Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Carlos Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 21, 2011

Screened at the Cannes Film Festival and winner of Best Foreign Language Film Award at the National Society of Film Critics Awards, Olivier Assayas' "Carlos" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Mongrel Media. The supplemental features on the disc include two theatrical trailers; making-of featurette; interview with Edgar Ramírez; and an exclusive interview with director Olivier Assayas. In French, Russian, English, German, Spanish, Hungarian, and Arabic, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, a.k.a Carlos the Jackal

Olivier Assayas’ Carlos is a very long, impressively researched, and genuinely absorbing film that chronicles the career of the notorious Venezuelan terrorist. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Shot on locations throughout Lebanon, Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Morocco, Sudan, and Yemen, Carlos is the type of epic film one has to see to believe - not because there have not been other epic films that have chronicled the lives of famous political figures, but because in my opinion there has never been anything even remotely as detailed and well researched as Assayas’ film. The amount of names, dates and locations referenced in Carlos is indeed mind-boggling.

The film moves at an incredible pace. Once Illich Ramirez Sanchez (Edgar Ramírez) becomes Carlos in Paris and terrorist organizations around the world take notice, it becomes almost impossible to keep track of who does what and for what reason - the plays are incredibly elaborate and the masterminds behind them almost always invisible. From Palestine to Moscow and Budapest to Khartoum, powerful men become engaged in a war without limits.

There are three well documented events in the film, however, that shed plenty of light on who Carlos (dubbed by the media but almost never referred in the film as "The Jackal") was and what he stood for. The first is Carlos’ encounter with Wadie Haddad (Ahmad Kaabour), one of the founders of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), who for a short period of time became his spiritual father. Haddad allowed Carlos to train in his camps and then funded many of his terrorist operations in Europe and the Middle East. Haddad also gave Carlos access to an impressive international network of terrorist cells. Later on, when the two went in different directions, Carlos used Haddad’s infrastructure to his advantage.

The second event is the notorious raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna in 1975. Carlos and his comrades were already monitored closely by a number of different countries in Europe and the Middle East, but after the raid they were officially approached by different governments interested in their services. Syria, Libya, and even the Soviet Union established relationships with Carlos’ organization. With the blessing of the KGB, Carlos was also officially allowed to open and maintain bases in different countries from the now defunct Soviet bloc. He was also granted diplomatic immunity, and his arms shipped to different destinations by the intelligence services of friendly nations.

The third event is the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In a matter of days everything changed. The Soviets were no longer willing to protect Carlos and his comrades in Europe. Syria also reconsidered its support, and shortly after so did Libya. For awhile the only place in the world where Carlos was welcomed was Sudan. In 1994, however, DGSE (the French Secret Service) and CIA struck a deal with the Sudanese government and Carlos was extradited to France, where he is currently serving a life sentence.

Before and after shooting began Carlos repeatedly warned Assayas not to complete his film – so when the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May earlier this year, Carlos became angry. It should be obvious why. Assayas was the right man to tell the story of his life - a fascinating but nevertheless grandiose failure.

Note: This Blu-ray release contains the complete five-and-a-half hour version of Carlos.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Olivier Assayas' Carlos arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Mongrel Media.

The basic characteristics of this transfer are quite similar to those of the transfer Optimum Home Entertainment used for their Blu-ray release of Carlos in the United Kingdom - yet they are not identical (I've tried to match a couple of screenshots so you could compare them on your own as well). The Optimum Home Entertainment transfer is a tiny bit darker; the yellows, browns, and blacks look better saturated. More importantly, however, it is also better compressed. Mongrel Media's decision to place the film's three-part version on a single 50GB has resulted in minor compression artifacts popping up during selected scenes. Admittedly, due to the film's quite unusual look most are rather easy to ignore, but a trained eye will notice their presence. Generally speaking, edge-enhancement and macroblocking are not an issue of concern. Traces of the former, however, are occasionally noticeable. Heavy aliasing and background flicker are also nowehere to be seen. Lastly, there are no serious stability issues. I also did not see any large damage marks, cuts, or stains. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1 (please note that the audio is actually comprised of relatively large chunks of dialog spoken in a number of different languages, including Russian, English, German, Spanish, Hungarian, and Arabic). For the record, Mongrel Medial have provided optional English and French subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I must admit that it is rather disappointing that Mongrel Media did not do what Optimum Home Entertainment did for their Blu-ray release of Carlos -- have parts 1 & 2 of the film on a 50GB disc, and part 3 on a 25GB. Obviously, with the entire film on a single 50GB disc they could not include a loseless audio track.

The English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is not terribly disappointing, but it is clearly not as effective as the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The big shootouts in the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, for instance, are not as intense. The exotic soundtrack is also quite subdued. Still, the dialog is crisp, clean, and stable. Once again, however, the optional English subtitles appear only when English isn't spoken, which is something I must speculate will annoy plenty of people because many of the important characters in the film have very thick accents.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• On Location at the OPEC Raid - a standard featurette with plenty of raw footage from the shooting of the film with specific comments by director Olivier Assayas. In French and English, with imposed English and French subtitles where necessary. (22 min, 480/60i).

• Interview with Edgar Ramirez - a short interview, recorded exclusively for Studio Canal, with Edgar Ramirez. The actor discusses the difficult role he was approached to play. In French, with optional English subtitles. (5 min, 480/60i).

• Interview with Olivier Assayas - a fascinating interview, recorded exclusively for Studio Canal, with director Olivier Assayas in which he discusses how Carlos came to exist. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (20 min, 480/60i).

• Trailer - the original English-language trailer for Carlos. (3 min, 480/60i).

• Trailer - the original French trailer for Carlos. In English, with burnt-in French subtitles. (1 min, 480/60i).

• Theatrical Version - the shorter Theatrical Version of Carlos, running at approximately 166 minutes, is placed on a separate SDVD. Please note that the Theatrical Version comes with two audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1 (the audio is actually comprised of relatively large chunks of dialog spoken in a number of different languages, including Russian, English, German, Spanish, Hungarian, and Arabic). For the record, Mongrel Media have provided optional English and French subtitles for the main feature.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is a rumor going around that Criterion will release Olivier Assayas' Carlos on Blu-ray later this year. Because nothing has been confirmed yet, I was hoping that this Blu-ray release, courtesy of Canadian distributors Mongrel Media, will turn out to be a solid alternative for people residing in Region-A territories (Optimum Home Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Carlos is Region-B "locked"). But I have mixed feelings about it. The film looks rather good, but Mongrel Media could not offer a loseless audio track because the entire film has been placed on a single 50GB disc. Therefore, I believe that the best I could do is recommend that you RENT IT.