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REVENGE

Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Film was

Get Carter (1971)

Michael Caine is a London gangster whose brother gets killed in Newcastle. He seeks the killers to take revenge even though he is told by his boss to let it go.

Thus, we have a who-dunnit followed by a hard boiled and merciless revenge mission.

And now, people are after Carter because he is breaking the criminal code of territory and personal vendetta. Apparently, this kind of thing is not done in these circles.

All of this is told against the sleazy, seedy, background of Newcastle.

It is sort of noir in color with a strong dose of cinema verité; a lot of handheld.

Caine is relentless. He lets out all his inner thug.

He has appeared in such a grab bag of films; mixed quality. He says that he has always been afraid of being broke and so he took everything on offer.

Caine fans must beware of the bad bits in his filmography. In this case, we have one of the good ones.

I liked it even though it is not the kind of thing that I would choose for myself; another Best Films bit of serendipity.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 because I felt a bit of distance. Not into it all the way.