Carlos (Optimum Home Entertainment): An epic project from director Olivier Assayas, who has brilliantly recreated the life and times of the Venezualan revolutionary terrorist known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’ (Eduardo Ramierez).
It charts his early years as a violent revolutionary in Europe as he proves his worth to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); missions for states such as Iraq, Libya and East Germany; an infamous kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in 1975 and his gradual decline as he sought refuge in Eastern Europe, Syria and Sudan as he struggled to cope with the end of the Cold War before finally being caught by French agents in 1994, where he currently resides in jail under a life sentence.
An ambitious French TV project, it got two kinds of theatrical release: a three part five and a half hour cut and a shortened 165 minute version. Now the DVD and Blu-ray versions are out there isn’t much excuse feasting on the full version.
The extras include:
- Making-of featurette
- Interview with Edgar Ramírez
- Interview with Olivier Assayas (BD-exclusive)
The specs are:
- Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
- Video resolution: 1080p
- Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
- Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
- French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- French: DTS 2.0
- Subtitles
- English
- 50GB Blu-ray Disc
- Three-disc set (3 BDs)
* Read my full review of Carlos from the LFF *
> Buy Carlos on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK
> IMDb entry