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Recommendation
The Day of the Jackal to me is one of the few novels whose movie adaptation is as good as the original novel. The movie revolves around the plot to assasinate French President Charles De Gaulle, by an underground organization OAS, who are furious at his granting independence to Algeria. The movie actually starts off with a failed assasination attempt on De Gaulle, followed by the execution of their leader Jean Bastien-Thiry.
The remaining leaders hire a professional British assasin who only goes by the code name of the Jackal( Edward Fox). With French intelligence getting wind of the plot, they put in the Dy. Police Comissioner Claude Lebel ( Michael Lonsdale), to lead the investigation.
The movie is more of a slow burn thriller, except the first shootout, there is not really much action. The entire movie is more of a cat and mouse game, between the police and the Jackal, who manages to be two steps ahead often. The way the Jackal manages to get fake identity cards, rifle is very well depicted, as also how he disposes off people in his way. The police investigation too is well depicted, the way they track down the plot, and get on the Jackal's trail.
Fred Zinneman was one really good director with classics like High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma to his credit. In a sense this movie is quite similiar to High Noon, in the way the narrative builds up slowly to the climax. You don't have much of action per se, but you feel the tension building up all the way. And here you feel it as the Jackal, keeps moving once step closer to his mission.
Also Zinneman sticks to Forsyth's novel as is, without much changes, and that makes this movie even better. The detailing is as good as what you see in the original novel, be it the way the fake documents are made, or getting the rifle, smuggling it along, or the police investigation.
Two great performances one by Edward Fox as the Jackal, icy cool, manipulative, ruthless, he hits the right notes. The other is Michael Lonsdale as the cop Lebel, who brings in the energy to the role, he would later gain fame as the bad guy Hugo Drax in the Bond movie Moonraker.
This is the kind of slow burn thriller, where you need to watch every scene to understand the narrative, and the tension is the kind that builds up slowly. If you love these kind of movies go for it.
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In the history of cinematic assassins, I'd put Edward Fox's performance as The Jackal up there with Max Von Sydow's contract killer from Three Days of the Condor.
Total +1 for Von Sydow in Condor!
Day of the Jackal is a favourite of mine, too. The novel includes a few details which couldn't be included in the movie, but are quite interesting:
• The assassins used a calendar from the previous year to plan the first attempt on de Gaulle's life, at a crossroad called Petit-Clamart. Sunset on that day was a few minutes earlier than the calendar said, and the assassins didn't see de Gaulle's car until it was almost too late, as it was getting dark, and didn't hit the car with as many bullets as they intended.
• A huge manhunt was started to find the assassins, and as a by-catch, a deserter from the French army was detained because he didn't have identity papers. At the station, a police officer jokingly asked him, "Well what about Petit-Clamart?" The deserter answered "What do you want to know?" It turned out that he was one of the assassins and gave them information which led to the arrest of Bastien-Thierry.
If you saw that second point in a movie you would think it too unlikely to be possible.
I'd also like to point out that the opening assassination attempt actually happened and was, in real life, the high water mark of the OAS. Forsyth's inspiration was to use that as a jumping point for a hypothetical later attempt the OAS did that would be understandably kept from the public knowledge.
Absolutely love this movie! (I've not read the novel). I think the pacing and build up are both perfect. I remember watching The Killer last year and just wishing it would have leaned more towards this style. There are a few scenes in The Killer where it shows him doing something clever and I got a small hint of The Jackal, but then it quickly reverts to action. After seeing it I went straight back and watched The Day of the Jackal for maybe the fourth time.
Yeah, one of its biggest strengths. It felt considerably shorter than two and a half hours.
The striking thing about this movie was the way it keeps you in suspense, even though you know the outcome.
The novel opens by telling the reader Charles de Gaulle died in bed.
It is a great example of a movie that shows you that a character is smart. Sure the Jackal is hired and they mention he is good he actually acts that way.
If you have not seen it yet, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hennessy_(film)
I love this one too. It's a smart, methodical thriller and, as mentioned already, it keeps you in genuine suspense even though you know how it'll turn out since De Gaulle retired and died peacefully in his sleep (and no, this is not an "Inglorious Basterds"-style alternate reality deal). And I especially like how the Jackal's real identity is never revealed (the guy they think he is turns up alive, well and pissed off the cops are going through his home). He remains this deadly enigma to the very end.
One of my favorite movies! Great casting and writing, the entire production is outstanding. I love the little things that the Jackal does, for example..when making a copy of a key, he rubs the key against his chin to get the oil on it so it wont stick to the clay when making the imprint.
Old school film, where it treats its audience like intelligent adults.
A truly underrated film! It is a shame that this movie isn't discussed more often.
The Jackal is almost a villain protagonist, since I'm pretty sure he has the most screen time by far. And his dedication to his mission makes him a pretty formidable character. The scene where he has to choose between retreating to safety and driving on towards Paris is great; I'm glad there was a moment of decision rather than treating it as a foregone conclusion.
He very much is, especially since Lebel, the actual hero of the film, is not introduced until well into the film (and even after Lebel is introduced, for a part of the film his role is taken up by Thomas the British inspector). The Jackal is the one we're following and the film sets it up how even though he's the villain and we know he won't succeed, we kind of want him to. I mean, he goes to so much effort.
Haven't seen this (but it's on my watchlist now) but I assume this was this the "inspiration" for the 90s movie "The Jackal" with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere? Which is not a good movie, but one of those nostalgic ones for me since I watched it on cable a lot growing up. Also a great early performance from Jack Black.
It may not be a "great" movie but it's great fun and highly entertaining.
It's kind of silly that the Jackal in that film feels the need to get a 20mm autocannon to take out the target instead of a sniper rifle or some poison.
But how else is there supposed to be a scene where Jack Black gets his arm blown off?
idk
It was.
Avon Barksdale is a fan of this flick.
You don’t think Slim Charles could have pulled it off?
One of my favorites