title: Stu Hart

text: Hart remained an active full-time wrestler until the 1960s when he entered semi-in-ring retirement, thereafter he would focus mostly on promoting, booking and teaching, as well as raising his twelve children with Helen while still appearing in the ring sporadically until the 1980s. Throughout his career, Hart almost exclusively portrayed a heroic character, a so-called "babyface" role and only held one professional title, the NWA Northwest Tag Team Championship. After selling his territory to Titan Sports, Inc. in 1984, Hart would make several appearances on WWF television and Pay-Per-View with his wife, often involved in storylines surrounding his sons Bret and Owen and several of his sons-in-law who were signed to the company. He continued to teach wrestling at his home in Calgary until the 1990s when he suffered a severe leg injury and had to stop engaging excessively with students, leaving most of the work for his sons Bruce and Keith. He died at age 88 in October 2003 after suffering from multiple medical issues.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart is regarded by many, including major wrestling historian and sports journalist Dave Meltzer, as one of the most influential and important figures in professional wrestling history and an icon of the artform. His greatest contribution to the art was as a promoter and trainer. Along with Bret and Owen, Hart's trainees included future world champions Fritz Von Erich, Superstar Billy Graham, Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, Chris Benoit, and Jushin Thunder Liger. Hart was a member of the inaugural "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" Hall of Fame class in 1996 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010 by his son Bret. Hart was also well known for his involvement in over thirty charities, for which he was named a Member of the Order of Canada, the second highest honour for merit which can be given in Canada and the highest civilian honour.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart was born in Saskatoon in 1915 to Edward and Elizabeth Stewart Hart. He was mainly of Ulster Scot descent from his father's side but also had Scottish and English ancestry from his mother's side of the family.


title: Stu Hart

text: His childhood was impoverished; as a boy, Stu Hart lived in a tent with his family on the prairie in Alberta, living off the land, milking cows and wild game that Stu took down with his slingshot. As a child Hart and his sisters were often mistreated at school by both fellow students and teachers since it was well known that they were from such a poor family. Hart was also berated and treated with disdain for being lefthanded, something seen as deviant at the time. Like most lefthanded children at the time, he was forced to work with his right, and as a result he became ambidextrous. In 1928, his father was arrested for failure to pay back taxes, while the Salvation Army sent Stu, his mother, and two sisters, Sylvester and Edrie to live in Edmonton. Due to his destitute childhood and youth Hart did not experience a dramatic shift in life quality or mentality during the Great Depression which affected most others around him in Edmonton.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart was trained in catch wrestling in his youth by other boys. Speaking of it, Stu said that his "head would be blue by the time they let go of him". Stu taught this 'shoot style' to all who trained under him in the 1980s and 1990s with the thought that teaching his students real submission moves would make their professional wrestling style sharper. During his time in Edmonton with his mother and sisters Hart began finding an interest in sports with wrestling and football being his favourites. He started weightlifting and training for wrestling when he was fourteen years old and quickly built a strong neck and impressive arms. He began attending amateur wrestling classes when he joined the YMCA in Edmonton in 1929 and soon became a talented grappler. By the age of fifteen Hart won the Edmonton City Championship in the middleweight class and the Alberta Provincial championship later that same year. Hart continued to train and improve his abilities and by 1937 he was the Dominion welterweight champion, also in 1937 he won a gold medal in the welterweight class from the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. Hart qualified for the 1938 British Empire Games in Australia but was unable to go due to economic reasons, mainly the lack of funding from the Canadian government, a leftover from the depression. During the mid-1930s Hart also coached wrestling at the University of Alberta.


title: Stu Hart

text: His amateur career peaked in May 1940 when Hart won the Dominion Amateur Wrestling Championship in the light heavyweight category. Hart qualified and would have competed at the Summer Olympics in Helsinki in 1940 but could not due to it being cancelled because of the outbreak of World War II, which was a terrible blow to Hart personally, as it had been his dream to compete at the Olympics from a very young age.


title: Stu Hart

text: While Hart was mainly a lover of submission wrestling he was also an outstanding all-around athlete who played virtually every sport available, excelling at football, baseball and fastball notably. Hart played professionally for the Edmonton Eskimos from 1937 to 1939 as a center and was considered a standout performer at the time. Hart had initially been slated for the 1941 season as well but had to decline due to other commitments which prevented him from joining at that time. He coached a women's fastball team in Edmonton during the late 1930s as well as being the captain of a popular baseball team called Hart's All Stars. The players of Hart's All Stars consisted of sheet-metal workers from Edmonton whom he trained.


title: Stu Hart

text: On Christmas Eve 1941 Hart was almost killed in a bicycle accident which broke both his elbows and thumbs and hurt his back severely. The injuries risked ending Hart's athletic career. The accident happened while he was on the way to be with his father Edward to celebrate Christmas with the family when a fire truck drove behind him and forced Hart to swerve to the side where he was hit by another car which propelled him thirty feet forward on the road and scraped off a large portion of his skin in the process. He spent several months at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton recovering. In the spring, still hospitalized, Hart was visited by Al Oeming, a young neighbour who had been drafted into the Royal Canadian Navy for World War II and after being released from the hospital Hart decided to enlist. Hart enlisted in the Navy and was appointed to the position of Director of Athletics. In early 1943, Hart was put in for a transfer from the Nonsuch in Edmonton to regular service in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Physically, he had fully recovered from his injuries and had hoped to see genuine sea duty afterward, but the Navy appeared to be more interested in him as an athletic director than as a regular enlisted seaman. By later 1943 the Navy had him wrestling mostly to amuse the other servicemen, instead of purely competitively. He performed regularly before thousands of other enlisted men in drill halls. Several of the men he worked with would end up being employed by Hart when he became a promoter later in life.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart spent much of his free time during World War II performing and organizing different sports events to raise funds to the war effort. As an active sailor and director of athletics Hart was the leader of all the sports teams available and a member of them as well, most notably the fastball team and the wrestling team. Hart originally wanted to leave the Navy when the war was over but the organization considered him to be a great asset both as a trainer as well as a showpiece, persuading him to stay. He would attempt to ask to be let go several times later but was told to stay again. Eventually, Hart was given his discharge from the Navy in early 1946.


title: Stu Hart

text: It was during his time in the Navy that Stu was introduced to professional wrestling. Around this time Hart and Al Oeming, a future wrestler, nature conservationist, and fellow sailor, became closer as friends. Oeming later would help him handle his own promotion.


title: Stu Hart

text: After recovering from a car accident, Stu competed in various exhibition matches to entertain the troops. In 1946, while receiving training from Toots Mondt, Hart debuted in New York City. Early on, Hart experienced harsh treatment from his fellow wrestlers in the ring and during training, being considered a "pretty boy" at first by his peers and older wrestlers; described as "tall, dark and handsome, with a build that would put movie idols to shame" he was immediately a favourite with the female fans. Hart would often be swarmed by women and covered with kisses as he made his way to the ring. The roughing up of younger performers by veteran workers was common at the time in the industry but Hart adapted to it rather quickly and would retaliate with the same treatment, utilizing his catch wrestling experience to his advantage. While never given the opportunity to be champion Hart did partake in several high-profile matches with the likes of Lou Thesz and Frank Sexton. He also developed a reputation as a legitimate athlete and "tough-guy" in the business. Hart was a frequent tag team wrestler together with Lord James Blears. Blears and Hart lived together for six months with another wrestler named Sandor Kovacs whom Hart already knew from the Navy. They used to frequent the beaches at Long Beach in New York on their free time and it was on the beach that Hart first met his wife Helen Smith and her family. Hart had quickly become a rising star in the area but chose to leave together with his newly engaged fiancée only about a year and a half after debuting.


title: Stu Hart

text: By 1947, Hart was working for Jerry Meeker and Larry Tillman in Montana as both a wrestler and a booker. In late 1947 he travelled to wrestle in San Antonio briefly. In September 1948, Hart established Klondike Wrestling in Edmonton, the promotion joined the NWA in 1948. In 1949, Hart was involved in a storyline with the "heel" Lord Albert Mills, they were scheduled to have a two out of three main event match at the Billings Sports arena on Monday December 19, the match was a followup to another one the previous week when Mills had gotten the win through nefarious means. Hart was portrayed as having been caught off guard the Monday before when it happened. Hart was a perpetual "face" during his in-ring career, including during his time with the NWA, and was a noted draw for women in the areas he wrestled. In 1950, Hart wrestled for the NWA associated Alex Turk Promotions in Winnipeg. The first match was against Verne Gagne on June 29 at the Civic Auditorium, the match resulted in a draw. He also wrestled in a match against Matt Murphy in the Civic Auditorium on November 9, which he was booked to win. In 1951, Hart purchased a mansion in Patterson Heights, Calgary, The Hart House which is now considered a heritage site. Its basement, later known as the Dungeon, provided training grounds for his wrestling pupils. Later that year Hart headlined an event in Wisconsin, again together with Verne Gagne. Hart was still favoured by women at this time even against a bigger star like Gagne.


title: Stu Hart

text: In 1952, Hart bought up Tillman's territory in Alberta and merged his own promotion with it into Big Time Wrestling. The promotion would later change name to Wildcat Wrestling and lastly morph into Stampede Wrestling many years later. The televised version of Hart's wrestling shows were one of Canada's longest-running television programs, lasting over 30 years and remained one of Calgary's most popular sports programs, eventually airing in over 50 countries worldwide.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart's Stampede Wrestling was responsible for developing many wrestlers who would later become very successful in other promotions and territories, mainly in the WWF. Hart would generally close the promotion down during summers and open it up again during the winter when the other territories were closed. Hart had on occasions wrestled animals such as tigers and grizzly bears as part of promotional efforts for the company as well as charity. Later in life Hart would often let his sons Bruce and Keith handle the booking of the promotion.


