Get Carter - Anna

Anna  is a character with absolutely no significance to the plot of 'Get Carter' whatsoever; yet Mike Hodges still decides to take time away from the plot in order to show Jack Carter talking to her over the phone and Anna 'touching herself' whilst naked on the bed. At first glance, Anna appears to be taking part in her own sexual pleasure - seemingly contradicting the idea that women did not have their own sexual pleasure and that sex between men and women was purely in the male interest. The scene in itself does not actually make sense in terms of the narrative; throughout the film we see what Jack sees. However, in this scene Jack is not in the same room as Anna yet we still have voyeuristic shots from in between Anna's legs, the camera still fetishises and objectifies her by only showing specific body parts in close up. We find the answer in Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay: Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema. Mulvey stated that women in narrative cinema serve one (or both) of these two purposes: as an erotic object for the characters within the audience or as an erotic object for the spectator within the audience - this is commonly known as 'Male Gaze'. Applying Mulvey's theory, we can see that the use of camera and direction within this scene is for the audiences benefit. However, I don't believe that this means Mike Hodges was simply trying to 'trick' male audience members into gazing at Britt Ekland's body in order to sell cinema tickets - rather that he was putting you in the mind of Jack Carter, an archaic, misogynist whom sees women as sexual objects to be used for his own pleasure. By forcing the audience to gaze at Anna, we see this woman the way Jack Carter would. The film forces you to see through the eyes of this character and even to a degree sympathise with his actions and beliefs. However, Hodges never condones the actions of Carter and this is shown by one scene in the film in particular; Carters death.

Jack's representation in the scene is very cold, distant and almost alienated. He is cast in a cold, blue light that portrays him as emotionless and distant (a typical representation of masculinity). His eyes do not seem to be distracted by anything and he is focused. Contrastingly, he uses emotional and intimate language - notably the use of "making love to you". The juxtaposition between a cold, vacant stare and the intimate language he uses reveals that Jack is not interested in the intimate and emotional side of sex.