The gangster flick is one of the most popular and loved film genres, raking in billions of pounds for studios across the globe. Hollywood has never shied away from depicting the violent deeds and lives of these brutal criminal clans – be they of Irish, Russian or Italian origin.
Not to be outdone, British cinema has its own rich repertoire of gangster movies, many starring some of the UK’s most iconic actors. Bob Hoskins will be forever remembered for his portrayal of Harold Shand in the Long Good Friday, while Richard Attenborough won many plaudits for his depiction of Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock.
Other notable British gangster films include Sexy Beast, The Krays and Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.
But perhaps the greatest one is Mike Hodges’ 1971 classic starring Sir Michael Caine as Jack Carter.
Get Carter follows the eponymous hero as he returns to his hometown of Newcastle from London to find that his brother has been murdered.
Caine’s character embarks on a vengeful rampage that takes him deep into the dark criminal underworld of Newcastle.
The British acting legend said he had used his own childhood and upbringing to help bring his character alive on the big screen.
“One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background,” he told a local Californian newspaper in 2002.
“Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment and my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine.”
The film has been praised for its gritty realism and over time gained a cult following.
“Rarely has the criminal underworld been so realistically portrayed than in this 1971 masterpiece,” the Chiswick Cinema wrote in a rave review on its website.
They added: “Shot on location, resulting in a devastatingly authentic snapshot of life in the north east of England in the late industrial period, Get Carter remains arguably the grittiest and greatest of all British crime films.”
Get Carter was a financial success in the uK, but was not a major box office hit overall.
On its opening week at ABC2 cinema at Shaftesbury Avenue in London, it broke the house record taking £8,188.