Get Carter (Hodges, 1971): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 8.45pm
This screening is part of the great Moviedrome: Bringing the Cult TV Series to the Big Screen season. Other screenings of The Wicker Man take place on July 17th and 22nd
Time out review:
'What would Jesus say?' demands the tapestry mounted over the shabby
rooming house bed which, as Jack Carter (Michael Caine) surmises upon his return
home from London, has 'seen some action in its time'. The question goes
unanswered. Christ has forsaken the grimy muteness of Newcastle, 1971,
just as surely as he was airlifted out of Rome in La Dolce Vita a
decade earlier - and though they share initials, Carter certainly won't
be filling his shoes. A dapper, domineering angel of vengeance, he
stands a head above his fellow hoods, but not apart from them. This is
movie modernism British-style. The occasional stylistic flourishes
suggest the imported influence of the New Wave, the brief bursts of sex,
violence and soundtrack funk offer a trendsetting '70s take on the
gangster movie. But its prime virtue now, in 2004, looks like its
depiction of a nation slowly made to face its own moral and physical
dilapidation, hope and glory gone way down and out. Like the train
journey opening the film, Mike Hodges' debut offers a tunnel vision of
this landscape. He shoots it cold, sparse and ambivalent, the terse,
gnomic plotting and dialogue doubtless contributing to the allure of
what might otherwise be a relatively plain genre movie. Refusing ever to
dwell, it cuts sharp rather than deep, but sharp enough.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment