How does the way men are represented in Get Carter reflect the time in which it was made?

Get Carter is a British film set in early 70s, which comments on the effect of the "Swinging Sixties." The Swinging Sixties was the name for a cultural change where women where supposedly liberated thanks to fashion and culture changes like the introduction of the Contraceptive Pill. This film makes comment on this and through the way that it represents men, suggests that the Swinging Sixties were a mythology and that men still had control over women.

The film starts with a shot of Jack Carter, the protagonist, who is framed in the centre of the shot. There is a woman in the scene, but she is positioned at the bottom left of the screen. This presents Carter as central and important to the film and top of the hierarchy in the shot, with women at the bottom of the hierarchy connoting a lesser importance. Carter is also standing up on his own, connoting his independence, with the woman sat of a chair, dependent on it for support. This suggests that the Swinging Sixties was more mythological than reality as Carter is presented as an independent character, unlike the woman who is, and also reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society with men at the top.

When Carter arrives in the North, he phones Anna and instigates phone sex with her. He tells her to remove her bra, which she refuses to - suggesting that she is liberated and in control of her body, but ultimately she complies with Carter's command. Even at a distance, Carter has control of Anna's body, which suggests that again women do not have the ability to disobey men. This conveys the sense that Carter - the male is always in control. Anna is seen purely as an erotic object for the pleasure of Carter which further demonstrates that women are controlled by men to be simply an object or an aide for them.

In the film he watches a pornographic film in the Glenda's apartment. Initially he enjoys it, which further proves the point that men use women purely as erotic objects. However, when he sees that his niece is also in the film, he is horrified, and it is the first time that he has cried at all throughout the film. This suggests that Carter does value women, but only those close to him. To find out information of why she was in the film, Carter uses physical force to almost drown Glenda. He uses this to reinforce his control over women. This could show that he values his niece, but this is disproved when we see his real concern which is his name being brought into distribute. Even his niece isn't as valued as his own name.

During the shootout on the ferry, the villains push Carter's car into the river with Glenda still in it. Even though Carter is not responsible for her death, he shows no remorse or infact any emotion at all over her death. This reinforces the view of men at the time which viewed women as accessories and erotic objects for themselves. Once Glenda's purpose has been fulfilled, she is just disposed off, suggesting that she is of no value once she has provided Carter with the information he needs to move the narrative on.

Towards the end of the film, Carter kills Margaret to frame Kinnear in order for him to be arrested. However Carter also achieves this by sending the pornographic film to Scotland Yard. This suggests that Carter places the same value on Margaret as he does on an inanimate object which connotes that men do not value women as the same as men which shows they have a complete disrespect of women. This point is further demonstrated when Carter kills Margaret. Rather than killing her as humanely as possible (which stills shows a disregard of women) he forces Margaret to strip naked and kills her slowly and painfully with a heroin overdose. This reinforces the idea that men use force in order to demonstrate their higher status of women, which again shows the male disregard of women during the fallout of the "Swinging Sixties."

Another point that disproves that women were on the same level as men is for how long they appear in the film. Unlike the men who appear frequently throughout the film, once the purpose of the women has been fulfilled, they are never seen again. Once Anna has pleasured Carter and the audience, she is never seen again. Once Edna has had sex with Carter, she is never seen again. Once Glenda has provided Carter with some vital information, she is put in the boot of a car and drowns when the car is pushed into the river. The most extreme edition of this is Margaret who is humiliated and killed purely to help Carter have Kinnear arrested. This shows that men use women purely to fulfill a purpose and are instantly devalued once this is completed.