Review of Carlos (2010) by Stephen C — 01 Sep 2011
If your going to go for the whole Carlos the Jackal story then go for the 330 mins cut which never fails to entertain over its long running time.
Oliver Assayas direction is powerful and surefooted as he focuses on the rise and fall of one of the worlds most notourious terrorists.
Edgar Ramirez simply dominates the film as Carlos as we see him go from Revolutinary idealist to fat drunken waster over a period of 20 years.
Ramirez delivers a knockout performance which really should be Oscar worthy ,but wont be due to its TV origins.
Assayas stages his action setpieces with a grand eye but at the same time he gives Carlos a human face as he crosses the globe spreading his own unique brand of terror.
Whats alarming is how countries were willing to hide and fianace this human bieng ,from the old eastern bloc countries to Syria ,Sudan and Libya.
When the walls came down in Europe Carlos had nowhere to go and we see him become a shadow of his former self living on past glories.
I enjoyed every second of this film and I would encourage all of you to seek out the longer cut its a true masterpiece of modern filmaking along side Mesrine and the Baader Meinhof Complex.
This review of Carlos (2010) was written by Stephen C on 01 Sep 2011.
Carlos has generally received very positive reviews.
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