Carlos The Jackal

Director Olivier Assayas was initially approached with the concept of making a short 90-minute film just about the decline and arrest of the notorious Venezuelan Marxist revolutionary terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, AKA Carlos 'The Jackal.' Unsatisfied with such a limited focus, Assayas instead imagined something far more ambitious in scope, to him the story of Carlos made sense only if told in its entirety.

The result is an epic five-hour, three-part story dealing with the most significant parts of Carlos the Jackal's terrorist campaign across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and his decline into irrelevance and ultimate capture by French intelligence service. Originally screened on French Canal+ television and out of competition at Cannes 2010, extracts from the three TV episodes have also been turned into a cut-down single movie version for cinemas. The full five-hour TV version is Assayas's truer vision, however, and its episodic TV feel and its long running length means it is probably best appreciated at home on DVD in bite size chunks.

It is a credit to Assayas that Carlos The Jackal does not feel at all bloated or lethargic despite its long running time. If anything, towards the end it feels that Assayas has had to speed things up in the last hour just to fit everything in. This is brisk and bold filmmaking told with confidence, that goes by in a blur given how the narrative jumps from country to country and hideout to hideout as we follow Carlos across the globe. Juxtaposed with this atmosphere of a sweeping global epic are the plenty of smaller, more intimate moments with Carlos and those in his orbit. It is set to a hip post-punk soundtrack of early New Order, Wire, the Dead Boys and the Feelies, which further gives the film zest.

This is the story of a very modern terrorist, who popularised aircraft hijacking and hostage taking before suicidal terrorists gave such activities a much darker tone post-9/11. But it is also an intriguing deconstruction of a myth - and actor Edgar Ramirez, is never less than magnetic in showing us Assayas's interpretation of what lay behind the media image of Carlos.

Ramirez's portrayal of Carlos is that of a swaggering, globe trotting, arrogant fighter who likes to boast to female admirers of how weapons are an extension of his own body. He is undeniably energetic and charming, but also he seems to spend more time in airport lounges and bars talking about carrying out operations in support of the PFLP terrorist organization or whatever nation's security service is currently bankrolling him, than actually doing anything constructive. Far from operating with scalpel like precision, most of Carlos's plans end up being either bungled or pre-empted. And his revolutionary code seems not to exclude snappy suits and luxury hotels, taking ransoms rather than dying in action, and regularly cheating on his partners while demanding they understand his 'needs'. We don't necessarily get any deeper inside Carlos's head, but its an intriguing trip alongside a complex and nuanced man nonetheless.

The film also functions as a dark portrait of Modern European geopolitics - Carlos's travels put him in in the path of a dizzying number of security services, revolutionary cells and politicians across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Carlos is never really his own man despite his bluster - his continued existence and freedom depends on the goodwill of the Soviet Union and its various client states and allies in the non-Western blocs.

This world that Carlos thinks he can negotiate is one of blackmail, espionage and deals for money, weapons and immunity that are made and broken at a moment's notice. Enemies become friends and friends become enemies seemingly at the drop of a hat. Far from safely navigating these cynical and choppy waters, Carlos is by the film's end clearly drowned by them – his bungled terrorist activities, pressure from the West, and his own sheer unpredictability making him persona non grata everywhere. He is ultimately forced humiliatingly from airport to airport as former allies turn their backs on him one by one. The fall of the Berlin Fall seems the final nail in the coffin - Carlos ends up a overweight man in poor health that history has left behind.