title: Stu Hart

text: On July 25, 1986, he wrestled his last match in a tag team match with his son, Keith defeating Honky Tonk Wayne and J.R. Foley at a Stampede Wrestling event in Calgary.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart made several appearances on WWE television in the 1990s and early 2000s. The majority of those appearances involved his sons, Bret and Owen Hart. A recurring staple of these appearances in the 1990s was that Stu and Helen would be verbally attacked by several of the commentators, mostly by Bobby Heenan and Jerry Lawler, the latter of whom was in a long-running feud with Bret during this point in time. At the 1993 Pay-Per-View event Survivor Series, Stu had a planned physical interaction outside of the ring with Shawn Michaels. Michaels was involved in a match with Stu's sons, Bruce, Keith, Bret and Owen Hart. Michaels played the part of the antagonist, and when failing to succeed in winning the match, Michaels' character then attacked Stu who responded by pretending to knock him out with an elbow smash. Michaels later stated that he was happy to take the hit as he considered it an honour.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart trained the vast majority of his trainees in the basement of the Hart mansion, known as The Dungeon. Hart used the location from the time that he bought it in October 1951 until the late 1990s. All eight of his sons and many others such as Junkyard Dog, Jushin Liger, Superstar Billy Graham and The British Bulldog were educated there.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart's training technique, called "stretching" consisted of Hart putting his trainees in painful submission holds and holding on for a substantial time to improve their pain endurance to prepare them for the life of professional wrestling. Hart's technique was well known and he would let anyone who wished to let him apply one of his holds do so if they came to his home. Hart's son Bret once spoke about a well-known case where he stretched a priest, stating that his father wasn't prejudiced, since "he stretched a rabbi once too." Some of Hart's former students, including his son Bret, have mentioned that his stretching would sometimes result in broken blood vessels in the eyes, something which others have attempted to learn from his father.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart was said to have had a special liking for training football players and bodybuilders since he enjoyed testing their strength. Some have described his training as torture and have accused Hart of being a sadist who enjoyed inflicting pain on people and was more interested in doing so than teach them professional wrestling. Many who were close to Hart in his life have denied these claims. Stu's seventh son Ross has said that his father was always generous and compassionate with his children and others in person but added that he was different when training people, believing that there was no easy way to teach wrestling. His daughter-in-law Martha has expressed in her book that she felt sure that Hart was well aware of his students' limits and never meant to actually harm any of them, stating that he was always careful not to apply too much pressure on any of his holds and intended more to scare them than maim them. Although she recalled several times when she thought she would pass out from the pain of the holds he had put on her, which he had meant as a playful gesture. She added that it was fair to say that he had never seriously hurt anyone physically, albeit he may have inadvertently done so mentally. Despite this, she also disclosed that her husband Owen had long been scared of his father during childhood due to his fearsome reputation and hearing his brothers as well as other trainees' screams from the family's basement where Hart's training hall was located. This fear lingered into Owen's adolescence but ceased when he became an adult. Owen himself revealed in the 1998 documentary "" that he was often intimidated by his father but respected him and that that kept him from misbehaving. In the same documentary his third son Keith explained that many may have believed his father to be a psychopath at first glance but that you had to know him intimately to understand that he wasn't anything like that beneath the surface. Wrestling manager Jim Cornette has theorized that his cruel upbringing and tough early development may have played a part in the seemingly contradictory behaviour from Hart, as both a dedicated family man and apparently sadistic tormentor of his students.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart was close friends with fellow wrestler Luther Jacob Goodall, better known by the name Luther Lindsay. Goodall was one of the few men who bested him in the infamous "Dungeon" and Hart reportedly carried a picture of him in his wallet until his passing in 2003. Goodall's death in 1972 affected Hart tremendously. Hart's son Keith described them as being as close as brothers. Hart was also a good friend of wrestling promoter Jack Pfefer, whom he asked to be the godfather of his son Ross, as well as Calgary Mayor Rod Sykes and ice hockey player Brian Conacher. All of the wrestling belts that Hart used for his promotions were handmade by himself. Making championship belts was one of Hart's many domestic skills.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart allegedly wrote the foreword to the controversial book "Under the Mat" which was written by his youngest daughter, Diana Hart. His son Bret has questioned the legitimacy of it, and has stated that if Hart did write the foreword, his daughter probably did not let him read the book beforehand.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart married a New Yorker, Helen Smith (born February 16, 1924 – died November 4, 2001), the daughter of Olympic marathon runner Harry Smith on December 31, 1947. They were introduced through each other by Paul Boesch. Stu and Helen were married for over 53 years until Helen's death at the age of 77.


title: Stu Hart

text: Stu and Helen raised their twelve children in the Hart mansion, Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean, Ellie, Georgia, Bret, Alison, Ross, Diana and Owen. Hart was a non-denominational Christian, however, he had all his children baptized by a local Catholic priest. The couple have around thirty-six biological grandchildren and several great-grandchildren, three of whom, his oldest grandson Teddy Annis's son Bradley and his oldest granddaughter Tobi McIvor's two oldest daughters Amanda and Jessica, were born during Hart's lifetime. Tom and Michelle Billington's three children, Bronwyne, Marek and Amaris are also often included in the list of his grandchildren, therefore Bronwyne's daughter Miami is also often referred to as one of his great-grandchildren. Many of his grandchildren went on to become wrestlers or were otherwise involved in wrestling.


title: Stu Hart

text: In 1949, Hart and his wife Helen who was pregnant with their second child, Bruce were in a car accident on their way home from a wrestling match, Hart was unscathed, although he did break the car's steering wheel on impact, however his wife Helen suffered several injuries and had to be held in a hospital for a long time, leading them to leaving their oldest child, Smith, with Helen's parents Elizabeth and Harry Smith for two years.


title: Stu Hart

text: According to his son Ross, Hart was severely affected and badly aged by being bereaved of his youngest son Owen in 1999 and by becoming a widower in 2001.


title: Stu Hart

text: Because of his extensive work as a coach and mentor to many young athletes as well as over thirty years of charitable work in his hometown, Stu Hart was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada on November 15, 2000. He was honoured with an investiture on May 31, 2001, in Ottawa.


title: Stu Hart

text: In May 2003, Hart had a life-threatening bout of pneumonia, which saw him hospitalized at Rockyview General Hospital, although Hart recovered later that month and returned to his residence at the Hart House. On October 3, 2003, Hart was readmitted to Rockyview General Hospital as a result of an elbow infection at which he then developed pneumonia again. He also suffered from ailments associated with diabetes and arthritis. After a brief improvement in his health for a few days from October 11, he suffered a stroke on October 15, and died the following day. He was 88 years old.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart's funeral service was attended by approximately 1,000 people. He was cremated and his ashes were later interred at Eden Brook Memorial Gardens in a plot with his wife Helen, who had died almost two years earlier in November 2001.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart is regarded by many as one of the most important and respected people in the history of professional wrestling, and an icon of the art.


title: Stu Hart

text: Sports journalist and wrestling historian Dave Meltzer described Hart's importance to the art of professional wrestling as indispensable since his booking decisions and training of several key individuals affected the industry in significant ways. Meltzer describes people like Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura as people who were spawned by Harts actions and cites the Dynamite Kid, Junkyard Dog and Billy Robinson as some who would probably not have had the careers they did if not for Hart. He also mentions Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman as individuals who would most certainly never even have become wrestlers were it not for Hart. Meltzer characterized Hart as the biggest territorial star in wrestling history to never win a major championship. Former wrestling promoter and owner of the St. Louis Wrestling Club Larry Matysik described Hart as a Canadian icon.


title: Stu Hart

text: Hart had a noticeable accent which included a very raspy voice and unique way of speaking which he was well known for. According to the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", Hart is the most imitated man in professional wrestling, with practically everyone in the industry having tried a Stu Hart impersonation.


title: Stu Hart

text: WWE chairman Vince McMahon has lauded Hart as a trailblazer for the wrestling industry. On March 27, 2010, Hart was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.


title: Stu Hart

text: In the Hart Legacy Wrestling promotion, controlled by Hart's relatives and their associates, there is a Stu Hart Heritage Title.


title: Stu Hart

text: There is an annual juvenile amateur wrestling tournament named after Hart called the "Stu Hart Tournament of Champions" held in Canada.


title: Stu Hart

text: In 2005 a documentary directed by Blake Norton, "Surviving the Dungeon: The Legacy of Stu Hart", was released.


