Taking Sides: Performance vs. Get Carter

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Awright, blokes and birds. What's the ultimate British gangster film? For me, this is no contest. Get Carter may be more famous, but Performance is one of the best films ever made. And Guy Ritchie is a ponce.

― bryan, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wouldn't call Performance a gangster film. It is brilliant, though.

― Sean, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, it's not a conventional gangster film, but it is absolutely about the criminal underworld. Chas is a gangster, the whole Memo From Turner thing, etc. So, it counts as one for me. I reckon Performance is hard to fit into a single genre. All the behind the scenes stories are fascinating too. Like the one about James Fox being so disturbed and shaken up by the excessive lifestyles that he quit acting for the next decade and got religious. Or Donald Cammell's connection to real gangsters, black magic and Kenneth Anger. They don't make em' like they used to.

― bryan, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Like the one about James Fox being so disturbed and shaken up by the excessive lifestyles that he quit acting for the next decade and got religious.

Really? I DID wonder what happened to him for a long time. Pity is, it seems like "Performance" is still one of his best roles to date. And he WAS rather cute, in those days....

― Nichole Graham, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mick looks pretty fetching in it as well...

― Sean, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Performance is terrific. All of the modern Brit gangster flicks are unspeakable, of course. Well, The Limey may be an exception.

― Martin Skidmore, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

sexy beast is better than get carter

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Speaking of The Limey, has anyone ever seen Poor Cow with Terence Stamp. After seeing the lifted clips in The Limey, I've searched for a copy of Poor Cow. Is it a good flick?

― bryan, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

very stagebound, i seem to remember

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And anyone looking for moo kicks be aware that it is not literally about cows.

― N., Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Poor Cow is pretty good. Terrence Stamp used to be unbelieveably great. The Collector is also really good. I like Get Carter. . . er. . . Point Blank. . . um. . . The Limey a lot actually. Great theme on the first too. I confess I've never seen Performance in ages, but I've always thought that The Long Good Friday was the ultimate Brit gangster flick.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

James Fox did not disappear at all, he's just a bit sub-Michael York is all. His daughter Emilia nearly married Vic Reeves.

― suzy, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

James Fox did Christian missionary work or something in the seventies. Before Performance, he was typically cast as a young gentleman, and he was purposefully chosen in spite of his type for Performance. He took boxing lessons and got a cockney coach. He re- emerged in the eighties. He played Harry in Sexy Beast.

― bryan, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

how did i miss this thread... performance performance performance performance performance performance performance

get carter = straight gangster film. performance = layers and layers and layers of meaning.

― masonicboom, Monday, 6 January 2003 00:24 (twenty-two years ago)

layers and layers of schmeaning, more like. i should refrain.

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Monday, 6 January 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

has more meaning 2 me than just about any other film.

― masonicboom, Monday, 6 January 2003 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

ten months pass...

i now feel great shame for watching the first 5 minutes of Performance but deciding the soundtrack was horrendous and switching it off. i know it's high time i saw this film properly...

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 November 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Hrmmm, why was I typing so funny on this thread before? And why did I not expound for hours and hours about how brilliant it was? There must have been something wrong with me.

Performance is possibly the greatest film ever made. Get Carter doesn't even com close!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 10 November 2003 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Performance all the way, no doubt. It's been in my lifetime top 10 since I first saw it about 15 years ago - I originally watched it specifically cos my Mum told me I wasn't allowed to, presumably cos it's just Too Damn Good for a 13 year-old to grasp. Either way, it's fucking fantastic, full of brilliant moments and great as a unit, totally stylish, louche like nothing else I've ever seen, and the most un-gangstery gangster movie evah.

