Editing Get Carter (section)

===Development===
In the late 1960s, a relaxation in [[Film censorship#United Kingdom|film censorship]] produced an increase in dark, uncompromising films, with many directors pushing the boundaries of acceptability. ''Get Carter'' was a film that explored this freedom.<ref name="Good, 03-20-2011">{{cite web |last=Good |first=Oliver |title=The crime-genre game-changer Get Carter turns 40. Mar 20, 2011 |url=http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/the-crime-genre-game-changer-get-carter-turns-40 |work=The National |date=20 March 2011 |publisher=Abu Dhabai Media |access-date=10 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321142159/http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/the-crime-genre-game-changer-get-carter-turns-40 |archive-date=21 March 2011 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The project went from concept to finished film in just 10 months.<ref name=Klinger/>

In 1969, producer Michael Klinger devised plans for a gangster film to capitalise on public interest in the British criminal underworld after the [[Kray Twins]]' convictions. Klinger was invited to view a first print of [[Pete Walker (director)|Peter Walker]]'s ''[[Man of Violence]]'' (1969) and was unimpressed, telling the director "I'm going to make a gangster film, but it's going to cost a lot more than this and it's going to be better".<ref name="Chibnall, p. 21">Chibnall, p. 21</ref>
After searching many publishers for material to adapt into a film, Klinger purchased the rights to Ted Lewis's novel ''Jack's Return Home''. Andrew Spicer has written that "he [Klinger] sensed its potential to imbue the British crime thriller with the realism and violence of its American counterparts".<ref name="Spicer-2009">{{cite web|last=Spicer|first=Andrew|title=The Creative Producer – The Michael Klinger Papers|url=http://michaelklingerpapers.uwe.ac.uk/pub2.htm|work=Andrew Spicer, University of the West of England: The Creative Producer – The Michael Klinger Papers; • Paper Given at the University of Stirling Conference, Archives and Auteurs – Filmmakers and their Archives, 2–4 September 2009|publisher=uwe|access-date=20 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224213626/http://michaelklingerpapers.uwe.ac.uk/pub2.htm|archive-date=24 February 2012}}</ref>

Klinger had been approached in 1969 by another producer, [[Nat Cohen]], to make films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).<ref>Steve Chibnall, Robert Murphy (eds.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=reNDwJexhgEC&pg=PA128 ''British Crime Cinema''], London: Routledge, 1999, p.128</ref> In financial trouble and shutting down its British operations, MGM was in the process of closing [[MGM-British Studios|its British studios]] at [[Borehamwood]]<ref name="Murphy-1999">{{cite book|last=Murphy|first=Robert|title=British Crime Cinema (British Popular Cinema) |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=UK |isbn=978-0-415-16870-0|page=128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_--Ebdp6mwAC&q=michael%20klinger%20mgm&pg=PA128|author2=Steve Chibnall}}</ref> and was looking to make smaller-budget films to turn a profit. At this time Klinger's friend [[Robert Littman]] had been appointed head of MGM Europe and so Klinger took his proposal to him.<ref name="Chibnall, p. 21">Chibnall, p. 21</ref>"<ref name="four">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-moguls-nat-cohen-part-four-cohen-vs-bryan-forbes-1969-71/|magazine=Filmink|access-date=24 January 2025|date=24 January 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten British Moguls – Nat Cohen Part Four: Cohen vs Bryan Forbes (1969-71)}}</ref>

