Review of Carlos (2010) by Filmphonic — 20 Sep 2015

Adapted from the award-winning TV mini-series and based on a real but disputed story, ‘Carlos The Jackal’ is the extraordinary tale of how a Venezuelan Marxist-Leninist aligned himself with global revolutionary anti-capitalist organizations and made alliances with several Islamic nations, on the way to becoming one of the world’s most wanted men and perhaps the most infamous terrorist of the 20th century.

Édgar Ramírez delivers a tour-de-force performance as an almost mythical figure of the 20th century who’s actions and motivations helped to shape the world we now live in for better or worse, mostly worse.

“The Jackal” has always been an enigmatic figure in popular culture, after all this is a Venezuelan revolutionary who managed to become a driving force for middle-eastern centered global terrorism while being a major figure in an “anti-capitalist” movement that made him a cult hero figure for some.

But in ‘Carlos The Jackal’ we are presented with a fascinating portrayal of the man behind the enigma that so gravely impacted the late 20th century, he’s presented as much as a self-aggrandizing narcissist as he is a brutal and motivated revolutionary.

As an adaptation of a much longer TV miniseries we are deprived here of some of the character and story elements that frankly make the TV version more engrossing, plus the movie looks like a TV film… and if you’re expecting your typical action/thriller you’ll probably be disappointed, but with a lack of budget ‘Carlos The Jackal’ is forced to strip away stylistic elements which results rather refreshingly in a purer focus on an extraordinary story and the man behind it.

Aside from a genuine attempt at humanizing a myth, the greatest triumph of ‘Carlos The Jackal’ is to remind us all that modern so-called global “Islamic Terrorism” has far reaching roots and has been an issue for many decades, albeit at a smaller scale with less of the religious fanaticism of today and of a more political/revolutionary angle.

The Bottom Line….

An effective adaptation of the award-winning TV mini-series which makes up for what it lacks in spectacle with a fascinating character study of the man behind the notorious enigma, a fascinating little lesson in recent Geo-political history with wide reaching implications for the troubled world we live in today.