The Day of the Jackal

    The Day of the Jackal
    1973

    Synopsis

    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.

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    Cast

    • Edward FoxThe Jackal
    • Terence AlexanderLloyd
    • Michel AuclairColonel Rolland
    • Alan Badelthe Minister
    • Tony BrittonInspector Thomas
    • Denis CareyCasson
    • Cyril CusackGunsmith
    • Maurice DenhamGeneral Colbert
    • Michael LonsdaleDeputy Commissioner Claude Lebel
    • Vernon DobtcheffInterrogator

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Chicago Sun-Times

      Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal is one hell of an exciting movie. I wasn’t prepared for how good it really is: it’s not just a suspense classic, but a beautifully executed example of filmmaking. It’s put together like a fine watch. The screenplay meticulously assembles an incredible array of material, and then Zinnemann choreographs it so that the story--complicated as it is--unfolds in almost documentary starkness.
    • 100

      TV Guide Magazine

      Fox is superb as the coldly impassionate killer, and Lonsdale is properly plodding yet magnificently analytical as the detective tracking him down. A taut, suspenseful, and fascinating political thriller.
    • 100

      Chicago Reader

      Terrific escapist entertainment...It's a polished and exciting thriller, mercifully unburdened with heavy political/philosophical digressions.
    • 91

      The A.V. Club

      In one of the movie’s most famous scenes, Fox practices with his specially engineered rifle (which has been built into a pair of crutches), and as he takes his shots at a practice melon, he keeps tweaking the aim. It all looks very cool, until Fox finishes his adjustments, and fires a bullet that makes this stand-in for de Gaulle’s head explode.
    • 80

      Empire

      There is true beauty in the realism at the heart of what could come across a fanciful movie plot, with its documentarian coolness of execution, the crisp rhythms of Zinnemann’s direction, we feels we are staring through a window into the shadowy recesses of history.
    • 70

      Variety

      The major asset of the film is that it succeeds in maintaining interest and suspense despite obvious viewer foreknowledge of the outcome.
    • 60

      Time Out London

      Low on documentary conviction and political context, but an intriguing exercise in concealing the obvious.
    • 50

      The New York Times

      The details are minutely observed and, to me, just a bit boring.

    Liked by

    • Mara