Another Incredible Thriller by the French!
French filmakers are hot! If you've seen Un Prophete, Mesrine 1 & 2, Tell No One, and Anything for Her (new remake The Next Three Days--a duplicate), then prepare yourself for another edge-of-your-seat thriller. Carlos (the Jackal) started out as a revolutionary, but along the way became a political assassin used largely by the Mid East and east european countries to do their killing. In the Ludlum books, he is often a target of Jason Bourne, and has become myth in many spy and black ops literature. He is still alive, imprisoned, and trying to control rights to his story from a cell.
He is a highly educated psychopath and played to perfection by the "asset" in Bourne Ultimatum. The movie starts out with Carlos admiring his body, particularly his privates, and ends ironically on the same subject. I've seen the long version -- 3 parts broadcast on the Sundance Channel--5 hours run time that covers his entire career. If an art house is showing that one -- see it.