Review by Dragan Antulov
4 stars out of 4
Last few years could very well be remembered as the years of
the dreadful movie remakes. The most notorious example is,
of course, THE JACKAL, 1997 action thriller that shows the
catastrophic lack of talent and originality in today's
Hollywood. The movie is even less watchable for those
unfortunate viewers who had the opportunity to watch the
original. The original, 1973 spy thriller THE DAY OF THE
JACKAL, happens to be the political thriller in the history
of seventh art, one of the real gems of 1970s - the Golden
Age of world cinema. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Fred
Zinnemann, film's director, fought hard and losing battle
against the studio heads, trying to stop them in their plan
to smear his work by associating with "modern, contemporary"
third-rate rubbish. Unfortunately, Zinnemmann lost his fight
after the death and THE JACKAL was made. Fortunately, THE
DAY OF THE JACKAL is still available to those who want to
see the really good films. And even those who aren't so sure
about its top quality would probably enjoy comparisons
between the two.
The movie was based on the bestseller novel by Frederick
Forsythe, British journalist who made reputation by mixing
real life events and fiction in his books. His first novel,
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, published in 1970, also deals with
real life events and begins with one. In August 1962, after
giving the independence to Algeria, French President Charles
De Gaulle (played by Adrien Cayla-Legrand) became the target
of extreme right-wingers and disgruntled war veterans united
in the terrorist organisation known as OAS. The spectacular
attempt on his life fails, the conspirators are caught and
their leader, Colonel Bastien-Thirry (Jean Sorel) is
executed for treason. At this point, real life is replaced
with fiction - a year later, surviving OAS members, led by
Colonel Rodin (Eric Porter) had decided to strike again.
Their problem is De Gaulle's security service being the best
in the world and their own organisation being infiltrated by
moles and informants. So, the idea is to have an outsider,
contract killer. The mysterious Englishman, known by his
code name Jackal (Edward Fox) accepts the offer and begins
his methodical work to prepare the assassination. In the
meantime, French security services receive some information
about OAS plans. Top government officials decide to hand
over the case to Inspector Lebel (Michel Lonsdale), the best
investigator in France. His job is extremely hard, because
he must stop the man he knows nothing about. On the other
hand, Jackal, despite some setbacks, is always one step
ahead from the police and is getting closer to his target.
Despite having background in almost forgotten and obscure
political troubles in early 1960s France, the script by
Kenneth Ross is very simple and easy to understand, even for
those who couldn't care less about the events of previous
decades. The plot is universal, the characters well-defined,
but they are anything but simple, despite having relatively
little time to develop. That's because they all act
realistically and through their actions, emotions (or lack
of) or small gestures, we might discover a lot about their
inner thoughts, alignments, fears and anxieties.
Of all those characters, Jackal is the most fascinating. The
novel and the film follow Hitchcock's advice that in a good
thriller the villain must be more interesting than the
protagonist. After 1973 many film-makers followed this
advice, but rarely with such care and realism as in
Zinnemann's film. Jackal is portrayed as cool professional,
very dedicated, yet emotionally distant from his profession.
During the course of his mission, he kills without
hesitation, but he feels no pleasure in it - he isn't some
kind of raving homicidal maniac; he does what it takes to
get the job done. He also doesn't possess supernatural
powers - he makes mistakes, sometimes even fatal, but due to
his intelligence and numerous back-up plans, he manages to
get away with it. Edward Fox, very good British actor, who
later played mostly character roles, presented Jackal in a
way that offers some kind of explanation to his actions. In
this film, Jackal is a individualist who makes his own
rules, and the challenge and thrill of his job is a bigger
reward than mere material compensation. For some critics,
Jackal was amoral yet romantic hero, one of many who used to
captivate the imagination of the anti-establishment
audiences of late 1960s and early 1970s.
If Jackal could be seen as some kind of anti-establishment
rebel, that same establishment is represented by the whole
series of different government officials, who are,
naturally, lacking his charisma and appeal. Among them, the
most recognisable and the closest thing to personal rival is
Inspector Lebel, played by Michel Lonsdale, one of the most
reliable character actors from Europe. Two men has something
in common - they are both extremely professional and
dedicated to their job. But, Lebel is, of course, on the
side of the system and he never breaks rules, making him one
of the rare film lawmen that do everything by the book. Film
suggests that his real problem isn't Jackal - the real
problem are his cynical superiors who are more than eager to
discard his services for petty political purposes. Lebel's
struggle with inter-office intrigues, international
complications and ineptness of his own national bureacracy
is almost as interesting to see as Jackal's actions. It is
natural for those two men to find certain bond, which is
suggested in the last shot of the movie.
Other actors are more than fine too. They are plenty of
them, but only a couple of them are stretching out, because
their roles are rather limited in scope. Most memorable is
Cyril Cusack as gunsmith who provides the perfect insight
into the world of professional, yet morally cripple people
like Jackal. The film also allows us to see some of the top
British character actors in their early days, playing minor
roles - most notable are Ronald Pickup as petty forger, and
Derek Jacobi as Lebel's assistant Caron. Their acting is
minimalistic, yet small details reveal a lot about the
characters, setting and the story.
The very same technique was employed by director too. Fred
Zinnemann tells the story very methodically, by exposing
small details that would later be important pieces of great
puzzle. His editing is superb - the viewer is given
relatively small amount of information, yet enough to draw
the clear picture for himself. The shots are very long at
occasion, but only when it is absolutely necessary. The best
examples are the scenes when Jackal must remove the
witnesses of his crimes; those shots are very effective in
its subtlety and hard to imagine in a movie decade plagued
by gratutiotus violence on the screen. Despite being the
movie that last almost two hours and half, THE DAY OF THE
JACKAL remains very exciting for the viewers. That too is a
proof of Zinnemann's talent. Another thing could also be
seen in this film - the original music by George Delerue is
almost never heard in the film, but the audience doesn't
have the time to notice. For the most of the film, the music
we hear is the one played on radio or on the streets. That
too makes this film almost semi-documentary in nature, as
well as documentary footage, which was very effectively
edited in the final scene at the end.
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL remains one of the best, if not the
best political thriller ever made. It is clever film, that
thrills the audience without insulting their intelligence;
one of those rare films that employ viewer's brain as well
as senses. Yet, despite anything, it remains very exciting
and entertaining film that deserved its place among the
classics of the Seventh Art.
Copyright © 1999 Dragan Antulov
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