Get Carter

Chapel Distribution | Release Date: March 18, 1971

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

80	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Grim, violent, and stylishly directed, Get Carter is an interesting film that brings some freshness to British crime cinema. Read full review

100

EmpireNeil Jeffries

Possibly Caine's finest hour in one of the grittiest, most suspense-filled crime dramas of all time. Read full review

100

The GuardianMichael Hann

Get Carter has as much value as a piece of social history as it does as a thriller. Read full review

100

EmpireMark Dinning

Arguably the best British gangster movie ever made. Read full review

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

There's no mistaking its chilling charisma and style. [11 Jun 1999, p.15]

The TelegraphTim Robey

There are no good guys in this quietly gripping adaptation of Ted Lewis's 1969 novel Jack's Return Home, but cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky brings out the stark beauty of the North-East while capturing their attempts to kill each other. [09 Mar 2020]

Almar Haflidason

As bleak as it is hard and viciously uncompromising, Get Carter is one of those films that has become increasingly interesting over time. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Mike Hodges' top-notch adaptation of a Ted Lewis novel not only maintains interest but conveys with rare artistry, restraint and clarity the many brutal, sordid and gamy plot turns. Read full review

Peter Schjeldahl

Its violence is so ghastly and unremitting and its view of the human condition is so perfectly vile that one would almost rather wash one's mouth out with soap than recommend it. Yet it is so finely acted and crafted—and is so spectacularly better than the run of its genre—that as a lover of movies one feels practically diity‐bound to sing its praises. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Get Carter has the sure feel for the underbelly of society, like the good American detective novelists have always had. Read full review

Don Druker

Often grim, sometimes nasty, but awfully interesting. Read full review

John Doyle

You can practically taste the grit and grime of the mean streets of this North of England setting. [17 Aug 1996, p.11]

Staff (Not Credited)

Refusing ever to dwell, it cuts sharp rather than deep, but sharp enough. Read full review

Pauline Kael

So calculatedly cool and soulless and nastily erotic that it seems to belong to a new genre of virtuoso viciousness. What makes the movie unusual is the metallic elegance and the singleminded proficiency with which it adheres its sadism-for-the-connoisseur formula.

The TelegraphStaff (Not Credited)

Carter, of course, is a paragon of strength, intelligence, ruthlessness, sexual attraction and even a dry sense of humour. Michael Caine does well to portray him impassively, as if he feared to burst out laughing. [12 Mar 1971]