I had that feeling about 1,000 times during my viewing of The Day of the Jackal. Released in 1973 and directed by Fred Zinnerman (who also directed From Here to Eternity, High Noon and A Man for All Seasons) "Jackal" is the story of a French group of terrorist or self proclaimed patroits who disprove of giving Algeria their independence. There plan is to assisinate the French president. Better yet have a foreigner do it since all of their attempts have been foiled so far. The man they hire has the code name "Jackal".
At this point we are taken on a two hour long procedural of the up's and downs of the life of a professional assassin. This film takes it time, but in a beautiful way. There are long stretches of time where there is no speaking on screen. It develops characters through action and reaction. It spends time on segments that today's Hollywood films would either skip over or try to summarize in a montage. This is the type of film that the Hayes Code would have never allowed because you kind of get an idea of how to kill the president. Or at least you think you do.
Another reason this film works is because the law chasing the Jackal is just as sufficient and intelligent as the Jackal himself. I have long said that the reason so many comic book movies don't work is because the villians are just characterizations. There is no way that "The Sandman" is going to beat Spiderman. The penguin didn't stand a chance against batman. Now contrast that to The Joker in The Dark Knight. I really thought that the Joker could defeat Batman in that movie. In The Day of the Jackal that assassin has a several day lead on the law. They have to play catch up and they do. They then start putting the heat on him. He then becomes a rat in a trap. He is no longer thriving. At this point he is less James Bond and more Jason Borune.
The Jackal is played by Edward Fox. A talent that I was unaware of before this film. If this had been set in America I can easily see this role being offered to Steve McQueen. I want to point out the detective who has been tracking the Jackal. Michael Lonsdale is the actor. I was really amazed with his performance. Most of the other character have smaller parts and are only there to move the plot forward. There are a few female roles in this film and they are all filled with beautiful actresses.
This is a 70's movie in every since, and I mean that as a compliment. This year I saw a film called The American. It did it's damnest to emulate this film as best it could. However it couldn't generate the mood and feeling Jackal does. There were a surge of these films in the early 70's. A product of Watergate and other government conspiracies I guess. While there is a lot of company for films like this, I think this one stands above all the others. I instantly added this to my DVD to Purchase list.
I could go on singing the praises of this film, but as usual I am way behind on my reviews. I usually tell you what I though of a film and leave it to my readers to see if they want to check it out. This is the rare exception where I am urging you to see this if you haven't and if you have see it again. And a third option is buy it for me for christmas on DVD and come over and I'll have a Day of the Jackal party. We can have some pop corn and a couple of cold ones and try to figure out how we would kill the president. Just kidding internet police. I give Day of the Jackal a 5/5 star rating and place it high up amoung the films of the 70's. Check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6xMnTPEzPo
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