When Carlos and the others meet with Yuri Andropov, he speaks to them all in Russian, and those at the meeting (including Carlos) appear to have an interpreter at their side to translate.
I was under the assumption that Carlos spoke Russian, seeing as he studied at the University of Moscow...
Opinions etc?
What makes you think he didn't study in English?
Also, in the film its said that Carlos was expelled from the University after a short while. So he may not have picked up on much of the Russian language. If his Russian is not that strong, even if you know some, you'd still bring in an interpreter to get every single last detail.
------
'Where I End and You Begin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMpnqOe9Ho
There is no way a Russian university had English speaking course in the 60s, 70s or 80s. This site confirms that the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
(where Carlos studied) taught the students in Russian back then:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8498904.stm
Plus I am Hungarian and I strongly believe Carlos used Russian to spoke to Hungarians not English. When the Russians were here in Hungary everybody had to speak their language.
I think the movie is wrong Carlos does speak Russian.
Just like the americans impose their language on Afghanis and Iraq citizens and leaders, as well as Mexicans
shareFunny, I thought English, was, you know, English, not American
http://www.last.fm/user/399796kms/
English is the Americans language, LOL for using the MOST hackneyed comeback on message boards
shareAfter over three years in Iraq, I can assure you, we are not "imposing" our language on the citizenry or their leaders.
I am presently learning Dari so that I can better communicate with the Afghans during the two years that I will soon be spending there- as opposed to just expecting everyone there to speak English.
And last I checked, Mexicans are perfectly welcome to speak Spanish in Mexico or anywhere else, including the United States- there are just some that feel that in order to keep the United States a country that is primarily an English-speaking country, efforts should be made to require everyone to speak English for official purposes, very much how Germans are obliged to speak German, French are expected to speak French, Japanese are expected to speak Japanese, and Russians are expected to speak Russian- regardless of what an individual's first language is, what their ethnicity is, or what they speak at home.
Oh, and by the way- the people of Afghanistan are "Afghans". The "afghani" is their unit of currency. Therefore, when you say that "americans" (notably the only nationality that you DIDN'T capitalize in your post) impose their language on Afghanis, you are saying that we're forcing inanimate non-sentient pieces of paper to speak. Not even the US Military is THAT stupid! In future, you might want to do some basic research before posting one of your snide critiques. This will be vstly more respectable than just regurgitating the same old anti [fill in the blank] propaganda as everyone else which puts you in the same league as all the "revolutionaries" in the film, sitting around spouting the same dogmatic nonsense at their pathetic petit bourgeoisie house parties.
Magnificent B'stard
They say you're judged by the strength of your enemies.
"There is no way a Russian university had English speaking course in the 60s, 70s or 80s."
They did.
"They did."
Proof?
Well first of all they had a pretty high level of education in the USSR.
Secondly, I saw this documentary about the effects of the Beatles and their music in the Soviet Union, and some Beatle-fans they interviewed mentioned that they had been interested in english culture and language for a long time and that they had studied it in the university. That is when they were young and when the Beatles were new, the 1960's.
One reason (or excuse) for banning the Beatles in the USSR was that they were "corrupting" the youth. That instead of going to school and learning, they just listened to rock music and danced all day long. The same old Liberal vs. Conservative fight we have everywhere all the time in the world.
no, we didn't.
shareI picked up on it as well. The real Carlos could speak Russian. His fluency I am uncertain of - but Andropov was just yelling obscenities and threatening people, which I could even understand with my basic Russian, so I am sure that Carlos didn't require an interpreter
Also, for a lot of higher education in the Eastern Bloc, not just Russia, education was conducted in Russian, French, German and English.
Andropov was a stupid, bloodthirsty lunatic, especially after the 1956 Hungarian revolution which shocked him.
This movie portayed Andropov very accurately.
I didn't like this scene at all. The narrative veers from believable fictionalised history to wildly improbable speculation - it sounds like a drunken tale spun by Carlos to a gullible journalist.
It makes no sense that Andropov, the head of the KGB, would meet a "free agent" terrorist like Carlos and ask him to kill Anwar Sadat. The most powerful men in the world's 2nd superpower (at the time) would not risk implication in such an event. I'm not saying that Andropov would shy away from killing someone. His suppression of internal dissent and support for the invasion of the Soviet client states (e.g. Hungary) show his ruthlessness but there is nothing on record to corroborate this incident.
The Soviet Union wanted Egypt back in its "camp" but to do this by killing its leader in the messiest way possible? NO.