Michel Lonsdale was superb as lebel, and I loved the way once he's done all the hard work it's taken out of his hands, so very true to like in so many cases.
This movie is a masterpiece! There was an attempt to recreate this story years later on the big screen and it SUCKED! The 1973 production had superior writing, brilliant directing, and a stellar cast. A+ production.
The only scene that I found interested in the Willis version was the poisoned rear-door latch while the van was being repainted. And even that, the dying actor hammed it up a bit too much - or did the director hold the camera on him too long (YES!). And Richard Gere's accent... good grief. It wasn't as bad as Anthony Perkins' in the powerful 1959 ON THE BEACH... Perkins' accent was truly the worst-ever. So needlessly, too.
@@theculturedthug6609 Thanks..."MCJ" doesn't earn a Pus-Worthy moniker... only Pus Van Zant has earned that. Oh, and I see that MCJ did Basic Instinct 2. Well, these are just jobs...
Citroen DS. That's a heck of a car, as it's unique suspension is said to help the car driving although attackers punctured a tire with the bullets. The car can hold itself upright with three tires. After this event Charles de Gaulle is said to just have been driven in this car. It is an icon and still said to be the most comfortable car due to the suspension even in comparison to newer ones
The suspension is of a very interesting kind. It features hydraulics and "normal" air suspension in the same package, which results in a system able to absorb bumps and self-level. The Citroen DS was the first car to really use this hydropneumatic suspension system, and at the time the bar wasn't very high for comfortable suspension. Most cars were on leaf springs, and some had shock absorbers. The hydropneumatic system could absorb bumps like nothing of the time. It was patented, and licensed to Rolls-Rouce, Maserati, and BMW for example. However it was not ready when it was released. The hydraulic fluid used attracted moisture, and the whole system began rusting away leading to leaks. It was a rare system on the road and could only be serviced at specific mechanics, and it really needed servicing. Hydropneumatic systems in general gained a reputation for being too complex and unreliable, and fell off. Only Citroen themselves continued to use them, so even when they "solved" the reliability problems (as much as you can expect from a French automaker), they are still difficult to maintain due to the need to be serviced at a specialised mechanic. Other brands started looking at simpler systems for adjustable ride charteristics, like "normal" air suspension and electronically adjustable conventional shocks, and soon those became the norm. In theory, the hydropneumatic suspension system doesn't have many disadvantages compared to todays complex conventional and air suspension systems, but it offers some inherent benefits. It was ahead of it's time, and failed to catch on good enough. I don't think conventional suspension systems have any need to be replaced by hydropneumatic ones in normal cars, but in today's premium executive cars, the system would be a simplification compared to complex electronically adjusting "normal" suspension. It would be interesting to see one of today's mainstream car brands have another go at it.
The Jackal's only real mistake was right at the end, after detective Lebel and the gendarme burst through the door and he kills the gendarme he shouldn't have bothered trying to reload, he simply could have taken out Lebel hand to hand, since he's quite good at that. He would then have had plenty of time to reload and take another shot at De Gaulle.
Fantastic film. Worth decades of rewatching. Michael Lonsdale - the French detective - is such a great actor and character in this film. Of his 246 IMDB credits, few are released in the USA - but this film and the DeNiro thriller RONIN - are all some actors ever need. The book, too, is a terrific 'read' as well. Highest recommendation for thriller fans.
EIGER SANCTION is a solid version, too. I much prefer SILENCE OF LAMBS movie to the book, with the differences being the filmmakers eschewed the soft-porn chapters and adultery themes. JAWS, by the way, is a childishly-written book by apparently Peter "I'm a 3rd Grader!" Benchley - just HORRIBLE. And with his own porn insertions as if that'd be keen. But his follow-up THE DEEP was very well written and THAT film is excellent, too.
