Review of Get Carter (1971) by Emil R — 26 Dec 2007

Now there are two types of cinema goers and film buffs out there: those that pretty much want an explosion in the first five seconds of any film and then theres those that like a film with a plot paced out and with a little meat to it.

Although Get Carter is not exactly a thinking mans film that is both graphic, violent and brash. But yet there is many assets to be had from the piece that to be honest makes it the latters film choice. It is slow pacing film inasmuch as it takes 30 minutes till the action starts. HOWEVER, and this is a big however what it misses in terms of the 'wham-bam' factor it makes up in a story and style. The first 30 minutes we learn that Jack Carter is out to avenge the death of his brother in the dark cold industrial town 'up north.' However it is not only that simple, for see, Jacks brother and indeed Jack himself are involved in the heady dangerous world of Gangsters and the seedy world of pornographers. With a blistering soundtrack that is reminisant of 70's blaxplotaition flicks and oodles of style that oozes out of the grim industrial wastelands and quite frankly out of Michael Caine.

Out of them all this was the granddaddy of British gangster films that avoids playing upon the cliches because it invented them.