mikeyboy

Hey guys, im doing a project on Get Carter (1971 version) and Trainspotting (1996) and was wondering if anyone could answer some questions...email me back at feel_my_love_buzz@hotmail.com, or reply online. thanx for your time...

1. when did you first see the film Get Carter?

2.what was it that first interested you in Get Carter as a movie?

3. how do you feel the representation of crime has changed in film in the last 30 years since Get Carter?

4. how true to life do u think the representation of crime is in Get Carter? (in other words how realistic does the film appear to be?

5. any other comments you want to make?


Thats it for now! cheers guys!!

DB7

1. when did you first see the film Get Carter?

Late 1970s.

2.what was it that first interested you in Get Carter as a movie?

Nothing in particular. At the time Michael Caine wasn't the respected actor he is today and was going through his 'accept any role' stage. Get Carter, tho I'm sure admired, really took off for a younger generation when Guy Ritchie arrived, the expolsion of 'lads' mags and it's subsequent re-release during the 90s.

Before that, I remember Alex Cox praising the film during it's showing on his much-missed Moviedrome series on BBC2.

3. how do you feel the representation of crime has changed in film in the last 30 years since Get Carter?

Far more stylised and unlike Get Carter often little character development or expansion on their motives. (apart from getting rich quickly)

4. how true to life do u think the representation of crime is in Get Carter? (in other words how realistic does the film appear to be?

Not very. Walking out into the street with a shotgun in the nude and a shootout in broad daylght by the ferry are liable to bring the police to the scene very quickly.

The stabbing behind the bookmakers is far more believable.

The casting of Ian Hendry and George Sewell gave it something of a 'Sweeney' feel of villainy.

5. any other comments you want to make?

I'd like to have seen maybe a bit more of Caine's time in London. Top marks for not going with a happy ending.

dylan

1. when did you first see the film Get Carter?

1971

2.what was it that first interested you in Get Carter as a movie?

It had good reviews comparing it to The Big Sleep and other noirs - although it was really nothing of the sort. I had also been impressed by Mike Hodges work on TV.

4. how true to life do u think the representation of crime is in Get Carter? (in other words how realistic does the film appear to be?

Previous British crime films had shown the London underworld run by the likes of Herbert Lom. After the trial of the Krays such depictions were ludicrous and the film had to show a more credible gangland. However, the film is not about organised British crime in the 70s: Caine is a modern day Samurai out to avenge the death of his brother and defilement of his niece/daughter.

Carterh

I first saw the movie (with my mum) in the early 80’s, late night BBC2. It was one of those movies that was shown again and again (like 'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot' and 'The Anderson Tapes'. I remember it well from my childhood.

I was first attracted to the movie because it was supposed to be violent and kind of like the Sweeny. Well, I was a kid.

The depiction of crime is much more stylised now. At the time ‘Get Carter’ was one of the very few British movies that had portrayed gangsters in a realistic(ish) way. Only really ‘Brighton Rock’ had done so previously (setting myself up for a fall here).

I think that the film remains fairly realistic compared to many contemporary Brit crime movies. Only ‘The Long Good Friday’ and ‘Villain’ match it. I understand that part of the remit for the film was to attempt a more realistic portrayal of gangland life. Note the fact that when Cain/Carter throws the chap from the high rise building he lands on a car full of people, something you almost never see.

Good luck

Carterh

Are you aware of the Blaxploitation remake of 'Get Carter'? 'The Hit-Man'. You thought that the Stallone version was bad?

viennese

1. when did you first see the film Get Carter?
> 1985.

2.what was it that first interested you?
> My British editor told me it was one of those essentially British male experiences, one of those primal things that I had to see it to understand British cinema and British men.

3. how do you feel the representation of crime has changed in film in the last 30 years since Get Carter?
>>Most films in the last thirty years have been made for younger audiences, teenagers. Get Carter was made for and about adults. Trainspotting showed the fun and thrill of living on the edge (the way a teenage junkie would see it, at the beginning, before real addiction set in)
Get Carter was about a man who'd lived his whole adult life in the underworld. Can you imagine a young Carter, thrilling to anything?

4. how true to life do u think the representation of crime is in Get Carter? (in other words how realistic does the film appear to be?
>>Not realistic. Except for the phone sex. That was quite good.

5. any other comments you want to make?