La razón es que, estos libros, ya son prácticamente un guión. Se escriben para ser filmados. Después de haber pagado una buena cantidad. Un excelente escritor, Forsyth
In case anybody was wondering why The Day Of The Jackal is one of the most taut cinematic thrillers there is, it's due to the fact it was helmed by the great Fred Zinnemann who helmed the 1952 Western masterpiece High Noon and 1953's From Here To Eternity which not only won the Best Picture Oscar but also awarded the Austrian-born filmmaker his first Best Director Oscar. He would win another Best Director Oscar for 1966's A Man For All Seasons, which also won for Best Picture.
It was probably as much money as the Jackal estimated his clients could afford, and sufficient reward to justify the risk. If the Jackal was too greedy, he risked being dismissed.
Police Commissioner Berthier and Deputy Commissioner Lebel. Seems like Freddy Forsyth chose his character names from the French Army armoury inventories.
Of course it did! In the following decade he was a major character in a string of big movies - "The Duellists", "A Bridge Too Far", "The Big Sleep", "Gandhi". Often as a villain. I always thought he would have been a terrific James Bond though.
In the original movie, the Jackal shot the Armorer to death with a bullet made by the Armorer. This murder has for years been deleted in the TV version of the movie. In the book there is no Baroness. That Baroness story was added to spice up the movie and made the movie better than the book.
There were two unrealistic aspects to this film. First, when the Jackel wanted to pass through a border to another country and he's worried that his gun will be found by the authorities, he decides to stick the gun pieces into the exhaust system. He cuts about a 3-foot length out of the exhaust pipe. Then he welds a circular piece of metal to the exhaust pipe at the end closest to the engine.Then he puts the gun pieces into the gap that he had cut out. By welding that circular piece and covering up the existing exhaust pipe he has prevented the engine from running. An engine cannot run without a free flowing exhaust. The second thing that is unrealistic has to do with the height of General De Gaulle. The general was a very, very tall person but in the movie he was depicted as rather short
There are a couple of other background mistakes. The film is set in 1963, but many of the cars that are shown were not available until later in the decade - there is one view of the Elysée Palace courtyard in which a facelifted DS (with the swivelling headlamps) is shown, but this car wasn't available until 1968.
All you need is a Steel pipe, an end cap and a nail, then some way to smash the bullet back into the pin (usually a second pipe that sleeves over the first), then slam it back to detonate the bullet. All available at Home Depot. You've got to make sure the pipes are the right size. It's pretty easy to make something like this, though shotguns are much easier than Rifles- takes a bit more work/precision for those but still possible ;P
a great movie and I still have the DVD with me. However, I'm not sure if it still works as some of my DVD collections were ruined by natural causes. I didn't like the remake of the movie featuring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, except for the part where the unmanned remote-controlled rifle was used, which impressed me.
Wow. I saw that movie when it came out but now after watching your video I am forced to watch it again. From a time when movies were actually exciting.
He knew from a telephone tip from the female spy that his cover was blown and the police are after him. Therefore, staying in hotels is a no no. He seduce the Countess so he can stay at her Chateau and use her car. Later he seeks out a Danish homosexual and hides with him for a couple of days as his lover. All because he has to stay underground until "Liberation day", the only time he can kill De Gaulle.
I was in the Air Force stationed in France in this period (totally oblivious to all of the Algerian events). One night four of us were in Paris driving around and we accidentally passed de Gaulle’s residence twice. We were stopped by some military guy who sticks his face along with his automatic weapon into our vehicle and tells us in broken English “do not drive past this house a third time”!
Glad that you were not arrested and taken for "inquisition". De Gaulle deployed not only French Intelligence but contractors to work at breaking the OAS. They included Vietnamese skilled in interrogation. You would have remembered their methods of interrogation.
the Citroen's suspension system is credit with saving De Gaulle during an assassination attempt like the one seen at the beginning of the film @@inisipisTV
I think the differences are substantial enough to enjoy both, but I do like this original although an education into France's post-war colonial politics spices the original up. A lot of that is added in the novel, which is well-adapted into this first DAY OF JACKAL film.
