Carlos (2010) dir. Olivier Assayas
Starring: Starring: Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Alejandro Arroyo

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

The Blu-ray cover of this exciting new release looks like a cross between Terminator Salvation and a robot character from Transformers. It's actually the face of Edgar Ramirez as Carlos. It's a bold cover that will likely attract more mainstream Blockbuster shelf surfers or Netflicks surveyors than the retro-cool theatrical poster of this film. The title of the movie was even changed to Carlos the Jackal to exploit the nickname by which the public knows this story but is actually never mentioned in the film. I have no problem with this – the more eyes on this work the better. Assayas brings Euro-art house credibility to what is essentially a procedural action film told with maximum realism, cinematic swagger and panache.

The new Blu-ray features both the five-and-a-half-hour mini-series version, which also played out of competition at Cannes, and the theatrical cut, which runs a bit over two-and-a-half hours. Though one version is literally half the length of the other, they both feel remarkably similar. Each film is anchored by its three acts. The first covers the introduction of Carlos to the International Palestinian Liberation movement funded indirectly by the Iraqi government via white-collar terrorist Wadie Haddad.

Carlos's early movements and cocksure attitude are dramatized with great speed, as we rush through assassination attempts, parcel bombings and other smaller tasks in a whip-fast montage effect. Both films feature a remarkably similar second act. It shows the step-by-step procedural details of the notorious Vienna OPEC Raid in 1975, where Carlos led a six-person team into OPEC headquarters and took hostages from Austria to Algeria to Libya and Yemen.

After zipping through the early years, virtually the entire second chapter takes place in the two days of this hijacking. Even within this shrunken timeline, Assayas makes every movement, action and decision a nail-biting affair, ringing out genre-style suspense and thrills as good as any Hollywood crackerjack.

Where the long version departs from the short version is in the third act, which shows the last 15 years of Carlos's career. It presents the downfall that began with the fallout of the OPEC event, leading to his last days as a free man in the '90s in Africa. Arguably, after reaching the high at the midpoint of part two, the film peters out due to the excessive running time, and it never achieves the true cinematic climax it deserves. And unfortunately, neither version cracks the third act.

Narrative deficiencies aside, Carlos succeeds magnificently because of the remarkable state of realism achieved by Assayas. We never feel like we're being manipulated by cinematic conventions or "action scenes." It's distinctly un-Hollywood without the art house pretension. We're also privy to one of the best performances of anyone last year (including Colin Firth) from Edgar Ramirez, who speaks numerous languages, endures De Niro-worthy weight gain to change his appearance over time and, most importantly, conveys the swagger that made Carlos one of the most unlikely political celebrities in the world.

Carlos (2010) dir. Olivier Assayas
Starring: Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Alejandro Arroyo

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

It’s most certainly an exercise in cinema attrition, but also one of the event films of the year and thus something I could not miss out on – that is, the five and half hour cut of Carlos, the epic biopic about the famed international terrorist Carlos the Jackal. It made a big splash at Cannes, Venice and has been showing in the glorious new Bell Lightbox theatre here in Toronto.

Including the two intermissions the whole event actually equals six hours, almost a working day of movie watching. For the most part it’s an impressive achievement for Assayas, who has crafted one long procedural thriller which spans 20 years, and a number of different countries across the globe.

Split into three parts, which at one hour and 45mins each, constitutes 3 separate films. Unlike Steven Soderbergh's Che though, it’s impossible to watch one part without seeing the other. These narrative breaks serve only allow us to get up and pee, or grab more popcorn.

Part One introduces Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (aka Carlos, played with maximum style by Edgar Ramirez), an idealistic Venezuelan political student who desires to contribute to the global action against the ills of capitalist imperialism, namely American influence in the Middle East. We see him connect with international terrorist backer, Wadie Haddad and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Assayas dramatizes these early activities with great speed, rushing through assassination attempts, parcel bombings and other smaller tasks with a whip fast montage effect.

The second part, after Carlos completes his training in Beirut, Assayas slows down the timeline to show the step by step procedural details of the notorious Vienna OPEC Raid in 1973 where Carlos led a six person team into OPEC headquarters and taking over 60 hostages on a ride from Austria to Algeria to Libya and Yemen. After zipping through years of Carlos’ early activities, virtually the entire second chapter takes place in the two days of this hijack. Even within this shrunken timeline, Assayas makes every movement, action, and decision a nail biting affair, ringing out genre-style suspense and thrills as good as any Hollywood crackerjack.

Part three shows the last 15 years of Carlo’s career, the downfall which started from the fallout of the OPEC event to his last days as a free man in the 90’s in Africa. Arguably after reaching the high at the midpoint of Part Two, the film peters out from the excessive running time. The final hour could have been compressed into 20mins, and it’s quite possible the 2 hour, 45mins cut might just do that. But the domestic vs. political life of Carlos which part three broadens tries to humanize Carlos as a man being unable to commit to anything, a life of ideals but no substantial foundation of heroism. Assayas is partly successful in conveying this, but his consistent detachment renders the finale anti-climactic.

The shear length of this endeavour, despite the lulls, is bravura filmmaking, but I couldn’t help but question, why this film was made, and why it was made the way it was. The mere fact so much time has been devoted to the life and actions of a terrorist, without really having his character called to task for his actions, arguably glorifies his story. It’s an elephant in the room, which is never really addressed. While Assayas has every right to make a story from the point of view of a terrorist, he also has an obligation to judge his actions. And so, by the end of this five and half hours, we’re left with only a vague opinion of the man and his politics.

To compare, I wonder how we would feel if a similar film would have been about Osama Bin Laden, a five hour procedural showing his actions which led to the 9/11 attack and his subsequent retreat into the caves of Afghanistan or Pakistan, or wherever the hell he is. But Bin Laden’s film couldn’t be made the same.

A sublayer theme which exists, but only directly referenced once or twice, is the celebrity which attracted Carlos. In the 70’s, however disturbing, in the Western world, there was a factor of 'cool' in Carlos, to go along with the anti-capitalist movement, of which there was many enigmatic organizations which were looked upon as justified (the Baader Meinhof Complex presents a similar story of terrorists as heroes). And so, there's a strong contradiction in the glorification of Carlos, a man who terrorizes and murders in cold blood, but someone who in Western pop culture comes off as cool and iconic.

These contradictions and complexities when placed into a razor sharp epic thriller elevates Carlos to the high bar of commercial art.