It's one of
the greatest British films of all time - and it was released 50 years ago,
enjoying its European premiere at Newcastle's Haymarket cinema on Sunday, March
7, 1971.
Get Carter
tells the violent tale of London gangster, Jack Carter, who returns to his home
city, Newcastle, to avenge the death of his brother.
Starring
Michael Caine, and with a budget of £750,000, the critically acclaimed movie
was shot in the North East and used the people and places of the region as a
dramatic backdrop to the action.
Half a
century on we've returned to some of the locations used in the film and
photographed the same scenes today.
Some have
been transformed beyond all recognition, while some are relatively unchanged.
The first in
our three-part series of 10 then-and-now photographs was published recently.
This is part two. Part three will follow.
The media
historian and broadcaster Chris Phipps was an authority on Get Carter. Sadly
Chris died in August 2019.
He said of
the film: "Michael Caine steps off a train at Newcastle, orders a drink
and walks into cinematic history.
“Get Carter
coldly documents his portrayal of mobster Jack Carter who investigates the
mysterious death of his older brother and uncovers a web of corruption and vice
in Newcastle.
“The plot
unfolds - a hybrid of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Terminator - as Carter
plans and literally executes a violent campaign of revenge in the name of his
family.
“Caine’s
portrayal of Jack Carter is iconic and revolutionary. Here is a real gangster
exacting real revenge - not a flashy comical spiv that had generally populated
British post-war films.
“It was
perhaps a reflection of the psychopathic Kray twins who had been sentenced in
the late-1960s as a dark conclusion to swinging ‘60s London.
“Caine shares
the screen with the city of Newcastle. Ted Lewis’s original novel was set in
his native Humberside. Get Carter director Mike Hodges had instead chosen
Newcastle as the gritty, corrupt and changing backdrop that had shaped Jack
Carter.”
Chris
continued: “Hodges' background in documentary and current affairs brought an
authenticity to the story which gives it an edge decades later. Roy Budd’s
economic eerie score completed the effect.
“Caine’s
co-stars featured a fledgling Alun Armstrong and an uncredited Jimmy Nail. Get
Carter immortalised the span of the High Level Bridge and the brutal concrete
heights of the Gateshead Trinity car park.
“1971 was a watershed year for crime on the
big screen. It gave us the amoral cops of Dirty Harry and The French Connection
and put Jack Carter in good company.”
The action
aside, Get Carter captures the region at a unique time in its history,
depicting a vision of Tyneside, much of which has vanished.
See the 'then and now' images via: -
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