Goal - Get Carter

Following on from yesterday’s post about the joys of reading a book set in a place you know, I thought I’d tell you about the film, GOAL, starring Kuno Becker and Anna Friel.  Never heard of it?  Me, neither.  A friend in the running club, Terry, kindly gave me this DVD to watch, though he warned me it wasn’t a great film. He said it was a story of a young American boy (actually, he's an illegal alien in LA) who is good at ‘soccer’ and who manages to come over to England and secure a position with Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC).  Terry was right that it has great views of Newcastle, the stadium, Long Sands beach at Tynemouth and the sea front houses at Cullercoats. He also said it portrayed Geordies as crazy about NUFC; I can attest that this is an entirely accurate portrait.

I was happy enough watching it up to the point where the bad guy came along…I’m so soft I had to turn it off cause I knew it was going to upset me. I don’t get much time for watching videos, as I prefer to do it when it won’t disturb Bill. I expect the chance of getting him to watch this with me is about as good as Newcastle’s chances for winning the FA Cup this year (don't ask me what FA stands for...I'm not a footie fan).

I might have a slightly better chance (but don't hold your breath) of getting him to watch the film Get Carter, with Michael Caine.   I may have seen this once quite a while ago, but I don't remember it, so it wouldn't hurt to dust off the video we taped off the TV.  Just mention this film in the pub with a bunch of Geordies around and you'll get them reminiscing about all the places in Newcastle and Gateshead that were captured in that film and are now torn down.  A big 'favourite' is an old multi-storey car park which was apparently pretty hideous but, perhaps because of the film?, somehow isn't missed exactly, but always gets a nostalgic mention.  They aren't alone, apparently (I wonder if this is a good idea for Bill's Christmas prezzie?).  The locals around here will enjoy seeing this man's labour of love, chasing up the locations in the film.  Even I enjoyed looking at it.



Never heard of the movie Get Carter? I hadn’t either, but Michael Caine is big over here with men of a certain age. I’ve watched a few of his films and all his characters strike me as much of a muchness…sort of like John Wayne always playing himself…but – perhaps now I’m of a certain age - ‘e grows on you, ‘e does.