BasicLogic Have read this novel several times during the past 3 decades, and watched this film for several times too at interval during the same period. This is a great film, correctly adapted and realized by the screenplay writer and the director. The only not quite right thing about this film that I have to point out is: It looks too British, almost all of the actors were British, only Superintendent Lebel was a true French. That's why this film didn't feel a bit like what it should be. If the French characters in this film was like what as we read in the novel, they should be played 100% by the French actors. It's an international co-operated operation, the producers and the director should have no problem to use the French to play French, I don't know why he couldn't have done that. The settings in this film were all French, but the cabinet meeting were all British, it just looked unrealistic and funny. The background and the time are when there were no central air-conditioning or window air-condition units, no fax, no cell phone, no internet, no wi-fi hotspots, people were still chain-smoking in windowless offices, no Chinese take-out boxes on the office desk, even no pizza at all. What we got and saw in this film were lot of Citron sedans, Alfa-Romeo 2-seater, phone with rotary dial, or public phone service stations, telephone booth was not available yet. These 70s' scenes are very nostalgic and should be preciously appreciated. The tempo of this film was exactly it should be, and you should not consider it dated. A great film to repeatedly watch time and time before you kick the bucket. : )

berberian00-276-69085 This Film ranks high in Suspense Movies List. It's too sophisticated to understand by Easy Movie goers. It's shot in France, Italy and England - so, it preserves some charm for this part of Europe for times past and long gone. It is, by the way, pure European thriller with local cast and directed by Austrian Fred Zinnemann (1907–1997) who made score of Films for Hollywood studios. Maybe I won't get credit but it resembles a Hitchcock movie by the intricacy of plot and evolving of drama, narrated in documentary style.The gem of performance is Edward Fox as hired assassin "Jackal". This is anagram for name coming from (Cha)rles (Cal)trop. The Jackal uses forged identity by falsifying birth certificate of dead person (Paul Duggan) and stealing two other passports. He then kills 5-6 people on his way to the Paris Plaza where he misses President De Gaulle by inch and get eliminated by Commissar Lebel (Michael Lonsdale). Two women participate in the Movie - Delphine Seyrig as middle-aged Frenchwoman who is killed after an affair with the Jackal; plus, Olga Georges-Picot as Denise (his link to Algerian terrorists that pay half million dollars for targeting the President). All is based on true story documented by Frederick Forsyth and written as a novel.I proceed to reminiscences of today, which is 40 years from time. Today, my friends, such a Movie is impossible to procure or even protocol. We live in a World where everything is being watched, filmed, listened to, recorded, tracked, entered on databases and put on lists. Targeted are government and private agencies, big business and ordinary fellows, fraudsters and organized crime. The World is daunting array of electronic gear ... This is citation from book on "Total Surveillance", published by Piatkus in 2000 (author is not mentioned for discretion).I ask, subsequently, the following question - should people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden be perceived as villains for publishing secret American documents. After all, their starting point was ECHELON system for intelligence gathering - based on signal interception by radomes (those giant golf balls on Earth landscape). I recede now ...