Trivia: Brett Anderson claims he watched Performance every morning while he was writing Dog Man Star. Nice.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 10 November 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Both are v different; I mean GC is good for what it is, but it doesn't have the same ambitions.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 10 November 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

I saw it again the other night. It wasnt as murky as i remembered. jagger is very good, i like when he takes over the original gangsters place later on, and has his hair slicked back, he looks very different. reminded me of trigger from only fools and horses, but somehow still good. this scene, did tim burgess nick this for that st etienne song, i was born on christmas day? seemed to ape this a little.

we've been curteous
it was mad cyril
i like that, turn it up

great to hear these in original context again

interesting how it was set in notting hill, which of course, is very different to the notting hill of today...

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Performance is brilliant. I've just realised it's a kind of template for a type of film I'm always drawn to - films that start off within a conventional genre but then half way through spin off in some other direction.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven months pass...

do you think ian hendry would have been better than caine in the main role in get carter? hendry was originally going to be cast, until caine showed an interest in the film? now, of course, its difficult to imagine anyone but caine in ut, but its arguable that caine doesnt have that effortless aura of violence, and had to work at it? perhaps that makes him in the role better though?

― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 28 January 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

I like the idea of Performance, but the last time I saw it it seemed to be kind of a mess. Get Carter however, is an extremely effective little piece of filmmaking. Oh yeah, Poor Cow is good too. I heard Terence Stamp tell a funny story about making it once.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 28 January 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

What's that one from the early 60s with Stanley Baker in it? Then there's that one with Richard Burton camping it up as a gay gangster who lahhhhhvs his old ma.

― Two Otto Muehls For Sister Sara (Dada), Friday, 28 January 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

1. The Criminal

2. Villain

― Two Otto Muehls For Sister Sara (Dada), Friday, 28 January 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I'm goin' with "Get Carter," if only because Michael Caine is one cool motherfucker.

Fans of both should seek out:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0007145543.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 28 January 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

I like Performance, have never gotten its "greatness." (How many of its acolytes have seen Persona?)

"Get Carter" cuz I can understand more of the BLOODY dialogue.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 January 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

no opinion on hendry?

― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 28 January 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.savonarolamustburn.com/getcarter.jpg

Badass. Just got back from seeing this at the NFT last night.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 1 February 2006 04:33 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

http://tubedubber.com/#aoa3OTJfWIY:pbKCWBTgTR8:0:100:0:0:1

― RudolfHitlerFtw (Hungry4Ass), Sunday, 12 February 2012 19:50 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgU1L1z-Zx4

Ridiculous on so many levels

― calstars, Monday, 7 May 2012 03:11 (thirteen years ago)

the heated killer... the cool lover!!!

― these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Monday, 7 May 2012 03:26 (thirteen years ago)

the tubedubber link i posted is cool

― these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Monday, 7 May 2012 03:27 (thirteen years ago)

five years pass...

First rewatch of GC in eons... I like all the audience-complicity touches that the lads seem to ignore, like Caine throwing a guy off a garage, and the body lands on a car injuring or killing a mom and kids.

The cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky, who lived past 100, has some great things to say on the DVD commentary about shooting in tight spaces and on location.

Performance is def more pretentious, though.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 4 February 2018 17:40 (seven years ago)

Did you spot the six fingered man in Get Carter? I missed it until Hodges mentioned it on the commentary?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2rmwbVw_js

― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 4 February 2018 17:49 (seven years ago)

same here

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 4 February 2018 18:03 (seven years ago)

only one of these inspired a happy mondays song fwiw

― i gotta be a gazpacho man (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 4 February 2018 18:25 (seven years ago)

only one of these inspires a human league song fwiw

― 2018 has to be better (snoball), Sunday, 4 February 2018 18:58 (seven years ago)

only one of these got a Stallone remake that i am never ever going to watch

― drugs don't kill people, poppers do (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 4 February 2018 19:02 (seven years ago)

Trivia: Brett Anderson claims he watched Performance every morning while he was writing Dog Man Star. Nice.

There was an interview where Anderson said that the outgoing message on his answerphone at the time was a bit from Performance. It might have been the bit where Turner says "The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way is one that achieves madness".

― 2018 has to be better (snoball), Sunday, 4 February 2018 19:03 (seven years ago)

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