Carlos The Terrorist (1979/VCI)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C- Film: C-
Much has changed since René Cardona’s Carlos The
Terrorist was released in 1979, beginning with The Cold War, which still
had 12 more years to go. The film would
like to be James Bond, but it can barely be Black Sunday, The Fury
or Sorcerer at its best, so what we get in our strange story of the
title character making a deal with the CIA once he cannot go it alone anymore
after taking out a major criminal target is some bad martial arts and hardly
any dialogue.
Most of the film is done in voiceover like a bad
documentary and a bad attempt to save a bad film, as if the addition would make
it any better. Instead, it plays like a
series of staged action pieces that just have Carlos running around trying not
to get killed. I do not know what was
being attempted during the filming and perhaps it was filmed before 1979, but
the result is nothing consistent and the realities of real terrorists today
(see The War Within elsewhere on this site) with it being on the news
everyday and the contrived ending of an already contrived film makes this a
curio at best.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is from a choppy print with
some better color than expected, but softness and agedness throughout
otherwise. The film looks older than
1979 and the editing is awkward throughout.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is dubbed, but not all the way, with English
translations disappearing within the last reel or two of the film! The English dubbing is too forward, as is
the music, which is often older Jazz.
The combination is odd and makes for a unique presentation. Extras include trailers to this and four
other VCI titles, plus text on some of the cast and director.
- Nicholas Sheffo
