what gets me about this movie--while the Godfather movies deliberately present the gangsters' violent misogyny as one of their greatest flaws, splintering the Corleone family in different ways, in Get Carter the violence is justified when the girl is "bad" but must be avenged when the girl is "good," or a close relative.

We're supposed to admire Carter for smacking one girl around because he's defending the honour of another. It's a good movie, you just have to remember it was made in 1971.