Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Carlos the Jackal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 27, 2010

Screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Olivier Assayas' "Carlos" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment. The supplemental features included on this release are a 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-B "locked".

Edgar Ramírez as the notorious terrorist Carlos

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 the Jackal 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 British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment.

This is a strong high-definition transfer. Fine object detail is excellent, clarity pleasing, and contrast levels very good. The color-scheme does not disappoint either - though as the action moves from the 70s to the 80s and 90s, yellows, blues, greens, browns, and blacks change; certain parts of the film also have a very effective faded look. Additionally, because Carlos was shot on locations throughout Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, and Yemen, contrast and color balance often varies rather dramatically. Edge-enhancement is not a serious issue of concern (there are only a few scenes where I noticed a whiff of edge-enhancement popping up - see the first screencapture in our review); neither is macroblocking. I also did not see any traces of heavy noise reduction. As a result, the film's grain structure is indeed very much in tact. This being said, there are a few scenes from Episode 2 where I noticed some very minor compression artifacts creeping in. Still, the overall quality of the presentation is indeed solid. Lastly, while viewing Carlos I did not see any purely technical anomalies with the high-definition transfer to address in this review. (Note: This is Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Carlos the Jackal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French DTS 2.0 (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, Optimum Home Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is excellent. The bass is very strong and well rounded, the surround channels not overly active but very intelligently used (the exotic music score benefits greatly), and the high-frequencies not overdone. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. I must note, however, that it would have been great if there were optional English subtitles for the English dialog as some of the key characters in the film do have rather thick accents, and a couple of times I had a difficult time understanding exactly what was being said. This said, I did not detect any problematic pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Carlos the Jackal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The following supplemental features appear on the third disc included in this 3BD set:

Theatrical Version - the shorter Theatrical Version of Carlos, running at approximately 166 minutes. Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and encoded with MPEG-4 AVC. Please note that the Theatrical Version comes with two audio tracks: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French DTS 2.0 (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, Optimum Home Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

Making of Featurette - a standard featurette with plenty of raw footage from the shooting of the film and specific comments by director Olivier Assayas. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (22 min, PAL).

Interview - 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 imposed English subtitles. (5 min, PAL).

Interview - 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, PAL).

Carlos the Jackal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Olivier Assayas' Carlos is practically impossible to describe in a single review. The amount of factual information the film contains is extraordinary. I saw the shorter theatrical version of it earlier this year and was very impressed, but now I am convinced that this is one of the year's best films. It is absolutely fascinating, and I will be viewing it again shortly. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Optimum Home Entertainment, looks and sounds terrific. Also, thus far this is the only Blu-ray release Carlos has seen worldwide (even in France the film is only available on SDVD), so kudos to the British distributors for giving it the treatment it rightfully deserves. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.