title: Stu Hart

text: As of 2005 Hart is part of a permanent exhibit at the Glenbow Museum. A scissored armbar wrestling hold is sometimes referred as a "Stu-Lock" in Hart's honour.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: Elvis Presley (released in the UK as Elvis Presley Rock n' Roll) is the debut studio album by American rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. It was released by RCA Victor, on March 13, 1956, catalog number LPM-1254. The recording sessions took place on January 10 and January 11 at the RCA Victor Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and on January 30 and January 31 at the RCA Victor studios in New York. Additional material originated from sessions at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 5, August 19 and September 10, 1954, and on July 11, 1955.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: The album spent ten weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Top Pop Albums chart in 1956, the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the charts, and the first million-selling album of that genre. In 2003 and 2012, it was ranked number 56 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and at number 332 in a 2020 revised list. "Elvis Presley" was also one of three Presley albums to receive accolades in the reference book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". It was certified gold on November 1, 1966 and platinum on August 8, 2011 by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: The original 1956 UK release called "Rock n' Roll" on HMV Catalog Number: CLP 1093 has five different tracks.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: By the second half of 1955, singles on Sun Records by Presley began making the national country and western singles chart, "Baby Let's Play House" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" going to number 5 and number 1 respectively. Colonel Tom Parker, the new manager of Presley, had extensive dealings with RCA Victor through his previous client, singer Eddy Arnold, especially with the head of the Country and Western and Rhythm and blues division, Steve Sholes. At the urging of Parker, on November 21, 1955, Sholes bought Presley's contract from Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records and Studio, for the unprecedented sum of $40,000. Presley and rock and roll were still untested properties for the major labels in the music business, but this album, along with the number one single "Heartbreak Hotel", proved the selling power of both: it was the first RCA Victor pop album to earn more than $1,000,000, and in 1956 it had sold over one million units.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: Presley made appearances in four consecutive weeks on the Dorsey Brothers television program "Stage Show" in early 1956, on January 28, February 4, February 11, and February 18. RCA wanted an album in the stores fast to capitalize both on the nationwide TV exposure and the success of his first hit single on the pop charts with "Heartbreak Hotel", swiftly climbing to the top after its release on January 27. At the same time, there had only been two series of Presley recording sessions for RCA Victor by the end of the Dorsey stint, after which Presley and his band were back on the road. Those two sessions yielded an additional eleven tracks, almost enough to fill an entire LP, although some tracks had singles potential. In the 1950s, general practice dictated tracks having greater commercial potential to be released as singles, with tracks of lesser appeal placed on albums; as such, RCA Victor neither took all eleven tracks and simply made an album, nor placed the already released and briskly-selling "Heartbreak Hotel" on it. The rights to the Sun Studio tapes had transferred to RCA Victor with the sale of his contract, so five previously unreleased Sun songs, "I Love You Because", "Just Because", "Tryin' to Get to You", "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')", and "Blue Moon" were added to seven of the RCA Victor sessions tracks to bring the running time of the album up to an acceptable length. Phillips produced the sessions at Sun, and no producer was officially listed for the RCA Victor sessions, leading to the belief that Presley himself produced them.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: As the Sun tracks were mostly country-styled, Elvis and RCA Victor leavened the selections with covers of recent rhythm and blues songs. Two of these, "Money Honey" by Jesse Stone, known to Elvis from a version by Clyde McPhatter, and Ray Charles' 1955 hit "I Got a Woman", had been in Presley's live act for a year. A third was the frenetic announcement to the world of the existence of Little Richard in 1955, "Tutti Frutti". A rockabilly number that was believed to be a potential hit and could hold its own with the R&B material, "Blue Suede Shoes", was not initially released as a single from a promise by Sholes to Sam Phillips to protect the career of another Sun artist, Carl Perkins, the author of the song. Instead, it was diverted into being the opening track on the album.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: On August 31, 1956, RCA Victor took the unusual step of releasing the entire album as singles, which undoubtedly kept the new single released simultaneously, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" backed with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", from reaching the charts. However, "Blue Suede Shoes", released in single form as a part of this experiment by RCA Victor, kept the promise to Phillips and Perkins by waiting over eight months since the song's release on Sun. It had however, been the lead song on two earlier EPs which sold well enough to make it to number 20 on the singles chart the week of April 28.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: The cover is ranked number 40 on "Rolling Stone's" list of the 100 greatest album covers, published in 1991. The photograph of Elvis was taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1955. Initially, it was thought that Popsie Randolph took the image featured on the front cover, since the album only credited one photographer. However, in August 2002, Joseph A. Tunzi documented that the actual photographer was William V. "Red" Robertson of Robertson & Fresch. The Popsie credit attributed to the album only applied to a series of photos featured on the back cover, taken in New York City in early December 1955, shortly after Presley had signed with RCA Victor. Tunzi was quoted in the Tampa Tribune as saying, "Forget about Popsie. Popsie did not take that photo."


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: The graphic and photo were also used on an EP and a double-EP comprising songs from this album, also released in March 1956.


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: The design was echoed by the Clash for the front of their 1979 album "London Calling"; that cover is number 39 on the "Rolling Stone" list of 100 greatest album covers noted previously. Other acts of cover homage include "F-Punk" by Big Audio Dynamite in 1995 and "Reintarnation" in 2006 by k.d. lang, and Chumbawamba's controversial single "Tony Blair".


title: Elvis Presley (album)

text: RCA first reissued the original 12 track album on compact disc in 1984. This issue, in reprocessed (fake) stereo sound, was quickly withdrawn and the disc was reissued in original mono. In 1999, RCA reissued the album with an altered running order, adding on six bonus tracks from three non-album singles, including the chart-toppers "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You". In 2005, the album was reissued again, remastered using DSD technology with the six bonus tracks appended in standard fashion. A two-disc set was released on the Follow That Dream collectors label on August 15, 2006, with bonus tracks and numerous alternate takes.


title: Get Carter

text: Get Carter is a 1971 British crime film written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel "Jack's Return Home", the film follows the eponymous Jack Carter (Caine), a London gangster who returns to his hometown in North East England to learn about his brother's supposedly accidental death. Suspecting foul play, and with vengeance on his mind, he investigates and interrogates, regaining a feel for the city and its hardened-criminal element.


title: Get Carter

text: Producer Michael Klinger optioned Lewis's novel shortly after its publication and made a deal with the ailing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to finance and release the film, making "Get Carter" the last project to be approved by the studio's Borehamwood division before its closure. The production went from novel to finished film in eight months, with principal photography taking place from July to September 1970 in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and County Durham. Hodges, Klinger and Caine intended to create a more realistic portrayal of violence and criminal behaviour than had previously been seen in British films: Caine, who also served as an uncredited co-producer, incorporated aspects of criminal acquaintances into his characterisation of Carter, while Hodges conducted research into the criminal underworld of Newcastle (in particular the one-armed bandit murder). Cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky worked with Hodges to give scenes a naturalistic feel, drawing heavily on their backgrounds in documentary films.


title: Get Carter

text: Turning a respectable profit upon its initial UK release, "Get Carter" initially attracted mixed reviews. Critics begrudgingly appreciated the film's technical achievements and Caine's performance while criticizing the complex plot, violence and amorality, in particular Carter's apparent lack of remorse for his actions. American critics were generally more enthusiastic, but the film languished on the drive-in circuit, while MGM focused its resources on producing "Hit Man", a Blaxploitation-themed remake of the film.


title: Get Carter

text: "Get Carter" eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, "Get Carter" was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in "Total Film" magazine chose it as the greatest British film. A poorly-received second remake under the same title was released in 2000, with Sylvester Stallone portraying Jack Carter and Caine in a supporting role.


title: Get Carter

text: Newcastle-born gangster Jack Carter has lived in London for years in the employ of organised crime bosses Gerald and Sid Fletcher. Jack is sleeping with Gerald's girlfriend Anna and plans to escape with her to South America, but he must first return to Newcastle and Gateshead to attend the funeral of his brother, Frank, who died in a purported drunk-driving accident. His bosses warn him not to stir up trouble, as they are friendly with the Newcastle mob. Unsatisfied with the official explanation, Jack investigates for himself. At the funeral, Jack meets his teenage niece Doreen, and Frank's evasive mistress Margaret.


title: Get Carter

text: Jack goes to Newcastle Racecourse, seeking his old acquaintance Albert Swift for information about his brother's death, but Swift evades him. Jack encounters another old associate, Eric Paice, who refuses to tell Jack who is employing him as a chauffeur. Tailing Eric leads him to the country house of crime boss Cyril Kinnear. Jack confronts Kinnear but learns little from him; he also meets a glamorous drunken woman, Glenda. As Jack leaves, Eric warns him against damaging relations between Kinnear and the Fletchers. Back in town, Jack is threatened by henchmen who want him to leave town, but he fights them off, capturing and interrogating one to find out who wants him gone. He is told the name "Brumby".


title: Get Carter

text: Jack knows Cliff Brumby as a businessman with controlling interests in local seaside amusement arcades. Visiting Brumby's house, Jack discovers the man knows nothing about him and, believing he has been set up, he leaves. The next morning two of Jack's London colleagues – Con McCarthy and Peter the Dutchman – arrive, sent by the Fletchers to take him back, but he escapes. Jack meets Margaret to talk about Frank, but the Fletchers' men are waiting and pursue him. He is rescued by Glenda, who takes him in her sports car to meet Brumby at his new restaurant development at the top of a multi-storey car park. Brumby identifies Kinnear as being behind Frank's death, also explaining that Kinnear is trying to take over his business. He offers Jack £5,000 to kill the crime boss, which he refuses.


title: Get Carter

text: Jack has sex with Glenda at her flat, where he finds and watches a pornographic film in which Doreen is forced to have sex with Albert. The other participants in the film are Glenda and Margaret. Jack becomes enraged and pushes Glenda's head underwater as she is taking a bath. She tells him the film was Kinnear's, and that she thinks Doreen was pulled into the production by Eric. Forcing Glenda into the boot of her car, Jack drives off to find Albert.


title: Get Carter

text: Jack tracks down Albert, who confesses he told Brumby that Doreen was Frank's daughter. Brumby showed Frank the film to incite him to call the police on Kinnear; Eric and two of his men arranged Frank's death. Having extracted this information, Jack fatally stabs Albert. Jack is attacked by the London gangsters and Eric, who has informed Fletcher of Jack and Anna's affair. In the ensuing shootout, Jack shoots Peter dead. As Eric and Con escape, they push the sports car into the river, unaware that Glenda is in the boot. Returning to the car park, Jack finds and beats Brumby before throwing him to his death. He then posts the film to the Scotland Yard vice squad.


title: Get Carter

text: Jack abducts Margaret. He telephones Kinnear in the middle of a wild party, telling him he has the film and makes a deal for Kinnear to give him Eric in exchange for his silence. Kinnear agrees, sending Eric to an agreed location; however, he subsequently phones an associate. Jack drives Margaret to the grounds of Kinnear's estate, kills her with a fatal injection and leaves her body there. He then calls the police to raid Kinnear's party.


title: Get Carter

text: Jack chases Eric along a beach. He forces Eric to drink a bottle of whisky as Eric had done to Frank, then beats him to death with his shotgun. Having avenged Frank and Doreen, Jack walks along the shorelinewhere he is shot dead from a distance by Kinnear's associate.


