How is the North represented in Get Carter

How is the North represented in Get Carter?

In the film “Get Carter” one of the main themes is the north/ south divide.  It shows Newcastle as being a very bleak city through out the entire film.

The first visual example of this theme is the Train sequence.

 Carter starts out on the train in a very sunny and green background, this being the south, then as he approaches Newcastle it slowly gets greyer and more industrial. Also he becomes more distorted from civilized as he takes drugs on the train this is to show that Carter is a northerner and going back to Newcastle is changing him back to his old ways. Never the less Carter sees himself as being above people from the north shown by him reading a novel whilst everyone else on the train are reading tabloid news.

The next example of the North/ South divide is the pub scene.  In this scene the minute Carter walks through the door everyone in the room stares him down. These people staring at Carter either look unkempt or old or both. Carter clicks at the bar staff and ask them to put his pint in a tall thin glass, this refers to carter’s perception of himself, and he considers himself sophisticated. Next to carter there is a man with only six fingers, which is a visual signifier that people from the north are mutants compared to those in in the south.

The next scene that signifies the north is the marching band scene. In this scene Carter and Edna (un married)  are having sex and in the background is the marching band. The marching band signifies a community in a derelict city; this is reinforced by the marching band, marching through the city and the background of the band being old grey buildings, left from World War 2.  In the bedroom we see a poster over the bed that says, “what would Jesus do?”  This is and indication of the loss of morality in England after the swinging sixties.