Carlos

I can't speak for the shorter cinema cut but the full 5 1/2 hours version (originally made for French TV) is a terrifically engrossing piece of work, with the space to tease out the murky connections between terrorist groups and their state sponsors during the 1970s and 1980s. The starting point, inevitably, is the Middle East but as the centrepiece attack on the Vienna OPEC meeting (the bulk of part 2) indicates, even here all was not as it appeared, and as time progresses high ideals increasingly warp into mercenary acts. The German terrorist "Angie", for instance, leaves the movement in disgust at what he perceives as its anti-Semitism, having a clear distinction in his own mind between that and attacking Zionism - escpecially important considering Germany's history. The political machinations are equally tortuous. The Iranian oil minister might have been one of Carlos' targets in Vienna, but a decade later it's the influence of Iran that wins him sanctuary in Sudan. The Soviets meanwhile ensure that Carlos can establish bases in Eastern Europe after being expelled from the PFLP while funding a plot to assassinate President Sadat (ironically the lengthy period of organizing such a plot ensures it's pre-empted by other militants) Vienna is a neat summation of the complexity at the heart of what appears to be a simple political struggle.
All this is serious stuff, yet Olivier Assayas doesn't neglect the thrills. There are assassination attempts, bombings, hijackings and shoot-outs, staged in a manner that is exciting without being bombastic. In addition there's a streak of wry humour: the failed wrangling of a rocket launcher - twice! - foils an attempted attack on an El-Al aeroplane (though one missile does hit a Yugoslav jet thus giving an unexpected propaganda coup to a Croatian group); 3 Japanese Red Army members are late for an attack on the French Embassy in The Hague because they can't read a map correctly; and the escape plan from Vienna is derailed when Carlos kills a Libyan delegate thus ensuring Gaddafi won't allow the plane to land in Libya which in turn means it can't make it to Iraq ... Contemporary news footage is intercut with the drama for visceral effect.
The linking thread, of course, is Carlos himself, first encountered as an ambitious footsoldier for the PFLP who ultimately antagonizes Wadi Haddad once too often and subsequently tries to set up his own group. Amusingly he demands the complete obediance ostentatiously lacking from his own dealings with superiors. He's also a voracious and charming womaniser who regards himself very highly indeed (see the preening young man naked before the mirror at the start and contrast with the overweight lothario who has liposuction in Sudan) The charisma that makes him eminently watchable (in a tour de force, mulitilingual performance by Edgar Ramirez)nevertheless doesn't disguise his utter ruthlessness: witness for instance the sudden descent into brutal violence when informer Andre and the police gatecrash a gathering of South American exiles in Paris. Yet for all his notoriety and star quality, Carlos lacks the political wiliness of the the new PFLP boss Ali, and finds himself outmanoeuvred, living on his past achievements until justice finally catches up with him.