Get Carter - Representation of Men & Female Liberation

The idea that complete and total female liberation was a myth is represented in the first scene of the film. In the scene, men sit around and watch slideshows of pornography as a clearly uncomfortable female character sits with a mans hand on her leg - signifying he has some sort of ownership over this camera. The camera takes the point of view of a man in the world of Get Carter, the camera shows her legs and chest and doesn't recognise her as a full, well developed person - rather as an object for the sexual desires of the men in the room. This is contrasted with the way in which the camera treats the men in the room, they're shot face first and often in long shot or close up, recognising their status as people. In my opinion, Hodges isn't trying to represent women as less worthy as men or that they should serve men both physically and sexually, rather that he's trying to represent the way men see women in a post Swinging 60s world. Despite being in a world where women have been 'liberated', Hodges makes a point in the opening shot to portray the power difference that exists between men and women, the composition of the shot places women literally beneath men (this both connotes the power inequality and the view of women through mens eyes). The geometry of the shot also reveals the divides in society between men and women, the lines of the windows physically dividing Jack and Anna from one another and connoting their importance in the world through the eyes of men. The men of the film exert control through subtle hints of violence and masculinity. One of the male characters places his hand on Anna's leg, a symbol of control and power - he sits with a cigar in his mouth, this is a clear phallic object and serves to show the power that comes with masculinity within the film.

It's apparent that this is a world in which female liberation did not happen in the full force that it was said to have happened. Women are still viewed as little more than sexual objects and men exert their power over them using masculinity and violence (symbolised by phallic objects such as cigars and symbols of sexual and physical control with the hand on Anna's leg).