A few Book vs Movie Discrepancies: - The wave of bank robberies took place as soon as Jackal concluded his meeting with the OAS bosses. It was a wave of robberies because the Dollar value was extremely high back then, half a million in the 1960's probably equate to trillions today in 2024. Part of the reason Jackal demanded a lot of money is because due to the OAS's repeated assassination attempts on Du Gaulle; their Alert Levels are at an all-time high. Even if he kills Du Gaulle, he will now live as a hunted man. - Viktor Kowalski could not have been abducted in Italy. In the Book's introductory chapters, OAS brain man Antoine Argoud was abducted by the French Secret Servicemen in West Germany (Germany was divided into back then) and shipped back to France. Because of this little stunt, no country would ever help France again, they would intercept the Secret Service guys, and let their prisoner go. Instead, they studied Kowalski's profile and found out he had an illegitimate daughter posing as another man's child. They used her as leverage for force Viktor to return to France on his own. - After commissioning his rifle and fake ID's in Belgium, The Jackal scouts out France looking for his possible shooting points, finally deciding on the top-floor apartment. He even sneaks inside to have a look around. During that time, he has a run-in with Du Gaulle and (unknowingly) Jacqueline (Denise in the movie). - Valmy is in Paris, not London. He is also the guy that calls Rome after Kowalski's abduction and suggests aborting the mission. Just like in the movie, the Jackal continues anyway as he is confident he will succeed. Valmy is later arrested late in the novel, just as the Jackal calls. Claude Lebel picks up but is unable to impersonate Valmy; alerting the Jackal that his informant has been compromised. - Claude Lebel had daily meetings with the various Security Heads in Paris. A lot of it was getting updates on possible candidates to the Jackals identity. As the story progressed the list got shorter and shorter as they learned the candidate was either dead, working elsewhere(one guy who seemed to match The Jackals skill level was working in security for a diamond mind in South Africa), or looks too different or too old to be the Jackal. Some of the officers start grumbling about how slow it is taking, and Lebel then counters by offering them his position...so that if they screw up they will face the consequences. They shut their mouth. - The "Charles Calthrop" angle was meant to be a red herring. Nowhere in the Book does the Jackal ever confirm even in his thoughts of his knowledge of the Trujillo assassination. The whole point of this angle was to show the dangers of going by second-hand rumors. The real impact of the Charles Calthrop angle however, was to double the efforts of Scotland Yard. The knowledge of Calthrop happened because the British Inspector started asking around MI-6 if they have rumors of any super assassins. One guy then mentioned a rumor in the Dominican Republic that a sniper shot through a tiny unarmored window on a fast-moving armored car, killing the driver and leading to Trujillo's death. The MI-6 guy then volunteers to check the files because rumor or not; a report should have been filed anyway. After giving out this info and Charles Calthrop's name, some higher-ups reprimand him for helping France. In response the Prime Minster tells Scotland Yard to screw those guys and spare no expense to double their efforts in helping France. - Part of the reason the British believe Charles Calthrop was The Jackal was because he was conveniently away on a vacation and a neighbor saw him packing fishing rods, making them think it's a disguised gun. They couldn't find him until the end of the novel. Additionally when they interview his former employers; they find he was once involved with the Arms Industry. When the French bosses learn of this, they were eager to drop the case believing the Jackal had decided to abort the mission once his "true identity" was discovered. Only Lebel insisted they continue checking. - The discovery of Alexander James Quentin Duggan came in much, much later. Which led the British and French to conclude that either Calthrop was the wrong man, or Calthrop had picked Duggan as his false identity. It was this discovery that once again fires up the rest of the French guys to follow Lebel and continue investigating. Because the of Duggan picture, they were also able to discount many other candidates provided by the other countries. - The discovery of Duggan inside the hotel (which he shared with the Baronness) took over half a day before the report came through. When his bosses try to reprimand him, the higher ups reminds everyone that they cannot do it any faster unless they initiate a public manhunt, which is against the President's rules. If the Press were to find out that the police and secret service were frantically looking for someone, and in 1960...there was only one and one reason alone WHY. - The Jackal crashes