title: Get Carter

text: There was pressure from MGM to have more big-name American stars in the film, which was successfully resisted by Hodges. As well as Telly Savalas, names posited by Klinger and studio executives were Joan Collins, and someone Hodges described as "the Canadian lead actress in TV's "Peyton Place"", which is likely a reference to Barbara Parkins. The production also utilised a large number of extras, most of whom were locals who just happened to be on scene when filming was happening. Others were sourced from local casting company Beverley Artistes, which sent everyone registered with it for auditions, one of these being Deana Wilde, who was cast as the pub singer. Several of the company's actors were also in background shots in the film including the casino, streets, bars and the police raid scene.


title: Get Carter

text: Mike Hodges recruited a band of experienced character actors to play the small supporting roles. Godfrey Quigley was cast as Eddie, a colleague of Frank Carter's. Kevin Brennan appears as Harry the card-player. Ben Aris, who plays one of the architects, had previously appeared in such films as "if...", "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Hamlet".


title: Get Carter

text: Carl Howard's character of the assassin, "J", is only identified by the initial on his ring, in his only film role, and an appropriate mystery surrounds his real identity. His name does not appear on the credits of some prints. Mike Hodges explained that Howard was an extra in his TV film "Rumour", and the director gave him a line to say, but another extra was wrongly credited. Hodges promised he would make it up to him and cast him in "Carter", but his name was missed off some of the original prints. When the film credits were printed in the "Radio Times" and "TV Times", Howard was also trimmed. Hodges said in 2002 that "Carl and credits don't seem destined for each other".


title: Get Carter

text: In the late 1960s, a relaxation in film censorship produced an increase in dark, uncompromising films, with many directors pushing the boundaries of acceptability. "Get Carter" was a film that explored this freedom. The project went from concept to finished film in just 10 months.


title: Get Carter

text: In 1969, producer Michael Klinger devised plans for a gangster film to capitalise on public interest in the British criminal underworld after the Kray Twins' convictions. Klinger was invited to view a first print of Peter Walker's "Man of Violence" (1969) and was unimpressed, telling the director "I'm going to make a gangster film, but it's going to cost a lot more than this and it's going to be better".


title: Get Carter

text: After searching many publishers for material to adapt into a film, Klinger purchased the rights to Ted Lewis' novel "Jack's Return Home". Andrew Spicer has written that "he [Klinger] sensed its potential to imbue the British crime thriller with the realism and violence of its American counterparts".


title: Get Carter

text: Klinger had been approached in 1969 by another producer, Nat Cohen, to make films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In financial trouble and shutting down its British operations, MGM was in the process of closing its British studios at Borehamwood and was looking to make smaller-budget films to turn a profit. At this time Klinger's friend Robert Littman had been appointed head of MGM Europe and so Klinger took his proposal to him. MGM agreed to a reasonable but below-average budget of 750,000 (there is some dispute as to whether this figure refers to dollars or pounds) for the production. Within months of agreeing to the deal MGM had pulled out of the UK. Klinger had seen Mike Hodges' television film "Suspect" (1969) and immediately decided he was the ideal candidate to direct his new project. Hodges had also previously worked on current affairs programme "World in Action", the arts programme "Tempo" and a 1968 children's television serial, "The Tyrant King", and all these past experiences informed his approach to his film debut.


title: Get Carter

text: Klinger contacted Hodges on 27 January 1970 with a copy of "Jack's Return Home" and contracted him to write and direct the film, paying him a flat fee of £7,000 for his services. Hodges' original working title for the film was "Carter's The Name". Steve Chibnall writes: "his treatment retained the essential structure of Lewis's novel with its strong narrative drive, but introduced some minor changes to characterisation and more fundamental alterations to narratology". As Ted Lewis had not specified where his novel was set, Hodges felt free to relocate the story to a place he was familiar with, considering Grimsby, Lowestoft, Hull and North Shields before deciding on Newcastle Upon Tyne. Hodges said he was influenced in his writing by the works of Raymond Chandler and Hollywood B-movies such as "Kiss Me Deadly", because they showed "how to use the crime story as an autopsy on society's ills". He did not, however, employ a traditional noir technique of using a voiceover to expose the character's inner feelings. He also dispensed with flashbacks to Carter's youth featured in the novel which explored his relationship with his brother Frank, streamlining the plot to a linear narrative spanning a single weekend. As Chibnall writes


title: Get Carter

text: The significance of the double-barrelled shotgun as Carter's choice of weapon (which in the novel symbolises family ties and Carter's memories of more innocent times hunting with his brother) was lost in the film adaptation.


title: Get Carter

text: Carter's killing of Brumby and his own assassination were further alterations from the novel, emphasising the film's parallels with revenge tragedy and Carter's role as what Geoff Mayer calls "the moral agent [...] a "knight" forced to dispense his own sense of justice in a corrupt world". However, in his DVD commentary Hodges implies that he did not see Carter as morally any more justified than those he kills, and his death is intended to present his actions to the audience as morally bankrupt and futile: "I wanted him to be dealt with in exactly the same way he dealt with other people. Now that's a sort of Christian ethic in a way [...] That was a prerequisite of the film for me, that the hitman should go [click] and that's it". Hodges' decision to kill off Carter was initially protested by MGM executives, as they wanted the character to survive in the event that the film proved successful enough to warrant a sequel.


title: Get Carter

text: Locations along the east coast of England had been scouted by Hodges and Klinger in the spring of 1970, to find a landscape that suggested a "hard, deprived background". Newcastle was selected after Hodge's first choice of Hull proved to be unsuitable. Hodges thoroughly researched the local Newcastle crime scene, adapting the script to make use of settings and incorporating elements of his research into the story. His background at "World in Action" had made him accustomed to making films based on hard investigation and this informed his approach to "Get Carter". One of the first locations which attracted Hodge's attention was the Trinity Square multi-storey car park, which dominated the centre of Gateshead. To Hodges, the car park and the cast iron bridges over the Tyne, "seemed to capture the nature of Jack Carter himself". The car park embodies one of the film's more subtle themes, which is the destruction of an old cityscape and its rebuilding in line with modern Brutalism. Hodges described how wandering alone through the upper structure, he realised how the different levels could be used to reveal the hunter, Carter, and the hunted, Brumby, simultaneously but without either being aware of the other – adding to the suspense. The shopping centre and car park were closed in early 2008 and demolished in late 2010.


title: Get Carter

text: The location for Cyril Kinnear's house, Dryderdale Hall, near Hamsterley, Bishop Auckland, provided a real-life connection with organised crime. It was the recently-vacated country house of North East fruit machine businessman Vince Landa, who had fled the country in 1969 after the murder of his right-hand man Angus Sibbett, the so-called one-armed bandit murder. Many believed the crime was part of a failed attempt by the Kray twins to gain control of the Newcastle underworld. Michael Klinger and the MGM publicity spokesman dismissed the use of the location as mere coincidence; however, Hodges was aware of the significance of the house and chose it deliberately. Steve Chibnall writes "It proved a perfect location, wreaking of authenticity and full of useful details such as the cowboys and Indians wallpaper [...] the African shield and crossed spears on the wall of the crime lord's living room". The Landa case also is referenced at the start of the film with a shot of a newspaper bearing the headline "Gaming Wars". Other locations in Newcastle and Gateshead, Northumberland and County Durham were also used.


title: Get Carter

text: Principal photography took place in the North East between 17 July and 15 September 1970. Hodges favoured the use of long focal length lenses (as he had used previously on "Rumour") in many scenes to create a naturalistic documentary feel, especially in crowd scenes. The film was shot in Metrocolor, which was MGM's trade name for films processed at its Eastmancolor laboratory. This lab processed Kodak's Eastman Color Negative, so it is most likely the film was shot on this stock. Asked to comment on what he was aiming for in the look of the film, cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky said "The camera work on it [...] it was very influenced by Mike Hodges who has a very good eye for setups and he of course conferred with his operator and myself, but he influenced all of us, and much of the good look is due to him, I confess. My main task was lighting on location, very moderately, and waiting for the right daylight and setting the exposure on the lens". In the first week of shooting in Newcastle, the ACTT called the crew out on a one-day strike. At the advice of Richard Lester, Hodges and his assistant director stayed at a separate hotel to the rest of the cast and crew, which enabled him to have some respite from the production after the shooting day was done. Klinger was present on set for much of the film shoot. However, Hodges said he encountered very little interference from the producer. At one point Klinger and Caine asked if Hodges might work in a "chase sequence", but he persuaded them that it would draw too many comparisons with "Bullitt" (a chase sequence between Carter and the London gangsters is mentioned in the shooting script). Hodges tried to rehearse the racecourse scene between Caine and Hendry in their hotel the night before shooting, but "Hendry's drunken and resentful state forced Hodges to abandon [the] attempt". Hodges described Caine as "a complete dream to work with". Caine only lost his temper once on set, during the very tense and emotional day filming in Glenda's flat, when the focus puller ruined his first take. Caine apologised immediately.


title: Get Carter

text: The most complicated scene to shoot was Kinnear's game of cards. There are four simultaneous conversations, with a lot of plot exposition and the introduction of two important characters, Kinnear and Glenda. The technical complexity was compounded by the variation in light coming through the windows, and Osborne's whispered delivery which made microphone placement difficult. Hodges moved the camera and the boom closer to Osborne as the scene progressed. Chibnall says that Hodges regretted not rehearsing the scene more thoroughly.


title: Get Carter

text: In shooting the scene in which Carter throws Brumby to his death from the multi-storey car park, Hodges used four shots: one of the pair struggling high up on the stairs; one from the lowest level of the stairwell where Caine actually threw Bryan Mosley over the side onto mattresses; one shot of a dummy falling; and one of the body of Brumby on top of a crushed car.


