Final curtain for Carter car park

Part of a Tyneside landmark used in the Michael Caine film Get Carter, is being opened to the public for the last time before being bulldozed.

Gateshead's multi-storey car park featured in the 1971 gangster film in a scene where Caine's character throws a man from the upper level.

The stark concrete building is due to be demolished this year to make way for a town centre redevelopment.

The upper level is being opened to the public over the weekend.

The car park has also been specially illuminated, giving local residents, many of whom have welcomed its demise, a unique view of the structure.

Dominated skyline

Gateshead Council's director of communities and culture David Bunce said: "Whilst the car park must make way for the redevelopment, we do not believe that its passing should be unmarked.

"The car park has become part of Gateshead folklore and has dominated the skyline of Tyneside for 30 years.

"We know that everyone has a view on the car park and its brutalist architecture so we want to provide one last chance to see the structure in the night sky before it has to make way for redevelopment."

The supermarket giant Tesco bought the site and plans to replace it with a superstore, apartments and cinema.

Source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7368516.stm)

Pooka I will make the following statement as an appreciator of the posted material and with respect my friend: this thread has to be the most esoteric / film fanatic bit of reading I have seen online in memory! And that’s why I get the significance of it I suppose.

I’m sure to many it just sounds like somewhere in the world they are tearing down an otherwise unremarkable concrete slab of a building that had its 15 seconds of fame decades ago. But of course it's much more than that.

The building you refer to is akin to he elevated train car (and the Pontiac LeMans) used in climactic scenes of "The French Connection". The elevated train car and the tracks they made the greatest car chase of all time underneath are like a national shrine in the US because it’s New York legend. Train Car 6609 has been preserved and is in the New York Transit Museum. The tracks are still in active use today. Too bad the building you’re talking about won’t be any longer. Set locations that are in the real world have their own magic that is timeless – just like the films they were in. That’s my $.02 anyway.

Incidentally I heard the Michael Caine version of "Get Carter" kicked ass compared to the Hollywood remake with Mel Gibson released a few years back. That US version wasn't bad - I'll have to see the Michael Caine one via Netflix now.

Hey wait - I know who Michael Caine is! He's plays that old butler dude "Alfred" who helps out the new Batman (Christian Bale) at Wayne Manor these days. ;)

Michael Caine as a stodgy old butler? OMG how the mighty have fallen!

i thought Get Carter was a stallone flick... was there Another?

:ttiwwp:

i thought Get Carter was a stallone flick... was there Another?

That Stallone shit was a fooking travesty. The original starred Michael Caine, was UK made and kicks that Yankee remake into the shithouse where it belongs. Fooking Americanos have to plunder UK quality. They did the same with Alfie, also staring Michael Caine. Don't get me started on fooking Yankee shitbag remakes...:newburn::fly::mod:

Touchy, aren't we? If you're going to burn someone for crappy remakes, burn Bollywood. Now THAT stuff is terrible. (And I've only seen the Gibson version of "Get Carter" so I'm not saying that the the original UK version wasn't better, I just haven't seen it)

Mel had some moments (albeit rare) in that movie but I wouldn't say it was one of his best by a long shot. There seemed to be something missing from his performance. It was almost like he was lost. He just didn't look comfortable no matter how hard he tried. You need a certain type of actor for this sort of movie. I haven't seen the original movie with Michael Caine but I know he's an actor with quite a wide range.

NB. I'm talking about Mel G's movie "Payback"

I got the movie all mixed up in my previous post. I confused Sly Stallone's "Get Carter" with Mel Gibson's "Payback" flick. My bad. As a film buff I should have had that one right.

Truth be told the two films are easy to confuse tho. Both were released within a year of each other (1999 and 2000) and both were one-man revenge flicks with a common plot: hunting down out-of-line mobsters and showing them no mercy whatsoever during their “stylish” death scenes. Both films had internationally bankable leading men that delivered sub-par performances. They were rip-off flicks! And why?

Remember the "Get Carter" remake (and "Payback") were made in the wake of the "Pulp Fiction" phenomenon. Remember that period in pop culture? Studio heads were like hey - WTF was that all about and how can we duplicate that coolness ourselves! That meant any screenplay that looked like an Elmore Leonard novel got bankrolled right away. Alpha Male A-list stars on the rebound looking to beef up their résumé lined up to be the next "John Travolta comeback story".

All that hype meant a piss-poor product for filmgoers. That frenzy for the fleeting coolness of “Pulp Fiction” churned out a lot of crap films that collect dust on the rental shelves today – good riddance. Everyone thought they could clone their own version of Quentin Tarantino and make a buck.

And that, my friends, is why films like "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" were made. Anybody want to see Henry Rollins pretending to eat his own shit while Andy Garcia watches? THAT was a colossal blunder of a film - so bad it's not even worth watching on a B-Movie Night with the boys and some beers. I'll rent the original Michael Caine "Get Carter" instead and move the standard up to Grade-A. No shit. And no Henry Rollins.