Rating: ***
Review Date: 7/6/26
Cast: Michael Caine, Alun Armstrong, Petra Markham, Geraldine Moffat,
Dorothy White, cameo by Britt Ekland
"I'm the villain in the family, remember?"
Ignoring warnings from the mob, gangster Jack Carter (Michael Caine) returns home to investigate the death of his brother. Jack knows it wasn't an accident, and he's a cold and ruthless bastard who will stop at nothing to find the truth, no matter how ugly that truth may be. Friends and foes alike suffer from his relentless thirst for revenge.
It's a slow-burning thriller that suffers from glacial pacing, but Michael Caine holds the film together with his shocking cruelty and unwavering intensity. Carter is not a man you want to mess with, let alone even know. While his cause is sympathetic, his character and his methods definitely aren't. The brutally abrupt ending is one of the most shocking things I've seen on film and really drives home the price of senseless violence.
Michael Caine delivers a career-defining performance, and the rest of the cast are great as well. Petra Markham is delightful as the innocent and doe-eyed Doreen, while Geraldine Moffat and Dorothy White give excellent portrayals of trashy women. A spicy Britt Ekland shows up in exactly two scenes, and her sole purpose in the film is to wear some sexy underwear and take her top off. Not that I'm complaining, but it would have been nice to expand on her character a bit. However, that would be at odds with Carter's misogynistic and womanizing ways. The film features a couple of slyly humorous sex scenes, including a hilarious bit with Geraldine Moffat that rapidly alternates between her and Carter in bed, and her suggestively jerking off the gearshift in her car. No subtlety there...
Not surprisingly, it's a very bleak, ugly, and gritty film, and the production values seem overly pedestrian. Whether that's due to the film's age, the budget, or the director's choice is unknown. As I mentioned before, the pacing is a serious issue and literally nothing happens in the first forty minutes. There's very little action to speak of, and violence is handled in a very realistic and clinical way. It takes very little to hurt someone, and Carter's violent outbursts are over as soon as they've begun. While justice and vengeance are always good narrative vehicles, "Get Carter" is not a pleasant, entertaining, or satisfying film to watch, and it's hard to care about any of the characters except for Keith (Alun Armstrong) and the young Doreen, who's only in a handful of scenes.