title: Get Carter

text: Carter's climactic pursuit of Eric used an amalgamation of two locations spaced apart: Blyth staithes and Blackhall Beach near Blackhall Colliery. The chase scene was shot in reverse, with Hodges filming Eric's death scene first because of Hendry's poor condition, Hodges being worried that he would be too out of breath to play the death scene after running. Hodges chose the beach for its bleak, dark atmosphere but when he returned to shoot the scene he found it bathed in bright sunshine, unsuitable for the sombre conclusion he was hoping for. He waited hours until the sun began setting to capture the overcast shadowy lighting seen in the film. The film shows the beach black with coal spoilings, dumped there by the mine's conveyor system. The conveyor, a common sight on the East Durham coast, was known locally as 'The Flight'. In the early 2000s, £10 million was spent removing these conveyors and the concrete towers, and cleaning tons of coal waste from the beaches of East Durham. The cleaning programme was known as 'Turning the Tide'.


title: Get Carter

text: Klinger was a hands-on producer who remained present throughout shooting and in post-production. He suggested Hodges use John Trumper as editor. Hodges said that he and Trumper argued and disagreed constantly, but he still thought he was a "brilliant, brilliant editor" and was "very grateful to him for [...] how much he contributed". Sound editing and dubbing was done by Jim Atkinson, whom Hodges described as "so obsessive about the job". He gave Hodges multiple possibilities of how the sound could be dubbed, and explored every angle. Klinger was worried that the debut director might be overwhelmed with too many options, but Hodges said he and Atkinson got on very well.


title: Get Carter

text: The majority of the film's music was composed by Roy Budd, a jazz pianist and composer, who had previously worked on soundtracks for "Soldier Blue" and "Flight of the Doves". Aside from its score, Budd also composed three songs: "Looking For Someone", "Love Is A Four Letter Word" (with lyrics by Jack Fishman) and "Hallucinations". The theme (otherwise known as "Carter Takes a Train"), the best-known piece from the film, was played by Budd and the other members of his jazz trio, Jeff Clyne (double bass) and Chris Karan (percussion), and was recorded on a budget of £450. The musicians recorded the soundtrack live, direct to picture, playing along with the film. To save time and money Budd did not use overdubs, simultaneously playing a real harpsichord, a Wurlitzer electric piano and a grand piano. Budd described the experience as "uncomfortable, but it sounded pleasant". The theme tune features the sounds of the character's train journey from London to Newcastle.


title: Get Carter

text: The theme was released as a 7" vinyl single by Pye Records in 1971, titled simply "Carter" and backed with "Plaything", another piece composed for the soundtrack. Original copies of the record are much sought after by collectors and sell for around £100. The soundtrack—including pieces not used in the film—was originally only available in its entirety in Japan, where it was released on Odeon Records. It was released in the UK in 1998 by the Cinephile label, a subsidiary of Castle Communications. In 2012, the theme was included on the Soul Jazz Records compilation "British TV, Film and Library Composers".


title: Get Carter

text: The film includes other music which is not included on the soundtrack LP. The music playing in the nightclub scene is an uptempo cover of the 1969 Willie Mitchell tune "30-60-90" performed live by the Jack Hawkins Showband, which was the resident band at the Oxford Galleries night club. The pub singer, played by Denea Wilde, performs a cover of "How About You?" by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed, a song more associated with glamorous Hollywood films than the backrooms of Newcastle pubs. The Pelaw Hussars, a local juvenile jazz band and majorette troupe, also appear and perform two numbers, "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "Auld Lang Syne".


title: Get Carter

text: The world premiere for "Get Carter" was held in Los Angeles on 3 February 1971. The film finally opened for general release across the UK on 10 March 1971 and in the US on 18 March, where it was rated 'X' for violence and female nudity, meaning it was for adults only. It was later reclassified as 'R', meaning children under the age of 17 had to be accompanied by an adult. A censored version was released in West Germany on 6 August 1971, with a running time nine minutes shorter than the original. Michael Klinger was involved in promotion of the film in the UK, using the experience from his background as a distributor to conduct a strong advertising campaign. Teaser posters for the film appeared on the front of buses across London, featuring the tagline "Caine is Carter".


title: Get Carter

text: The original British quad poster with artwork by Arnaldo Putzu, in common with many film posters, has aspects or images that differ from the finished screen version. Carter is depicted wearing a gaudy floral jacket, as opposed to the dark raincoat and mohair suit he wears in the film. Asked in 2006, Putzu could not remember his artistic rationale for painting the floral jacket, but said he was painting a lot of flowers in designs at that time. Chibnall describes the flower power imagery as "what seems like a desperate and misguided attempt to suggest the hipness of a genre which had largely fallen out of favour". However, movie poster expert Sim Branaghan liked its eccentricity, calling it was "that kind of quirkiness you wouldn't get these days". Jonny Trunk of Trunk Records—a long-time aficionado of the film and its history—has observed that the floral pattern of Carter's jacket is taken from the distinctive pillow and matching sheet design from the bed in the scene where Britt Ekland writhes naked whilst on the phone to Jack. The poster also places Carter's shotgun in Eric's hands, and features a grappling man and woman who seem to belong to a different film. Promotional shots and poster artwork exist from the film showing Carter holding a pump-action shotgun; in the finished film, the only shotgun used by Carter is a double-barrelled shotgun, which Carter finds on top of his brother Frank's wardrobe.


title: Get Carter

text: MGM sold distribution rights to the film in the U.S. to its future subsidiary United Artists, which promoted it poorly, amidst worries the cockney dialogue in the opening scene would be unintelligible to U.S. audiences. The film's release was delayed while parts of the film were redubbed, with no great improvement. In the process of redubbing the opening, the version of the film with the original dialogue was lost. For years the version shown on British television was the redubbed American cut. UA placed the film on the declining drive-in movie circuit, where it played at the bottom of a double bill with "Dirty Dingus Magee", a vehicle for Frank Sinatra. Michael Klinger complained in 1974 to president of UA Eric Pleskow about the lacklustre promotion of "Carter", and tried to get him to relinquish the U.S. rights to the film so that Klinger could find a better distributor.


title: Get Carter

text: The film did not encounter many censorship problems, although the scene where Carter knifes Albert Swift caused concern for the censor John Trevelyan. In South Africa the censor cut out Britt Ekland's phone sex scene, shortening her already brief role; her name was still left on the poster, leaving filmgoers to wonder why she was advertised as appearing.


title: Get Carter

text: A resurgence of critical and public interest in the film in the 1990s led to the British Film Institute (BFI) releasing a new print of the film in 1999. It worked with Hodges to restore the film, with Hodges sourcing another set of negatives of the original opening, which were found in the archives of the BBC. The team then spliced the beginning segment onto a high-quality print of the film. The reissue premiered at the National Film Theatre and went on general release on 11 June 1999, showing at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle.


title: Get Carter

text: On 16 March 2022, the BFI announced that they would be partnering with Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for a re-release of the film at the BFI Southbank as part of their retrospective program "Return of the Outsider: The Films of Mike Hodges", which ran from May 1 to May 31 and included various in-person events such as "Mike Hodges in Conversation" on May 3; this was followed by a wide release in British and Irish cinemas on 27 May. This release utilised a new 4K restoration of the film's original camera negative, which was approved by Hodges.


title: Get Carter

text: Chibnall has established that the film was shown on LWT in 1976 and 1980 "in a bowdlerised version" (which edited out Britt Ekland's phone sex scene) and once on Westward Television and on Granada in August 1981, but it was not shown nationally and in its entirety until a post-watershed BBC broadcast in 1986. It was finally released on home media in 1993 by MGM/UA as part of its "Elite Collection". Chibnall says "There was no advertising to suggest a significant event had occurred. It was simply a part of the long process of exploiting MGM's back catalogue in the run-up to Christmas". Despite this, the release was given a five-star review in "Empire", where it was described as "one of the best British films of the 70s". Chibnall notes "it did not, however, find a place in "Empire"s top fifty videos of the year".


title: Get Carter

text: Warner Bros. reissued the film in a special edition on DVD in October 2000 in its original aspect ratio. Extras included three trailers; the international trailer, an introduction by Michael Caine to the people of Newcastle, and a third featuring Roy Budd playing the opening theme. This format was also used in a 2001 VHS set released by Warner, which included "Bullit" and "Shaft". Also included on the DVD was commentary from Caine, Hodges and Suschitzky, constructed from separate interviews with the three. The soundtrack was presented in 1.0 mono Dolby Digital.


title: Get Carter

text: The film was bundled in the 2008 "Movies That Matter – 70's Classics" DVD set with "Deliverance" and "Dog Day Afternoon". It is available from the Warner Archive Collection as a Made on Demand (MOD) DVD-R or a download, with the same extras as the 2000 release, although with only two trailers and this time in ratio.


title: Get Carter

text: "Get Carter" was released on Blu-ray Disc by Warner on April 22, 2014; this release features the same extras as the special edition DVD, but due to a manufacturing error, American pressings of the disc utilize the dubbed American version of the opening sequence instead of the original audio. This change was carried over to the initial British pressings of the disc, but was later reversed following public backlash; later British pressings sold by outlets such as Amazon UK feature the original audio track.


title: Get Carter

text: BFI Video released its 4K restoration of "Get Carter" on August 1, 2022 on standard and Ultra HD Blu-ray; the two-disc sets include the special features of earlier home media releases of the film, as well as a new audio commentary with critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw, an isolated music track, interviews with Hodges, Trunk Records founder Jonny Trunk, actress Petra Markham and Michael Klinger's son Tony, Philip Trevelyan's 1966 documentary film "The Ship Hotel, Tyne Main", a booklet containing various essays on the film and other paraphernalia, postcards and a double-sided poster for both the restoration and a replication of the original UK poster art.


