French film director Olivier Assayas has cast the lead actor for his film biography of the terrorist known as Carlos, Ilich: Story of Carlos.
Playing the role of the Venezuala-born leftist terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos and as the Jackal, will be Edgar Ramirez, who played a soldier backing Fidel Castro in Che, Steve Soderbergh’s biography of the Cuban communist revolutionary.
Sanchez/Carlos is now in jail in France after leading a global terrorist organization that served the Soviet Union’s ends as he worked for Palestinians, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and the Romanian communist government, among others.
Director Assayas referred to Carlos as "the most complex and controversial character to emerge from the revolutionary struggles of our time," according to Reuters. What controversy there could possibly be over the man’s actions is puzzling, given that he was simply a murderous thug who served as many of the world’s wickedest regimes as possible.
After a film made by a prominent Hollywood director lauding Che Guevara, of course, it was only inevitable that someone would take up the cause of an even more blatant terrorist.
No, “sencor it,” you’re wrong in every particular. One, a terrorist is different from a freedom fighter: terrorists attack innocent civilians, whereas freedom fighters do not. Two, the authors on this site do not ignore the consequences of our government’s choices; on the contrary, I personally have been highly critical of U.S. involvement in wars not strictly in defense of American citizens on U.S. soil. Third, to characterize the killing of innocents as “controversial” is an obscene deception. Fourth, the greatest horrors of the past century have been committed nearly exclusively by undemocratic regimes in the name of “making the world a better place,” not by democracies such as the United States.
Carlos was a terrorist, plain and simple. To make a film that characterized him as anything else would be a travesty.
one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.although in guevarra’s case it would be much clearer, u narrow minded guys blindely ignore the mass murders your countries continue to commit since their unpleasant exsistence to charge a guy who once had a dream to make the world a better place even if it meant using “controversial” actions that would’nt by any mean measure up to the horrors so called “free countries” ratify and commit. you guys only have better marketing…