The Day of the Jackal – 1973 | 142mins | Thriller | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Fred Zinnemann’s attention to detail in The Day of the Jackal seems very close to Frederick Forsyth’s intricate novel, and pulls off the feat of sustaining suspense in this political thriller, even though we know the Jackal must eventually fail.

A secret underground terrorist group in France called the OAS decide to hire a professional killer to assassinate French President Charles De Gaulle (Adrien Cayla-Legrand) after their own attempts end in failure. The name recommended to them is the ‘Jackal’, an anonymous hit man apparently responsible for a string of high profile killings. Charles Calthrop (Edward Fox) is the infamous Jackal, taking his name from the French spelling – Chacal. Edward Fox is impassively effective as the cold-fish English assassin contracted to kill De Gaulle. The Jackal painstakingly puts his plan into action, involving gathering a new identity, a forged drivers license and French passport to enable him to travel without being detected. The forger Caron (Ronald Pickup) guesses the documents are for a special purpose and attempts to blackmail Fox into handing over money, and pays a heavy price for such a gamble. A special rifle is needed for the hit so a specialist gunsmith (Cyril Cusack) is approached to build a custom designed rifle with explosive bullets – though once again his reward is not what he would have expected as Fox attempts to cover his tracks.

Chief Inspector Lebel (Michel Lonsdale) is the French detective assigned to hunting the Jackal down, through an informer he learns of the Jackal’s existence but a range of disguises by the Jackal hinder their attempts to capture him. Fox is by now in France making final preparations, to keep away from the French authorities he seeks sexual partners who will unknowingly provide him with refuge, both wealthy Colette (Delphine Seyrig) and homosexual Bernard (Anton Rodgers) fall into this category – both are silenced by Fox once they are no longer needed. The tracking Lebel knows the Jackal is in Paris and preparing to strike, his only option is to flood the Liberation Day celebrations that De Gaule is attending with police officers in the hope of a lucky break. Fox this time disguises himself as a war veteran to pass unnoticed through his surroundings, then enters an overlooking flat to set up his rifle and assassinate the French president. At the very moment Fox has De Gaule in his sights, Lebel bursts into the flat and kills the cold-blooded assassin.

Though slow paced, with each passing moment the tension grips as the Jackal nears his target. The film was later remade starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere under the title of The Jackal, but it had none of the originals finesse and only serves to make people want to see the original again.