title: Get Carter

text: Describing the initial critical response to the film, Steve Chibnall wrote "Initial critical vilification or indifference establishes the conditions in which a cult can flourish. "Get Carter" had to make do with ambivalence". He thought the general stance of British critics "was to admire the film's power and professionalism while condemning its amorality and excessive violence". Geoff Mayer observed that "Mainstream critics at the time were dismayed by the film's complex plotting and Carter's lack of remorse". In "Sight and Sound", Tom Milne said the film was well-constructed and had good characterisation, but lacked the mystery and charisma of the earlier American crime films it attempted to emulate. He found Carter's motivations were inconsistent, either being an avenging angel or an "authentic post-permissive anti-hero, revelling in the casual sadism".


title: Get Carter

text: In contrast, Nigel Andrews found the characters to be clichéd archetypes of the criminal underworld, such as the "homosexual chauffeur, bloated tycoon, glamorous mistress", describing the film as "perfunctory".


title: Get Carter

text: Richard Weaver in "Films and Filming" praised the realism of the film, describing it as "crime at its most blatant", while George Melly writing in "The Observer" confessed to vicarious enjoyment of it, but admitted it was "like a bottle of neat gin swallowed before breakfast. It's intoxicating all right, but it'll do you no good".


title: Get Carter

text: Steve Chibnall writes that "America was rather more used to hard-boiled storytelling" and that reviewers there were "more prepared than British criticism to treat "Get Carter" as a serious work", Pauline Kael admiring its "calculated soullessness" and wondering if it signalled a "new genre of virtuoso viciousness". US publication "Box Office" gave a cautiously approving review, describing the film as "nasty, violent and sexy all at once". It predicted that "It should please in the action market, but won't win any laurels for Caine although his portrayal of the vicious anti-hero impresses". The reviewer also opined that "Tighter editing would help considerably". Roger Ebert was less reserved in his praise, writing that "the movie has a sure touch". He noted the "proletarian detail" of the film which is "unusual in a British detective movie. Usually we get all flash and no humanity, lots of fancy camera tricks but no feel for the criminal strata of society". Of Caine's performance he wrote, "The character created by Caine is particularly interesting. He's tough and ruthless, but very quiet and charged with a terrible irony". Judith Crist in "New York" magazine gave a glowing review, saying "Michael Caine is superb, suave and sexy" and describing the film as "a hard, mean and satisfying zinger of the old tough-tec school done in frank contemporary terms". "Variety" also praised the film, saying it "not only maintains interest but conveys with rare artistry, restraint and clarity the many brutal, sordid and gamy plot turns". However, Jay Cocks writing in "Time" was disparaging, calling the film "a doggedly nasty piece of business" and comparing it unfavourably to "Point Blank". The film appeared on several US critics' lists of best films of the year.


title: Get Carter

text: In Michael Klinger's "The Guardian" obituary in 1989, Derek Malcolm remembered the film as "one of the most formidable British thrillers of its time".


title: Get Carter

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 38 reviews; the site's critical consensus reads "Darkly entertaining and tightly wound, "Get Carter" is a gritty revenge story done right". In 2003, Steve Chibnall observed a large gender imbalance in voting on the film up to April 2002, with less than 6% of votes cast (where the voters gave their gender) by women (53 out of 947). He also noticed a substantial increase in women voting on the film in the eight months leading up to April 2002.


title: Get Carter

text: "Get Carter" was a financial success, and according to Steve Chibnall its box office takings were "very respectable". On its opening week at ABC2 cinema at Shaftesbury Avenue, London, it broke the house record, taking £8,188. It out-performed "Up Pompeii", which was showing in the larger ABC1. It also performed strongly when moved to the ABCs in Edgware and Fulham Road. On its general release in the North of England, Chibnall notes it had a "very strong first week", before an unseasonal heatwave damaged cinema attendance. Chibnall writes that "Interestingly, although [the film's] downbeat and unsentimental tone is now thought to express the mood of its times, the mass cinema audience preferred "Love Story" (Arthur Hiller 1970), which remained the most popular film in Britain throughout "Get Carter"'s run". It was the sixth-most popular "general release" movie at the British box office in 1971.


title: Get Carter

text: At the time of its release, the only recognition the film received was a 1972 BAFTA Awards nomination for Ian Hendry as Best Supporting Actor. In 1999, "Get Carter" was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in "Total Film" magazine chose it as the greatest British film of all time. In 2008 the film was placed at 225 on "Empire"s 500 Best Movies of All Time list, which was selected by over 10,000 "Empire" readers, 150 filmmakers and 50 film critics. In October 2010 the critics from "The Guardian" newspaper placed the film on their list of "Greatest Films of All Time", placing it at number 7 in the 25 greatest crime films. In the accompanying poll conducted amongst "Guardian" readers, it was voted fifth. In 2011 Time Out London placed the film at 32 in its 100 Best British Films list, which was selected by a panel of 150 film industry experts.


title: Get Carter

text: In 1972, MGM released the Blaxploitation film "Hit Man", written and directed by George Armitage and produced by Gene Corman; the film's credits identify Lewis' "Jack's Return Home" as its basis. This marked the second time that Corman had produced a Blaxploitation film based on a novel that had previously been adapted for film following "Cool Breeze" (1972), the fourth adaptation of W. R. Burnett's "The Asphalt Jungle". However, Hodges and critics have identified "Hit Man" as a remake of "Get Carter", transposing the action from Newcastle to Los Angeles. The film stars Bernie Casey as Tyrone Tackett, the story's counterpart to Jack Carter, while Glenda is reimagined as Gozelda, a "sultry skin flick star" portrayed by Pam Grier. Armitage has revealed that he had not seen "Get Carter" at the time he worked on the film, and that Corman had given him an untitled copy of Hodges' script, asking him to rewrite it in an African-American context; he did not learn that the film was based on "Get Carter" until he was informed by his agent. While the films share several plot details and treatments, such as a sniper aiming at Carter/Tackett on a rocky beach, "Hit Man" includes several divergences from "Get Carter", including a scene in which Gozelda is mauled to death by tigers, and does not end with the main character's death. Hodges and Klinger were incensed by MGM's decision to remake the film, as they considered "Hit Man" inferior to "Get Carter"; Lewis later claimed that he never received any royalties from "Hit Man". The film was released by Warner Archive Collection as a MOD DVD-R on May 4, 2010.


title: Get Carter

text: Warner Bros., which holds the rights to the pre-1986 MGM library, produced a remake of "Get Carter" in 2000 under the same title, starring Sylvester Stallone as Jack Carter. Originally announced in 1997, Tarsem Singh and Samuel Bayer were considered to direct the film before Stephen Kay signed on, with David McKenna writing the script. As with "Hit Man", the film credited Ted Lewis' "Jack's Return Home" as its source, not Hodges' film, and again it contains scenes that are directly borrowed from the original, such as the opening train ride. Michael Caine appears as Cliff Brumby, in what Elvis Mitchell described as "a role that will increase regard for the original", speculating that "maybe that was his intention". Mickey Rourke plays the villain Cyrus Paice. The remake was compared unfavourably to the original by the majority of reviewers. The consensus opinion of critics on Rotten Tomatoes was that it was "a remake that doesn't approach the standard of the original, "Get Carter" will likely leave viewers confused and unsatisfied. Also, reviews are mixed concerning Stallone's acting". It was so badly received on its US release that Warner Bros. decided not to give it a UK theatrical release, anticipating the film would be savaged by British critics and fans. Elvis Mitchell in "The New York Times" wrote "it's so minimally plotted that not only does it lack subtext or context, but it also may be the world's first movie without even a text". Mike Hodges said in 2003 he had still not seen the remake, but was informed by a friend that it was "unspeakable". His son brought him a DVD of the film back from Hong Kong and he tried to watch it, but the region format was incompatible "so we put it in the dustbin". The film was voted the worst remake of all time in 2004 by users of British DVD rental website ScreenSelect (precursor of Lovefilm). The remake was released on Region 1 DVD on February 13, 2001 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.


title: Get Carter

text: Tom Cox writes that many British film makers "have stolen from Hodges without matching the cold, realistic kick" of "Get Carter". Films such as "The Long Good Friday", "Face" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" borrow from the film's blueprint. Steven Soderbergh's 1999 film "The Limey" is a homage to "Get Carter" and other British gangster films, and contains similar plot elements and themes of revenge, family and corruption. Soderbergh said he envisioned "The Limey" as ""Get Carter" made by Alain Resnais". Shane Meadows' film "Dead Man's Shoes" has also drawn comparisons to "Get Carter", being similarly a revenge gangster story set around a provincial English town. The production team of the television series "Life on Mars" also cited "Get Carter" as one of their influences for the programme.


title: Get Carter

text: The film's music also enjoyed its own resurgence in popularity, as it tapped into a 1990s interest in vintage film soundtracks. Portishead's Adrian Utley explained that they found the music to "Get Carter" inspiring as "it was done quickly and cheaply with only a few instruments, and it had to be intensely creative to disguise its limitations". The Human League album "Dare" contains a track covering the "Get Carter" theme, although it was only a version of the sparse leitmotif that opens and closes the film as opposed to the full-blooded jazz piece that accompanies the train journey. Stereolab also covers Roy Budd's theme on their album "Aluminum Tunes", although they call their version "Get Carter", as opposed to its proper title, "Main Theme (Carter Takes A Train)". This Stereolab version was subsequently used as a sample in the song "Got Carter" by 76. The Finnish rock band Laika & the Cosmonauts cover the film's theme on their 1995 album "The Amazing Colossal Band". BB Davis & the Red Orchidstra released a version of the film's title theme in 1999. Jah Wobble produced a dub cover version of the theme tune in 2009. Wobble had long been a fan of the bassline of the track, saying in a 2004 interview with "The Independent" that "There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them".


Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (originally released as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre) is a 1995 American slasher film written and directed by Kim Henkel, and starring Renée Zellweger, Matthew McConaughey, and Robert Jacks as Leatherface. The plot follows four teenagers who encounter Leatherface and his murderous family in backwoods Texas on the night of their prom. It is the fourth installment in the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" series, and also features cameo appearances from Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, and John Dugan, all stars of the original film. Marilyn Burns, who portrays "Patient on Gurney", is credited as "Anonymous" in the film.


title: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

text: Writer-director Kim Henkel had previously co-written the original "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974) with Tobe Hooper; the events of the previous two sequel films are addressed in "The Next Generation"s opening prologue as "two minor, yet apparently related incidents" which happened after the events of the original film. "Next Generation" was shot on location in rural areas outside of Austin, Texas.


text: The film received a limited release in the United States and Japan in 1995 under its original title "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but was not distributed any more widely at the time. Two years later, after Zellweger and McConaughey had both become major Hollywood stars, the film was re-cut and released on August 29, 1997 under the new title "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation", but was a critical and financial failure. Though a full soundtrack was never released, a companion single featured in the film performed by star Robert Jacks and Debbie Harry from Blondie was released on compact disc in 1997.


text: The next entry in the series was a remake of the original film, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", produced by Michael Bay with original creators Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper as co-producers. Following this was a prequel to remake, subtitled "". Another entry, "Texas Chainsaw 3D" was released in 2013 as a direct sequel to the original 1974 film. There would be one more installment to the original series, a "prequel" of its own, titled "Leatherface" that was released in 2017. The latest installment in the original series is "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (released in 2022), which takes place in the same continuity as the original four films.


text: On May 22, 1994, four teenagers—Barry, Heather, Jenny, and Sean—attend their school’s prom. When Heather discovers Barry cheating on her with another girl, she storms out of the dance, followed closely by Barry, who tries to explain himself as they drive away in his car. Their argument is interrupted by Jenny and Sean, who are hiding in the backseat, smoking marijuana. Heather takes a detour off the freeway, and while distracted, collides with another motorist, who passes out in the ensuing confusion. Jenny, Heather, and Barry leave Sean to look after the unconscious motorist, while they search for help.


text: They stop at an office trailer, where they meet Darla, an insurance agent, who promises to call her boyfriend, a tow truck driver named Vilmer. They leave the office and begin heading back towards the wreck, only for Heather and Barry to become separated from Jenny in the darkness. Vilmer soon shows up at the scene of the wreck, killing the motorist, before chasing Sean in his truck and backing over him repeatedly.


text: Meanwhile, Heather and Barry become separated from Jenny and discover an old farmhouse in the woods. As Barry looks around, Heather is attacked by Leatherface on the porch swing and subsequently forced into a meat locker. One of Vilmer and Leatherface’s family members, W. E., finds Barry and holds him at gunpoint before forcing him inside. Barry tricks W. E. and locks him out but while using the bathroom, Barry discovers a corpse in the bathtub. He is then killed by Leatherface with a sledgehammer. After killing Barry, Leatherface impales Heather on a meat hook.


text: Jenny returns to the scene of the wreck, where she is met by Vilmer, who offers her a ride. She accepts, only for Vilmer to threaten her, before showing her the bodies of Sean and the motorist. Jenny jumps out of the truck and runs into the woods. She is soon attacked by Leatherface, resulting in a lengthy chase through the farmhouse, where she finds several preserved corpses in an upstairs bedroom.


text: After leaping through an upstairs window, Jenny manages to flee the property. She seeks refuge from Darla, who reveals herself to be in league with the killers when W. E. shows up and beats her with a cattle prod. The two put her in Darla’s trunk and she leaves to pick up some pizzas for dinner. After being tormented by Vilmer, Jenny momentarily escapes, attempting to drive off in Darla’s car. She is stopped by Vilmer, who knocks her unconscious. She soon awakens at a dinner table, surrounded by the family, who reveal they are employed by a secret society to terrorize people that may cross their path. A man named Rothman shows up, reprimanding Vilmer for his methods, before revealing an array of scars and piercings on his torso and licking Jenny’s face. Rothman leaves and Vilmer terrorizes his family and Jenny, killing Heather by crushing her skull under his cybernetic leg, and knocking W. E. unconscious with a hammer.


text: Vilmer and Leatherface prepare to kill Jenny, who breaks free and, using the control to Vilmer’s leg, escapes. Jenny reaches a dirt road, where she is rescued by an elderly couple in an RV. However, Leatherface and Vilmer run them off the road, resulting in the RV falling on its side. Jenny emerges from the vehicle unscathed and continues running, with Leatherface and Vilmer in hot pursuit. A plane swoops down on Vilmer, killing him when one of the wheels grazes his skull. Leatherface screams in anguish, while Jenny looks on. A limousine pulls up and Jenny jumps in the backseat, where she is met by Rothman, who apologizes, explaining her experience was supposed to be spiritual and Vilmer had to be stopped. He offers to take her to a police station or a hospital, dropping her off at a hospital, where she speaks to an officer. Sally Hardesty, being pushed by on a gurney, meets Jenny’s gaze. Back on the dirt road as the sun sets Leatherface continues to flail his chainsaw in despair.


text: The film has been noted for its implementation of a secret society subplot driving Leatherface's family to terrorize civilians in order to provoke them to a level of transcendence; in a retrospective interview, Kim Henkel confirmed that the basis of the subplot was influenced by theories surrounding the Illuminati. Commenting on the film's ominous Rothman character, Henkel stated: "He comes off more like the leader of some harum-scarum cult that makes a practice of bringing victims to experience horror on the pretext that it produces some sort of transcendent experience. Of course, it does produce a transcendent experience. Death is like that. But no good comes of it. You're tortured and tormented, and get the crap scared out of you, and then you die."


text: Other references to the Illuminati are made in the film's dialogue, specifically in the scene in which Darla tells Jenny about the thousands-years-old secret society in control of the U.S. government, and makes reference to the Kennedy assassination. Critic Russell Smith noted in discussion of this plot point: "Could the unexplained "them" be an allusion to the insatiable horror audience that always makes these gorefests a good investment, or is it a cabal of governmental powermongers...?"


text: Many of these subplot questions are answered in Kim Henkel's 2012 follow-up film "Butcher Boys", which, although not an official TCM movie in name, may indeed be the next chapter in the story. Henkel's "Butcher Boys" is often referred to by critics as a "spiritual sequel" to his "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", mainly because it was originally written as one.


text: The film is recursive in that it opens with an intertitle referring to two "minor, yet apparently related incidents", a joking acknowledgment of the previous two sequels. Justin Yandell of "Bloody Disgusting" interprets the film as a cynical reimagining of the original film, with Henkel parodying his own work. He cites Leatherface's ineffectiveness at dispatching his victims as well as the archetypical teenage characters as evidence of the film being a commentary on the declining state of horror films in the late 1980s and early 1990s:


text: Another element noted by both critics and film scholars is the film's overt references to cross-dressing in the Leatherface character, which was briefly explored in the original film but implemented to a greater extent. Robert Wilonsky of the "Houston Press" commented on the film's treatment of the character, writing that the film "turns Leatherface (here played by Robbie Jacks, an Austin songwriter who used to host a smacked-up radio show with Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes) into a cross-dressing nancy boy who screams more than he saws." According to Henkel, he wrote the character as one who assumes the persona of the person whose face he wears: "The confused sexuality of the Leatherface character is complex and horrifying at the same time," he said in a 1996 interview. Film scholar Scott Von Doviak also took note of this, likening Leatherface's presentation in the film to that of a "tortured drag queen."


text: The original cut of the film by director Kim Henkel is approximately 7 minutes longer than the final released version. The original edit of the film has some slightly longer shots of violence and character reactions but the most significant omission in the theatrically released version was the deletion of Jenny's backstory at the beginning of the film. In the original cut, the relationship between Jenny and her stepfather (played by David Laurence) is shown to be fraught, with elements of domestic abuse and molestation shown as she is subjected to his violent outbursts. This later helps to explain why Jenny is not particularly phased when being tortured by Leatherface's family and how she has the strength to fight back against Vilmer when he touches her.


text: In a 1996-released documentary on the making of the film, Henkel stated that he wrote the characters as exaggerated "cartoonish" caricatures of quintessential American youth. Henkel cited the murder cases of serial killers Ed Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley as influences on his involvement in both "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" and the original "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre". Henkel also deliberately wrote themes of female empowerment into the script, specifically in the Jenny character: "It's her story. It's about her transformation, her refusal to shut up, to be silenced, to be victimized. And by extension her refusal to be oppressed. Even by culture... Bringing Jenny into a world in which the culture was grotesquely exaggerated was a way of bringing her to see her own world more clearly – that is to say, my intent was to present a nightmarish version of Jenny's world in the form of the Chainsaw family in order to enlarge her view of her own world."


text: The movie was filmed on location at an abandoned farmhouse in Pflugerville, Texas, and nearby Bastrop. The majority of the cast and crew were locals from Austin, aside from James Gale, a stage actor from Houston. Most of the filming took place at night, and was described by makeup artist J.M. Logan as "very, very rough for everyone."


text: Renée Zellweger reflected on the film in a 2016 interview, and said: "It was very low-budget, so we all shared a tiny Winnebago that the producer of the film — it belonged to him, it was his personal camper. So, you know, makeup was in the front seats and there was a table in the middle for hair, and there was a tiny little curtain by the bathroom. That was where you put your prom dress and your flower on. [...] It was ridiculous. How we pulled that off, I have no idea. I'm sure none of it was legal. Anything we did was a little bit dangerous. But what an experience. It was kamikaze filmmaking."


text: After a protracted post-production, the film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film and Media Conference on March 12, 1995, and received "glowing reviews" at the time. The film was purchased by Columbia Pictures for $1.3 million. The studio agreed to distribute the film theatrically (along with its home-video release), and agreed to spend no less than $500,000 on prints and advertising. The film was released theatrically on September 22, 1995, and was screened in 27 theaters in the United States, grossing $44,272.


