As an American, I've watched enough British films and heard enough people interviewed that I know the general difference
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Get Carter
cjbussey81 — 14 years ago(December 12, 2011 08:29 PM)
As an American, I've watched enough British films and heard enough people interviewed that I know the general differences between the accents of northern and southern England. In this film, Caine as Carter speaks with his own native South London accent, but the character of Carter was born and raised in and around Newcastle, whose accent and dialect are much different. Even if he left for London at a young age, wouldn't he retain more of his native accent? Unless he were trying to "pass" for a Londoner, it seems to me that he might have retained more of his original manner of speech from Newcastle. It would be like a native Southerner here in the U.S. moving to New York as an adult and then talking like he'd lived in Brooklyn his whole life. Any thoughts?
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gnt-driver — 14 years ago(December 30, 2011 01:09 PM)
It would probably depend on how old Carter was when he moved to London and whether he purposeley tried either to retain or more likely lose his Newcastle accent (commonly known as a geordie accent)
I have got relatives (aunt,uncle and their 5 daughters who as a young family emigrated from north east England to Australia in the early 1960's) when they returned for a visit 18 years later the daughters all spoke with pure Australian accents,but my aunt and uncle still almost totally retained their original accents.
I also knew a guy who as a young man had emigrated to the USA (Wisconsin)in the 1960's,i met him in the early 2000's and his accent had become heavily americanised with only slight traces of his original geordie accent. -
jh66 — 13 years ago(April 29, 2012 02:27 PM)
I agree, and always wondered this myself (I'm a Yorkshireman, geographically halfway between the 300mile stretch from London to Newcastle).
I think that the Geordie and Cockney accents are strong and wouldn't wear off easily, even if they moved when young. It's clearly a cop-out to accommodate Caine's native accent (the latter) without him doing a dodgy mixture of the two.
It might also be because US audiences found Geordie (Newcastle) accents hard to understand? Hell- so do we! Lol -
Jacaranda408 — 13 years ago(September 29, 2012 10:01 PM)
This has always annoyed me so I'm glad someone brought the subject up. How can Jack be "returning home" to Newcastle when he's clearly a Londoner? And the only answer I can think of is that they were so keen to have Michael Caine play Jack Carter that they were willing to overlook his very strong London accent and just hope nobody bothered to question it.
Another thing. You know when Jack does his nudey scene on the doorstep and there are are some little Majorettes doing their routine out in the street? In the last scene that features the Majorettes, you clearly see two red London buses drive past in the background so the scene was obviously shot in London and not Newcastle.
I don't think there is much attention in general given to accuracy in this film. Maybe they didn't bother much with stuff like that in 1971 as they knew the film wouldn't be seen that often because no video at the time. -
TigerWarg — 11 years ago(May 01, 2014 01:39 AM)
you clearly see two red London buses drive past in the background so the scene was obviously shot in London and not Newcastle.
The main bus company in Newcastle and Gateshead used to be Northern General. The buses had a red livery. Northern General was only bus company outside of London to operate the Routemaster (they had 50). So a Red Routemasters would be correct for the location. -
JacintoCupboard — 12 years ago(December 21, 2013 02:27 AM)
You are entitled to your opinion re Geordie accents, but to some ears, certainly mine, it is lovely.
On the subject of accents, the whole film is a bit of a mess, with wobbly accents all over the place. It is one of the reasons this movie will never be a classic for me, as it is for so many people. Just too rough and ready and not enough care taken at all. Made in 40 days on a shoe string budget and it shows. -