his car deep in the woods to hide it, and it takes forever to get police to haul it away and examine it because everyone was looking for a white car, not a blue one (The Jackal had painted it and put a fake license plate), furthermore the whole village the Jackal was living in didn't like cops and thus nobody would talk even when asked. He actually stays in the chateau for almost a week while getting constant info from Valmy that the cops have lost the trail. He kills the Baronness when he finds out she was listening in on the calls. - The Jackal specifically picked an Italian Alfa Romeo due to it's chassis' underside having enough room for him to store his gun. This is how he was able to go through so much security checks, especially when entering France. He also had all his hair-tinting dyes stored in aftershave flasks. As aftershave was a new product and only a thing in America, customs dismissed it as nothing interesting. - Instead of a Turkish bath house, the Jackal goes to a gay bar while posing as an American student Marty Schulberg. He leaves with a gay lover and paints his face with makeup and acts foppishly, digusting and preventing the police from carrying out any checks on his luggage. As a result, he's able to lay low in the man's house for several days. - The French police have enlisted even the Union Corse; France's Mafia but even they cannot find the Jackal. - The Jackal "old war veteran" disguise involves a WW1-era greatcoat which looks very out of place, as well as tons of medals. This extracts pity from the Gendarme who lets him through without question. The long coat also helps him disguise the fact that he's really not a one-legged man.
@@joset.garcia8714The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth. Forsyth's pretty good, a better book and film adaptation of his is The Fourth Protocol starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan, playing the antagonist which undoubtedly won him his Bond roles, was a good Bond but a spine tingling Petrofsky. Really well paced thriller, that. Caine is also putting in his A game. If you like spook stuff Forsyth, good as he is, will always be in John Le Carre's shadow. Do yourself a favour and watch the BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starring Alec Guinness. It's up there with the best television ever made and only those in the know have ever seen it. No action scenes, doesn't need them. I've watched DOTJ, TFP and TTSS literally dozens of times and TTSS and its sequel Smiley's People are _the_ best television of the 20th century, imo. A near flawless adaptation and production of a seminal novel.
An excellent movie , so well written and made . All educated know that the French President was not assassinated and yet the movie still maintains the suspense . And the magnificent performance of Edward Fox !
9:15 -- The Jackal flies up to the room's wall -- and almost breaks down the whole movie set. Not sure why they kept this scene in the movie like this. Also note Derek Jacobi (now Sir Derek Jacobi) in one of his earlier roles as the chief cop's assistant.
Well it’s rather difficult when Charles De Gaulle never gets assassinated in real life. The whole opening Assassination attempt in the beginning of the movie is a real life incident and all those people are real life people. Even the 3 rebel officers who "hires" the Jackal are real life fugitives. Fredrick Forsyth was trying to mix in real life history with a fictional assassination plot in his book, unlike the American remake which is totally fictional.
So the movie with Richard geer and Poitier is a remake wow didn’t know but a well written one as well the jackal . Good movie both of them love the review.
You mean the Bruce Willis THE JACKAL film in 1997, with Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier. (An aside: Jack "One Armed" Black does recover. Whew.) Actually, this film's differences - like Gere being a minor-league 'traitor' to his 'Oirish brethren'... that's an interesting twist, and havijng One-Armed Black play a far more annoying gunsmith is pretty interesting. Sailing across the Great Lakes border as part of a holiday regatta... on and on. But I end up preferring Michael Lonsdale as the quiet, unsung hero to Gere's hero. There are enough differences (advanced tech to use a van as a mobile gun-platform) to make both films memorable and worthy.
@@ollietsb1704Edward Fox who played the"JACKAL" portrays the character quite well in this movie and he also played Mueller the explosives Expert in the movie "Force 10 from Navarone", which stars Edward Fox, Harrison Ford,Carl Weathers,Richard Kiel and Robert Shaw( he played Quint in JAWS)
I have both seen the film, and read the book. The book goes into a lot of detail, about how each member of the OAS was connected to the organisation. After reading the book, I was glad that the Jackal was unsuccessful, as it shows him as a nasty piece of work. The fact that both the book, and film, are based on true events, is something powerful as well.