ElMaruecan82 In thrillers' orthodoxy, the effectiveness of suspense relies on the outcome's unpredictability. If the main character is a killer, there has to be chances for his success, and any slight intuition that he might not accomplish his mission would severely undermine the film's value as a thriller.However, there is no rule without exceptions, and on that level, "The Day of the Jackal", released by Fred Zimmerman in 1973, is a fantastic school-case proving that thrills can be efficiently driven regardless of what they're leading up to. The film, adapted from Frederick Forsyth's best-seller, centers on a professional killer, Edward Fox as 'the Jackal' assigned by the underground army group OAS to assassinate General De Gaulle, on anger for his granting the independence to Algeria, thus betraying his vows to the French Army.And there are reasons why the 'Jackal' demands half-a million dollars for his services besides danger and De Gaulle's difficulty to be 'approached': he's giving them France on a silver plate, he'll never be able to work again and they can use their networks to rob banks and jewelries … not to mention he has to make sure he can escape after the killing. Naturally, all these precautions hardly matter on the long term, we know De Gaulle will live, but it's less in the killing than the way its planning is masterfully and meticulously constructed, Zimmerman displays indeed a level of craftsmanship matching the Jackal's professionalism.'Professionalism" is a key word enhancing "The Day of the Jackal"'s cinematic greatness. The film chronicles with a documentary-like realism all the steps, every single move anticipating the assassination. To obtain a passport, he uses the birth certificate of an Englishman who'd be his age if he didn't die at 2, he then moves to Genoa to order false passports from a forger and a lightweight rifle with telescopic sight and a silencer from a gunsmith. Meanwhile, he spots the apartment in Paris with the best view on Place du 18 Juin 1940, duplicates the key to the upper flat, and steals a passport in London's airport from a Danish tourist.To spice up the plot, the French Secret Services spot the location where the OAS members exiled and their investigation concludes on another plot against the President. They have clues that a fair-haired Englishman visited the place but nothing else. The way their services collaborate with other foreign agencies, mainly Scotland Yard, use registration cards from hotels prove the Jackals's precautions right, he rightfully expected that the cover to be blown (not without the use of torture) … but the thrills come from the whole cat-and-mouse game between European police bureaucracies and one man who single-handedly challenges them all.That's one of the greatest delights provided by "The Day of the Jackal", and Fox' performance is crucial here. He appears like a highly-educated upper-class Englishman who can easily go unnoticed in a summertime France full of tourists, we eagerly follow him in his tour all over Europe (the escapism of "The Day of the Jackal" is another strength worth mentioning) and even when he's told about the French police's progresses (a spy was hired to become the mistress of a French minister), he manages to slip through the net, using his boyish charm to seduce a bourgeois woman or a Danish disguise to seduce a Parisian in a Turkish bathhouse.On the other side, professionalism is also working, and Inspector Raymond Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) is given full power to track and find the 'Jackal' In total secrecy according to De Gaulle's orders, De Gaulle wouldn't change his schedule, let alone the August 25 celebration of the Resistance Day, coincidentally the likeliest time for the assassination. Zimmerman swings back and forth from the Jackal to the Police, from the borders to the hotels, with an advantage in time, the Jackal intelligently exploits. Luck or hazard are never parameters, it's essentially the courage and the nerve of a no-nonsense man who trusts his professionalism.Back to that professionalism thing, there is an interesting sequence in Genoa, where the Jackal takes the rifle from the gunsmith (Cyril Cusack) : the man proves his reliability by not asking questions and remaining all matter-of-factly over the killing-marvel he created. On the other hand, the forger tries to blackmail the Jackal and gets exactly what was coming to him. The parallel between the two attitudes highlights that no matter how 'malevolent' he is, the Jackal has 'ethics' , there is a way you should deal with him and a way not to. Still, he can kill any by-passer on his deadly path, women and even older ones won't be spared.Indeed, no matter who die, De Gaulle remains the man-not-to-be-killed. "The Jackal" still has an interesting body count. Some murders are cold-blooded and particularly brutal but they provide the required two-dimensionality for leading villain. And by that, I don't mean the man lacks depth, but what to expect from a professional killer who's only dedicated to his last mission? He can't show anything but what is shown is enough, and the contrast between his elegance and ruthlessness, as for the Inspector's average appearance but undeniable competence, two opposite at the top of their game, is enough to thrill us.And as a thriller, "The Day of the Jackal" is a heart-pounding combination of suspense, realism with regular outbursts of violence, it's a two-hour and 15 minutes race against the clock that never seems to long. Granted the outcome predictable, it's not in the 'what will happen' but 'how it will'. The editing answers to the 'how' and is curiously the only Oscar-nominated aspect of the film; frankly I would have nominated it for Best Directing and Best Writing as well, one of the greatest thrillers of the 70's

LeonLouisRicci First off, there are Literally Thousands of Movies out there with lots of Gunfights, Explosions, Sexy Ladies, Fisticuffs and Expounding Musical Scores, this is not one of them. It decides to take an Approach of Clean and Cool Detachment. A Docu-Style that is as Refreshing as it is Riveting. It is a Compelling Piece of Cinema in the way it is so Meticulous and Calculating. Heavy on Detail and the Pacing, Editing, and Exposition provide the Suspense and the Drama. The Film Effortlessly Divides the Story between the Assassin and Law Enforcement with Crisp, Lean, Dialog and the Action comes from Preparation, and like the rest of the Movie, there is nothing that is Padded or Unnecessary.Its Tension is in its Restraint as both Sides are Increasingly Clever and Resourceful as Things move along with the Elegance of a Streamlined Sports Car. Minimalist in Style but not in Production, it Masks its Difficulties with an Anti-Style that becomes Hypnotic and Attains a Style of its Own. No Visceral Attempts are made but they are Forthcoming. No Pretensions as the Taut Tempo comes from the Technicalities and both Protagonist and Antagonist are as Cold and Calculating as they need to be. This makes for a Fictional-True-Crime Thriller that is a Heartless but Palpitating Picture.