Carlos (2010)

The life of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez is extremely interesting in its own right, but the success of this project really depended upon Édgar Ramírez, who rose to the occasion in a remarkable way. Through him, the viewer can see the charismatic, ambitious, inspiring, fiery, driven, obsessed, aggressive, narcissistic, lecherous, hot-tempered, morally and ethically flexible person behind the notorious and fearsome reputation of Carlos the Jackal. One also gains pretty good insight into some of what drives, and the development of, revolutionaries, insurgents, terrorists, etc., and this series begs the question of where the line between those different classifications lies. The project also calls out how instrumental governments have been in the success of these non-state combatants, and the ensuing hypocrisy of such governments in denouncing these individuals once their services lose enough value. Additionally, viewers can appreciate a fascinating account of the development of the Cold War from the perspective of its "front-lines" fighters and in constantly shifting international settings. In sum, this is a brilliant series about fascinating people and subjects, brought to life by excellent actors.For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com

This 3 part series follows the "career" of Carlos from about 1973 to 1994. A psychopathic killer and terrorist leader he was responsible for a rash of bombings and assassinations for various groups mainly Palestinian causes. He was finally captured in Sudan in 1994.The movie is nicely filmed with period details adhered to. It seems to have been mostly filmed in Beirut with that venue passing for Tripoli Algiers etc... in any case it is convincing.What struck me is that the 911 attacks were nothing new...terrorists in the 1970s were taking OPEC ministers hostage blowing up planes etc... I am cynical enough to wonder why now there has to be trillions spent on the war on terror...seems they managed back then with out doing that. The military industrial complex needed a new threat after the cold war ended.Another flaw is the group is made to seem almost chic in their running from country to country. But that is minor.It is pretty good if you need to kill 6 hours.

The story was interesting and worth the watch. Despite the disclaimers that stated fictitious characters were introduced in the movie and some events or parts of them were also fictionalized for artistic content, I like to think as I'm sure many others will, that it did not matter; we get a sense of what terrorism at the time, the 70's and 80's, was probably like. The movie has a lot of action scenes, a plus. It had too many solo nude scenes of the character Carlos. My guess is the director(s) tried to convey the narcissistic side of the man; I can't rule out that possibility. I would have preferred he had some of the women Carlos was famous for seducing into his world of violence, with him in the nude scenes. Édgar Ramírez did okay with the character of Carlos, but I think that had the direction of the movie been better quality, Ramirez would have provided a much better performance. The editing was sloppy and almost amateurish, I'm sorry to say. It won't spoil your enjoyment of the movie but if you watched the two part series "Mesrine", you can see the difference better editing and direction can do.

Carlos, the biopic about the famous international terrorist who took the world by storm in the final decades of the Cold War, is an ambitious, intelligent and exciting political thriller in the tradition of the best this genre has created. Edited from the 3-part mini-series made for French television, it stars Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez as the protagonist in an impeccable performance. Almost unknown before this, hopefully his Golden Globe nomination will catapult him into great roles in the silver screen soon.The movie is good but the mini-series is much superior.The problem with subtracting is that you must know how to cover your tracks well. Unfortunately some clumsy editing hurts the film version; every time a scene fades to black the viewer won't help wondering just what was cut. This becomes especially noticeable in the second half of the movie, which deals with Carlos' years of decline. Ten years of his life, too many settings, too many characters are crammed in too short an amount of time to look organic, to let the viewer breathe and absorb all the information.The editing, however, is nearly invisible in the earlier part of the movie, which deals mostly with his terrorist exploits across the world, culminating with the extraordinary raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, in 1975, that ended with dozens of world ministers kidnapped and flown out of the country by Carlos and his men. It's in these sequences that the movie resembles old-fashioned thrillers. Think of slow burners like All The President's Men or Three Days of the Condor for a good idea of the movie's look and feel.In fact Carlos is the late offspring and a love letter to the '70s, especially its cinema. Director Olivier Assayas's style would be unthinkable without the minimalist, introspective film language filmmakers like Alan J. Pakula, Francesco Rossi or Jean-Pierre Melville developed to breathe a new life into the thriller. I personally miss the grubby realism, the sparse dialogues, the menacing silences, the carefully-shot sequences of those movies; and in the age of super-duper secret agents a la Jason Bourne who can take on whole armies and of dizzying hand-held camera shots, this careful style, with its steady camera, sounds wonderfully fresh and full of possibilities. Let's hope more filmmakers start using it again.The movie also doesn't hide its interest in being a period piece. The movie powerfully restores the period to life: the music, the cool leather jackets and the silly bell bottoms, the chain smoking (how many packs must they've smoked throughout the movie?) in public spaces, the shocking lack of airport security; even the sexism of the age was captured in the Carlos' ambivalent attitude towards women.The cold war should distant enough in our memories to finally receive some intelligent attention. While Hollywood continues to be nostalgic about cartoonish Russian conspiracies and spies (Salt), Europe has been doing sensible movies about these troubled decades, like The Lives of Others, Farewell and now Carlos. More than just a compilation of trivia, the movie is a careful look at a period when people were divided in communists and imperialists. The movie shows how terrorists like Carlos managed to move through the world thanks to the help of ordinary people who shared his ideals, like foreign students living in Europe. Being committed meant working for the good of the revolution in any possible way, it meant hiding guns under beds and sheltering revolutionaries in flats.The film version sadly simplifies this matter, so that's another reason to watch the mini-series. It also includes the dozens of people, some famous others not so much, who were part of Carlos' life. The TV version can intimidate any viewer with its huge cast of minor characters: mostly members of the secret services and political leaders. Through Carlos we get a disturbing look at the promiscuity of the world's secret services, agencies that not only spied on each other but sometimes helped each other, in a complicated web of agents and double agents, of betrayals and looking the other way in exchange for small favours (a political assassination here, smuggling arms there). This way Carlos also travelled around the world protected by governments and intelligence agencies.The movie follows traditional narratives of crime movies in the vein of Goodfellas and City of God: first the rise of Carlos the terrorist playboy superstar; then his slow descent into oblivion, precipitated by alcoholism, obesity and illness, until his eventual downfall. Ramírez' role was physically demanding and he had to put on a lot of weight to play the character in his later years; it's a testament to his talent that he manages to change subtler things too, like the way he walks or the pitch of his voice. He also gets right inside Carlos' personality giving us an extravagant, cocky but also undignified portrayal of the terrorist. The movie plays Carlos as a rock star who lives furiously knowing that he'll die on the battlefield or assassinated. His obsession with a heroic death is one of the Carlos' psychological aspects better explored here and also an ironic counterpoint to Carlos' real but far more pathetic ending.For a serious and unglamorous look at terrorism and politics, Carlos has few rivals at the moment. Whereas others retreat into fantasies about CIA-sponsored child super-assassins (Hanna) or try to fool themselves into thinking journalists are still heroes (State of Play) and not just hired hands in the service of spin, here's a movie that shows the world as it is: violent, treacherous, driven by money and egos, populated by ordinary people whose dreams and ambitions don't mean much to those in power. Perhaps it's not as spectacular or uplifting as the pabulum out there, but for my money it's infinitely more rewarding.