Low on documentary conviction and political context, but an intriguing exercise in concealing the obvious.
The Day of the Jackal
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, France · 1973
Rated PG · 2h 23m
Director Fred Zinnemann
Starring Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel
Genre Action, Thriller
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It is the tumultuous early 60s in France, and President Charles de Gaulle faces constant attempts on his life by members of the aborted FFL. Disgruntled former FFL officers eventually hire a professional assassin named ‘The Jackal’, giving him a half a million dollars to kill de Gaulle. The Jackal doesn’t realize there is a detective on his trail….
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What are critics saying?
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.
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.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
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.
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
The details are minutely observed and, to me, just a bit boring.
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