I’m a little tired of the ‘70s. I’ll be honest and say I never want to see another glamorous but dangerous criminal dressed in a slim-cut leather jacket and big shades ever again. Sitting through Olivier Assayas’ Carlos was an experience rife with deja vu; Carlos’ political allegiance might be a little different from the average big screen wise guy but the grammar remains tiresomely familiar. This snapshot biopic of the notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal may aspire to be Che in flares but it feels less probing than Soderbergh’s films; both in terms of character and politics.
And be warned, this is a long one! Originally screened on French TV in three parts and to the unfortunate people of Cannes in a five and a half hour version the film now reaches our screens in a cut just under three hours long. It is still possible to see the three part structure; beginning with Carlos’s initial guerrilla attacks, an extended central section describing the bungled OPEC hostage situation, and ending in Carlos’s twilight years going to seed in a safehouse.
The main problem I had with the movie was the lack of context. Edgar Ramirez cuts an undeniably charismatic figure as Carlos, but as we never get an insight into how Carlos came to his extreme political views, it felt like he is cut adrift from his character’s motivation. This being the case, my interest waned in the final section as he flits from place to place on the run but not doing much of anything except growing a beer belly. Much more successful was the central section in which Carlos and his comrades highjack an oil summit and take all delegates hostage. This is the meat of the film and is very well done- tense, intriguing in its political complexity and tragicomic. After this, the film goes to seed in the same manner as its title character.
The recurring use of New Order’s 'Dreams Never End' and bizarrely The Lightning Seeds 'Pure and Simple' at least bucked the trend of having The Rolling Stones blaring out over every sequence but other than that, Carlos mostly feels tired and uninspiring.