1973 Directed by Fred Zinnemann
An international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to kill President Charles de Gaulle, with a dedicated gendarme on the assassin’s trail.
Edward Fox Terence Alexander Michel Auclair Alan Badel Tony Britton Denis Carey Cyril Cusack Maurice Denham Michael Lonsdale Vernon Dobtcheff Jacques François Olga Georges-Picot Raymond Gérôme Barrie Ingham Delphine Seyrig Derek Jacobi Jean Martin Ronald Pickup Eric Porter Anton Rodgers Adrien Cayla-Legrand Donald Sinden Jean Sorel David Swift Timothy West Bernard Archard Jacques Alric Colette Bergé Edmond Bernard Show All…
A Sakál napja, O Dia do Chacal, El dia del chacal, Den Šakala, Schakalen, Операција Шакал, Дан Шакала, Çaqqalın Günü, Chacal, Der Schakal, Il giorno dello sciacallo, 豺狼的日子, Šakal, День Шакала, Sjakalen, נשיא על הכוונת, 자칼의 날, Çakalın Günü, Ziua șacalului, Dzień szakala, Денят на чакала, ジャッカルの日, El día del chacal, Šakalo diena, 豺狼之日, Operacija Šakal, Xacal
USAPG
UK15
IrelandPG
AustraliaPG
FranceU
Italy
PortugalM/12
Germany16
Netherlands6
Spain14
Portugal
Netherlands6
Netherlands6
Australia
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
UK
USA
A 2.5-hour-long elaborate & methodical cat-and-mouse assassination plot filmed almost like an investigative documentary, with two sides racing against time before they inevitably collide in a climax that, sadly, feels somewhat expedited and half-baked. We spend so much time watching the Jackal be efficient, meticulous, and calculating against an almost automatic pace of play that when he finally starts to slip up and make rushed mistakes or indulgent errors, you feel a bit robbed of what originally seemed to be a thoroughly unbeatable agent of death. Sure, the detectives in charge of the case prove to be highly capable in catching their nameless/faceless assassin, but it’s more fun to watch when they’re actually Sherlock-ing their way through minimally informative situations rather…
An OAS plot to hire a foreign assassin to kill Charles De Gaulle unfolds in another thriller that trades action for a meticulous accounting of how a plan and investigation is carried out in granular detail.
I love the contrast between Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale in this movie, who are both fantastic. You've got Fox as the nameless "Jackal", a louche, upper class British man who wears an ascot in every scene, seduces men and women in service of his goal and has this icy remove from everything and everyone, and then Lonsdale as a French detective who has this Basset Hound quality to him, earthy and somewhat schlubby but totally determined and methodical in his pursuit. A portrait…
Soft-conservative "Competent-Police" fantasy about a right-wing threat large enough to justify the cops fascistic tendencies.
Watching Paris lockdown for an event the president will be attending, even as violence threatens, feels eerily familiar for us here in the States right now.
All-in-all this is a pretty sweet, meticulous, and restrained flick. A procedural march through an analogue world. I’d argue the second act is perfectly measured. Dialed down, yet relentless. And the whole thing is really well edited.
Then, almost dead center in the film, things start to get sticky for the Jackal and it feels invigorating from a story progression point of view as the two separate story arcs move towards inevitable confluence. A tough structure to do well,…
2 1/2 hours of pure procedure in 58 different beige suits.
(Yes, that’s a rave.)
The 'police procedural' storyline is one that has been used in TV, film and literature, and even theatre, for many decades. But the 'criminal procedural' idea is one that, for me, has infinitely more possibilities. After all, there are many different ways of committing a crime than there are of solving one - and of course, many more crimes!
The Day Of The Jackal is certainly one of the very best examples of both storylines that you will ever see, excelling especially at the latter. Adapted from a Frederick Forsyth novel and following a fictional plot to kill French president Charles de Gaulle, a French terrorist faction decides to secretly hire an outsider to do the job after failing to…
The first modern thriller? A truer forecast of post-Watergate disillusionment than paranoid thrillers like The Parallax View in giving us a killer motivated not by ideology but merely his own confidence in his skills. The film matches his meticulous, cold nature by pioneering the procedural thriller, a long epic comprising minute preparation. Michael Mann, David Fincher, and many others begin here.
Viewed with the Amazing Edith’s Collab Film Group.
A refreshing political thriller threaded with a strong classical narrative that is as every bit methodical as the best investigative police dramas out there—although Fred Zinneman’s The Day of the Jackal at some point feels more like a documentary. While the first 45 minutes is the hardest section to get through (honestly felt more like a slog) attempting to follow the political set-up and immense ensemble of characters (and the faces to go along with those characters), the film hits its stride well and never eases off the gas by the 1 hour mark. It’s a methodical game of cat and mouse unlike the feverish and more frantic films of its ilk that…
The Day of the Jackal is a masterpiece. It’s about the no-nonsense professionalism of an assassin and the policeman out to get him, and Fred Zinnemann’s direction is the same. This is the kind of film some might complain is too long and too slow, but they’re completely wrong. No scene lasts too long. Every scene serves some purpose in advancing the plot or revealing character. The film is probably the greatest procedural ever made, brilliantly shifting between those plotting to assassinate de Gaulle, the pompous politicos who will take credit if the plot is foiled, the assassin’s painstaking plans, and the cops in France and Britain working tirelessly to stop him.
Ralph Kemplen’s editing, moving all these components around…
Just a heads up/plug to say that the new Blu-ray from Arrow Films is released today, with a booklet featuring a new critical essay entitled Making the Hit: The Making of The Day of The Jackal written by yours truly.
2nd Fred Zinnemann (after High Noon)
My Nana is the other film fanatic in the family. Raised on the picture houses of the 1950s, in something similar to The Long Day Closes, pretty much every time we speak on the phone we will talk about old Hollywood cinema. And one of her favourite films is The Day of the Jackal; she always spoke about the scene where Edward Fox has his leg tied up behind him and he lets it drop after he evades the police, a scene, to my knowledge, that doesn't exist. I don't know why I tell this story, but it's the first thing I think of when The Day of the Jackal enters my mind. Even…
It’s 1963, and Edward Fox is a nimble and stealth mercenary in Day of the Jackal who commands a $500,000 offer from the OAS (translation becomes Secret Army Organization) to assassinate French President Charles De Gaulle, with all lethal decisions to be made according to his own selected timing and to his method of termination. Some prompted action: The OAS has to hire a gang of thieves to knock off several banks to raise the money that will be wired to this assassin.
The assassin, who goes by the code name “Jackal,” is a Brit outsider who allegedly killed President Trujillo of the Dominican Republic in 1961. He forges identity papers multiple times, revamps his physical appearance, commissions a European…
