While “cool” violence has arguably been around for longer (if you consider the gangsters in older American film noir films to be “cool,”) Jack Carter is probably the most badass murderer this side of Shaft. All of the glorious holdovers of successful cinema from the later 60’s, essentially drug, sex, and violence ‘o plenty, are thankfully preserved here, all with a gritty edge and very few of the usual action film clichés.
Jack Carter, an Englishman not to be messed with, travels north to Newcastle in order to investigate his brother’s mysterious death. Upon arriving, it becomes fairly clear that people aren’t talking, that something or someone is hiding something from him. Unfortunately for them, Carter doesn’t back down and he doesn’t leave quietly. Systematically, he thwarts underworld elements from both Newcastle and London, extracting increasingly bizarre information about his dead brother and coming ever closer to finding the dodgy bloke who did it. All the while, he sexes up women, from the old and homely caretaker of his bed & breakfast to the long-distance seduction of his “girlfriend” Anna (played here by Britt Ekland, who pushes the concept of undeserving credit to its maximum- she appears in approximately 5 minutes of the film, spending more time rubbing her beautiful naked bosom then actually talking.) Carter combines the suaveness of James Bond, the ambiguous coolness of Thomas from Antonioni’s Blow-Up, and the indestructibility of Spartacus. Michael Caine, unfortunately now reducing to playing mere caricatures of his former self (as in the recent Austin Powers in Goldmember,) was on top of the world as Jack Carter.
Without a film such as this, there would be no Tarrantino, and this entire generation would have no idea of what successfully wrought stylized violence can be. Upon closest examination, the film is one part Dirty Dozen and one part Blow-Up. A gritty, elite protagonist plows his way through problem after problem, all while maintaining and exporting the coolness of British culture, even after the heyday of the 60’s. Add to this the fairly shocking ending, and we’ve got the recipe for a pretty important film. At an even deeper level, the concept of eye-for-an-eye justice is thoroughly examined, with the end result being bittersweet. This film, like its close contemporaries A Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs, examines violence in an ultra-realistic light (visually persuasive, yet gratuitous) and eventually makes moral judgments based on the end result of said violence. Get Carter really shows that being cool, banging lots of chicks, and killing people, even in the name of justice, can still be a reason to lose in the end.
Oh, and Michael Caine kicks ass. He legitimizes the cockney accent.
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