As GET CARTER is reissued in 4K, writer-director Mike Hodges reflects on the making of a British crime classic

Michael Caine gives Ian Hendry both barrels, as director Mike Hodges looks on from behind the camera.

“GET CARTER WAS made 50 years ago,” laughs Mike Hodges, as Empire gets down to the nitty-gritty of interviewing the director of one of the greatest British movies of all time.

“I’ve answered every question!”

That’s not entirely true. Get Carter may have entered its second half-century, true, but Hodges’ startling debut film — now remastered in glorious 4K, giving its epic bleakness a new coat of paint — is fresh as a daisy, and with each rewatch throws up new angles; new points of interest. That’s something Hodges himself finds whenever he catches the movie, in which an ice-cold, reptilian Michael Caine plays a London gangster who finds himself going back to his old stomping ground of Newcastle to investigate his brother’s murder. Over the years the film has become almost overshadowed by its iconography and its deliciously quotable script (by Hodges himself, based on Ted Lewis’ book, Jack’s Return Home). “You’re a big man, but you’re in bad shape; with me, it’s a full-time job”, “Carter! That’s my name!” and “Your eyes are still the same. Pissholes in the snow” are just three of the enduring classics (all delivered by Caine with a mesmerising combination of insouciance and rage). But there’s more here to explore. Much more, as we were delighted to find when we spoke to Hodges — now 89 — recently.

Get Carter clearly means something to you still. It’s not a film you’ve grown tired of.

Not at all. I don’t look at it every day, but I seem to see it once or twice a year.

Can you watch it as a detached, impartial observer? After a period of time, you do move into an area where you are detached, in a sense, and you’re looking at it totally differently. When I see it on the big screen, it’s much more powerful than I remember. It was my first feature film and up until then I’d made two television films, which brought everything to a head with me being offered the chance to make it. You don’t see television films with an audience. When you see your first film with an audience, it’s a totally different experience. I was surprised, actually.