text: Later in 1995, the film was released theatrically and on LaserDisc in Japan, and then was shelved for the following two years, when in 1997, Columbia re-edited, re-titled, and re-released it as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation", slating it for a late August release. According to producer Robert Kuhn, Columbia Pictures had deliberately pushed the film back to await the release of star Renée Zellweger's new film, "Jerry Maguire" (1996), which the producers agreed to; McConaughey's agent then purportedly put "pressure" on Columbia Pictures to not release the film theatrically, which caused complications between Henkel and the studio.


text: The film was released theatrically as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" in a limited release in approximately twenty U.S. cities on August 29, 1997 under a co-distribution deal between Columbia Pictures and Cinépix Film Properties. The theatrical release featured the re-cut version of the film, which excised a total of seven minutes from Henkel's original cut. The film earned $53,111 on 23 screens between August 29 and September 1, 1997. It would go on to gross a total of $185,898 domestically (including both the 1995 and 1997 versions), making it the poorest-performing "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" film.


text: Reviewing the film after a screening at the Boston Film Festival in 1995, Betsy Sherman of "The Boston Globe" referred to the film as a "shameless rehash" of the original, adding: "Henkel's idea of an imaginative stroke is to put [Leatherface] in red lipstick and black widow drag. No thanks, Julie Newmar." Critic Joe Bob Briggs championed the film upon its South by Southwest screening, referring to it as "a flick so terrifying and brilliant that it makes the other two "Chainsaw" sequels seem like 'After-School Specials.'"


text: Upon the film's 1997 re-release, much of the critical reviews focused on the lead performances of Zellweger and McConaughey, who had garnered significant fame in the interim. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote: "It was way back in 1995 that this schlocky horror farce, then known as "Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre", first appeared with the unknown actors Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger in starring roles. But even in a film whose principal props include litter, old pizza slices and a black plastic trash bag, it's clear that these two were going places." Rob Patterson of the "Austin American-Statesman" awarded the film three out of four stars and praised the performances, noting: "Everyone here certainly pushes at the ceiling of near-absurdity, yet "The Next Generation" never quite goes over the top." Terry Lawson of the "Detroit Free Press" similarly championed the lead performances of Zellweger and McConaughey, but expressed disappointment in the "Men in black" subplot and that writer-director Henkel "turns poor Leatherface into a whimpering drag queen." The "New York Daily News" also noted that "Zellweger impresses in her strenuous, scream-driven turn as Jenny."


text: Mike Clark of "USA Today" called the film "The kind of cinematic endeavor where you suspect both cast and crew were obligated to bring their own beer," while Owen Gleiberman wrote in "Entertainment Weekly" that the film "recapitulates the absurdist tabloid-redneck comedy of the great, original "Chainsaw" without a hint of its primal terror." Margaret McGurk of "The Cincinnati Enquirer" also remarked the film's narrative, writing: "The script, such as it is, establishes a new benchmark for incoherence. Something about some teens who wander away on prom night and run up against a family of psycho-cannibal-thrill-killers... Of course, there is no point to any of it, either the humor or the creepy (though relatively bloodless) mayhem—except maybe the permanent embarrassment of poor Matthew [McConaughey] and Renée [Zellweger]." Dann Gire of the "Daily Herald" suggested "a massacre might be less painful." John Anderson of "Newsday" wrote that the film was the kind that "Wes Craven's "Scream" has now rendered virtually defunct... What we want from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" is a giddy mix of gruesome horror and campy humor. What we get is less massacre than mess."


text: Joe Leydon of "Variety" wrote that the film "manages the difficult feat of being genuinely scary and sharply self-satirical all at once... it is adept at keeping its audience in a constant state of jumpiness." He also lauded Zellweger's performance, calling her "the most formidable scream queen since Jamie Lee Curtis went legit." "The Hollywood Reporter"s Dave Hunter similarly noted the film as being "blackly comic and extreme." "The Austin Chronicle" also gave the film a favorable review, stating: "Writer-director Kim Henkel penned the original "Chainsaw" and this effort shows that he still has a felicitous grasp of the things that cause us to shudder in dread."


text: "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" holds a 16% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews with an average rating of 3.6/10. Its consensus reads, ""The Next Generation" has the fortune of starring early-career Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger, but it services neither headliner well in a convoluted and cheap-looking slasher that doesn't live up to the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" legacy." On Metacritic the film holds a score of 50 out of 100, based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


text: In late 1995, the film saw its first home video release in the form of a LaserDisc released in Japan under its original "Return..." title.


text: The subsequent home video releases also occurred through Columbia Tristar Home Video: it was first released on VHS in September 1998, and on DVD on July 13, 1999. The original Columbia Tristar DVD release was reissued with new cover artwork in 2003. In 2001, Lionsgate, who purchased Cinépix Film Properties shortly after the film's 1997 theatrical run, released the film on DVD in Canada; the Canadian release featured the original 94-minute cut of the film.


text: Scream Factory announced in June 2018 a collector's edition Blu-ray release of the film; originally slated for September 25 release date, it was delayed until December 11. "Bloody Disgusting" reported at the time that the proposed artwork for the release, which had originally featured stars Zellweger and McConaughey, had to be altered to remove both actors due to licensing issues. The Blu-Ray release featured the theatrical cut, a 93-minute director's cut with optional commentary by writer-director Henkel, and several other special features.


text: The film's soundtrack featured many local Texan bands, but never received a release. However, star Robert Jacks, a friend of Blondie's Debbie Harry, produced a song with Harry titled "Der Einziger Weg" ("sic"; English: "The Only Way"; the correct German title would be "Der einzige Weg"), a single written for and featured in the film. The song was released by Eco-Disaster Music in 1997 as a single on compact disc, featuring Debbie Harry on the cover with a portrait of Jacks as Leatherface, featured in his three costumes, on the wall behind her.


title: University of Oregon

text: The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billionaire Phil Knight. UO is also known for serving as the filming location for the 1978 cult classic "National Lampoon's Animal House". UO's 295-acre campus is situated along the Willamette River. The school also has a satellite campus in Portland; a marine station, called the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, in Charleston; and an observatory, called Pine Mountain Observatory, in Central Oregon. UO's colors are green and yellow.


title: University of Oregon

text: The University of Oregon is organized into nine colleges and schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, College of Design, College of Education, Robert D. Clark Honors College, School of Journalism and Communication; School of Law; School of Music and Dance; and the Graduate School. Furthermore, UO offers 316 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Most academic programs follow the 10 week Quarter System. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is a member of the Association of American Universities. Since July 2014, UO has been governed by its own board of trustees.


title: University of Oregon

text: UO student athletes compete as the Ducks and are part of the Pac-12 Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). With eighteen varsity teams, the Oregon Ducks are best known for their football team and track and field program. These two teams are even incorporated into the design of the school's "O" logo. In the summer of 2022, UO hosted the 2022 World Athletics Championships. It was the first time the event was held in the United States.


title: University of Oregon

text: UO has a long and complex relationship with Nike, Inc., and the firm's co-founder Phil Knight. Knight, an alumnus, has donated over $1 billion to UO since the late-1980s. The school's "O" logo was designed by Nike in 1998 and sports facility projects on campus typically involve both Knight and Nike.


title: University of Oregon

text: The University of Oregon is located on Kalapuya ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, Kalapuya descendants are primarily citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.


title: University of Oregon

text: The university's motto, "mens agitat molem" translates from Latin as "mind moves mass", or poetically as "minds move mountains." The line comes from the Aeneid by Virgil, Book VI, line 727.


title: University of Oregon

text: The motto "mens agitat molem" is now shared with the Eindhoven University of Technology ("Technische Universiteit Eindhoven)" founded in 1956, the Military Academy of the German Armed Forces ("Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr") founded in 1957, the University of Warwick founded in 1965.


title: University of Oregon

text: Despite state funding woes, the Oregon State Legislature established the university on October 12, 1872, and named it Oregon State University. The residents of Eugene struggled to help finance the institution, holding numerous fundraising events such as strawberry festivals, church socials, and produce sales. They raised $27,500, enough to buy eighteen acres of land at a cost of $2,500. The doors opened in 1876 with the name of "Oregon State University" and University Hall as its sole building. The first year of enrollment contained 155 students taught by five faculty members. The first graduating class was in 1878, graduating five students. In 1881, the university was nearly closed; it was $8,000 in debt before Henry Villard donated $7,000 to help pay it. In 1913 and 1932, there were proposals to merge the university with what is now Oregon State University. Both proposals were defeated.


title: University of Oregon

text: During Prince Lucien Campbell's tenure as president from 1902 to 1925, the university experienced tremendous growth. The budget, enrollment, facilities, and faculty members all grew several times its amount prior to his presidency. Numerous schools were also established during his tenure, including the School of Music in 1902, the School of Education in 1910, the School of Architecture, the College of Business in 1914, the School of Law in 1915, the School of Journalism in 1916, and the School of Health and Physical Education in 1920. However, the University of Oregon lost its School of Engineering to Oregon Agricultural College, now known as Oregon State University.


title: University of Oregon

text: In 1917, a "three term" (quarter system) calendar was adopted by the university faculty as a war-time measure. This academic calendar has remained ever since then. However, it is now referred to as the Quarter System.


title: University of Oregon

text: The Zorn-MacPherson Bill in 1932 proposed the University of Oregon and Oregon State College (now "University") merge. The bill lost in a landslide vote of over 6 to 1. The University of Oregon Medical School was founded in 1887 in Portland and merged with Willamette University's program in 1913. However, in 1974 it became an independent institution known as Oregon Health Sciences University. In 1969, the UO was admitted into the Association of American Universities.


title: University of Oregon

text: The university occupies over 80 buildings. In recent years there have been numerous construction projects on campus. These projects were commissioned in part to support current student enrollment as well as possible future increases.


title: University of Oregon

text: In 2016, the university removed the name of Frederic Stanley Dunn, head of the Classics department in the 1920s and 30s, from a dormitory named after him, "Dunn Hall", because of his leading role in the Ku Klux Klan.