Title: Get Carter
Genre: Crime / Gangster Film
Running Time: 112 mins.
Director: Mike Hodges
Was it a must-see?
Confession: I was stalling this movie a bit because, other than the Godfather and Godfather II, I wasn’t into gangster films much. But then I thought, it was Michael Caine. And I’ve never seen a movie of his when he was younger. So I pushed play.
And then I pushed pause.
First line. FIRST line and I had to go searching for subtitles. I’m not saying this movie isn’t in english. It is. But it’s English english. I have nothing against that, but the actors in the first scene were hard to understand, especially since their vowels were sooo rounded and me being a Filipino, our language speaks vowels very flatly. For example, SPOILER ALERT for those who wish to watch this movie with virgin eyes: the first scene is Carter with his two crime bosses, watching a black & white slide show (yes, a slide show) of pornographic photos. And at that instant, I heard one of the bosses say, “Bottleneck Richard sucks on?”
I was like, wait a minute, yes, the girl in the photo was sucking “it” but who or what, the hell is “Bottleneck Richard”? Downloaded subtitles, adjusted it and found out this was what he really said, “Buck-naked with your socks on?” Mystery solved.
Anyway, let’s get back on track. I did a little digging, as I usually do after watching a movie (I don’t know why I do that), and found that this was Mike Hodges’ first feature film as a director and it was based on Ted Lewis’ 1969 novel, Jack’s Return Home.
I have to say, I really didn’t expect to like this movie. I once again judged it by its title, and its poster. And at first, I thought I was right. But when things started going, I found myself hooked in the mystery. Who? Who did it? What happened? And once I got to the last scenes of the movie, when everything was unfolding, I appreciated the time Hodges took to layout the characters in order to get that effect of things snowballing to the ending (in a good way).
There was a lot of nudity in this film. And true to the freedom of the 70s, it was raw, daring but it wasn’t the focus. I don’t know if you noticed it, but the nudity in 70s films or 80s too, maybe, were a little scandalous than films nowadays but classier. Maybe because they were treated as part of the story or the scene and no one was making a big deal out of it. Or maybe because the actors made it seem natural and not porn-like. I don’t know.
One more thing, I also didn’t expect to find Michael Caine sexy, but he was.
Did I learn anything?
Nothing philosophical or substantial. Just another realization that I might have missed out on great films because I judged it too early.
Best moment:
I won’t say what happened, but it was the very end, the very last scene that made me gasp so loud. A character that you easily forget, because he had like, 10 seconds of screen time and you don’t even see his face, suddenly makes an appearance at the very end and made the whole film.
Best line:
“Bottleneck Richard sucks on?”
I’m sorry, it has made an unforgettable impression.
P.S. I forgot to mention this, but this is another film where some of the credits were shown as part of the intro before the movie started. Was that a normal thing in movies back then? Looks like it.
The 1001 Movies Challenge 