Critique: Film> Reviews.

Get Carter is a classic, gritty revenge movie about a London gangster returning to his home town, Newcastle, to avenge his brother's death.

The premise has been repeated numerous times before, but Wolfgang Suschitzky's bleak cinematography is memorable as it focuses upon the seamy, criminal underworld of Northern England, deliberately isolating the film's anti-hero from his environment.

Caine's performance as the cold-blooded Brit seems refreshing even by today's standards. He's hardly your typical tea-drinking gentleman; Carter is a thug walking round with a double-barrelled shot gun taking out his enemies one by one -- he does not mess about. The man even finds time to seduce a couple of women so that there's no grassing along the way.

Get Carter paved the way for the numerous British gangster flicks that came afterwards. Accompanied by Roy Budd's despondent score, it's hardly PC, but that's one of the main reasons why the film is still much respected today.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.