MGM agreed to a reasonable but below-average budget of 750,000 (there is some dispute as to whether this figure refers to dollars or pounds)<ref name=Klinger>{{cite web|last=Klinger|first=Tony|title=Interview with Mike Hodges|url=http://michaelklingerpapers.uwe.ac.uk/mhodges.htm|work=The Michael Klinger Papers|publisher=University of West England|access-date=10 March 2012|author2=Andrew Spicer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227132534/http://michaelklingerpapers.uwe.ac.uk/mhodges.htm|archive-date=27 December 2013|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> for the production.<ref name="Mayer-2007">{{cite book|last=Mayer|first=Geoff|title=Encyclopedia of film noir|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press |location=England |isbn=978-0-313-33306-4|page=195|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsBHnZoyO4kC&q=michael%20klinger%20mgm&pg=PA195}}</ref> Within months of agreeing to the deal MGM had pulled out of the UK.<ref name="Chibnall, p. 21">Chibnall, p. 21</ref> Klinger had seen Mike Hodges's television film ''Suspect'' (1969) and immediately decided he was the ideal candidate to direct his new project.<ref name="Chibnall, p. 21"/> Hodges had also previously worked on current affairs programme ''[[World in Action]]'', the arts programme ''Tempo'' and a 1968 children's television serial, ''[[The Tyrant King]]'', and all these past experiences informed his approach to his film debut.<ref name="Williams-2006">{{cite journal|last=Williams|first=Tony|title=Great Directors: Mike Hodges|journal=Senses of Cinema|year=2006|issue=40|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/great-directors/hodges/|access-date=11 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311063229/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/great-directors/hodges/|archive-date=11 March 2012|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Klinger contacted Hodges on 27 January 1970 with a copy of ''Jack's Return Home'' and contracted him<ref name=Jakubowski>{{cite web|last=Jakubowski|first=Maxim|title=A Conversation with Writer/Director Mike Hodges|url=http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2010/11/01/an-interview-with-writerdirector-mike-hodges/|work=Mulholland Books|date=November 2010|access-date=9 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308124745/http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2010/11/01/an-interview-with-writerdirector-mike-hodges/|archive-date=8 March 2012|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> to write and direct the film, paying him a flat fee of £7,000 (£135,700 in 2024) for his services.<ref name="Brooks-2003"/> Hodges's original working title for the film was ''Carter's The Name''.<ref name=SC23>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3uW92r5gB0C&pg=PA23 |title=Get Carter |page=23 |first=Steve |last=Chibnall |publisher=I.B.Tauris |date=July 2003 |access-date=5 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224140241/https://books.google.com/books?id=b3uW92r5gB0C&pg=PA23 |archive-date=24 February 2017 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all |isbn=9781860649103}}</ref> Steve Chibnall writes: "his treatment retained the essential structure of Lewis's novel with its strong narrative drive, but introduced some minor changes to characterisation and more fundamental alterations to [[narratology]]".<ref name=SC23/> Given that Ted Lewis had not specified where his novel was set, Hodges felt free to relocate the story<ref name="Hodges-26-07-2010">{{cite news|last=Hodges|first=Mike|title=Mike Hodges: A concrete monstrosity, but it was perfect for my film|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mike-hodges-a-concrete-monstrosity-but-it-was-perfect-for-my-film-2035420.html|access-date=25 February 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=26 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730120749/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mike-hodges-a-concrete-monstrosity-but-it-was-perfect-for-my-film-2035420.html|archive-date=30 July 2010|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> to a place he was familiar with, considering [[Grimsby]], [[Lowestoft]], [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]] and [[North Shields]]<ref name=Klinger/> before deciding on Newcastle upon Tyne. Hodges said he was influenced in his writing by the works of [[Raymond Chandler]] and [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] [[B-movies]] such as ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'', because they showed "how to use the crime story as an autopsy on society's ills".<ref name=Jakubowski/> He did not, however, employ a traditional [[film noir|noir]] technique of using a voiceover to expose the character's inner feelings.<ref name=SC23/> He also dispensed with flashbacks to Carter's youth featured in the novel which explored his relationship with his brother Frank, streamlining the plot to a linear narrative spanning a single weekend. As Chibnall writes: {{blockquote|The immediate consequence was the loss of the insights into Carter's motivations provided by his memories of boyhood and his relationships with brother Frank and delinquent gang leader Albert Swift. Also lost was the backstory of Carter's dealings with Eric Paice during their time as rival gangsters in London, in particular, Eric's violent treatment of Carter's lover Audrey (Anna in the screenplay) the memory of which fuels Carter's hatred.<ref name=SC23/>}}

The significance of the [[double-barrelled shotgun]] as Carter's choice of weapon (which in the novel symbolises family ties and Carter's memories of more innocent times hunting with his brother) was lost in the film adaptation.

Carter's killing of Brumby<ref>Chibnall, 2003, p. 81</ref> and his own assassination were further alterations from the novel, emphasising the film's parallels with [[revenge tragedy]]<ref name=SC23/> and Carter's role as what Geoff Mayer calls "the [[Moral agency|moral agent]] [...] a "[[knight]]" forced to dispense his own sense of justice in a corrupt world".<ref name="Mayer-2007"/> However, in his DVD commentary Hodges implies that he did not see Carter as morally any more justified than those he kills, and his death is intended to present his actions to the audience as morally bankrupt and futile: "I wanted him to be dealt with in exactly the same way he dealt with other people. Now that's a sort of Christian ethic in a way [...] That was a prerequisite of the film for me, that the hitman should go [click] and that's it".<ref>Chibnall, 2003, p. 88</ref> Hodges's decision to kill off Carter was initially protested by MGM executives, as they wanted the character to survive in the event that the film proved successful enough to warrant a [[sequel]].<ref name=AFI />