Way back in 1973 there was a thriller released to theaters and adapted from a best-selling novel by the name of The Day of the Jackal.  It starred Edward Fox as the mysterious “Jackal”, a highly skilled and deadly killer for hire who is charged with eliminating Charles de Gaulle, the president of France.

I loved the film.  It had a near documentary presentation and despite the fact that the “Jackal” was clearly a nasty, nasty man, you couldn’t help but admire how he pieces together the elements of his plan while the law slowly, inevitably, nip at his heels.  The climax of the movie was incredibly gripping and audience manipulation at its finest: You root for the good guys to stop the “Jackal” even as a dark part of you wishes, after witnessing all this planning and activity, he actually finish the job.

Here’s that movie’s trailer.  Pardon the “Harry Palmer Movie Site” lettering…this appears to be the only available YouTube listing featuring this trailer…

Many years later and in 1997 a powerhouse cast consisting of Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier would star in a remake of that film, entitled The Jackal…

I saw the film years before, though I doubt in theaters when it was originally released, and recalled not thinking all that much of it.  Again, I loved the original film and this remake felt so very…inferior.

The years pass -as they inevitably do- and The Jackal was on cable last night and I started watching it almost from the very beginning (I think I missed the first few seconds or, at most, about a minute of the very start) and found myself curiously drawn to it.

Seeing the film again from essentially the beginning to end and with the memories of The Day of the Jackal not being quite as strong as they were when I first saw this remake, I found myself far more engrossed in this film than I was before.

Mind you, the film remains far from “great” but my feelings for it have moved up quite a bit.

The plot of The Jackal is essentially the same as the original film, though it does sport some big differences.  You have a shadowy group of people who hire the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to kill someone and his target is…well, I won’t get into spoilers here but let’s just say that reveal is part of the story versus the original film which gave us who the target was from the beginning.  We then have, like the original film, a “split” movie, alternating between the Jackal and his preparation(s) for the kill and our heroes’ attempts to find him.

On the good guy side, Sidney Poitier plays FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston.  His character is in league with Russian Major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora), a tough as nails operative, and when they get wind of the Jackal and the fact that he plans to commit a very high level assassination, they get in touch with Richard Gere’s Declan Mulqueen, an IRA “terrorist” currently in prison and the only person they know who has had contact with the Jackal.  After a bit of bantering, they offer him vague promises of a better/lighter prison term to help them hunt him down.

Turns out they really do need him as Mulqueen reveals he has actually seen the Jackal and, in their group, is the only person who can identify him by sight.  Later still it is revealed Mulqueen isn’t interested in hunting down the Jackal just to reduce his prison sentence.  He and the Jackal have a history…and Mulqueen has very good reasons to want the Jackal taken down.

So, returning to my overall view of the film this time around: The Jackal entertained me far more than it did the first time I saw it all those years ago and, as I stated before, it could be because my memories of the original film have faded over time and therefore I’m not comparing both films head on anymore.

The Jackal was a good suspense film but, as I also stated before, not quite great.  There were several problems with the overall story, things that happen that make no sense or aren’t adequately explained.  For example, the Jackal at one point paints a van with a removable white paint and, using a high pressure hose, times how long it takes to wash that paint off.  This is an intriguing bit of plot and, if memory serves, it was used in the original film, but in The Jackal the use of the wash-off paint is pointless.  I won’t spoil things but when the Jackal finally does wash the paint off, it is for no real reason and, given what happens, it might have been smarter for him to just leave the original paint!

Later on in the film, toward the climax (MILD SPOILERS), we have Richard Gere’s Mulqueen chasing the Jackal through the streets and eventually into a subway but its never really explained why his character would think the Jackal went that way.  Given the large amounts of people running to and fro, it strains credibility to think he would spot his target among so many people.

Another problem with the film, at least to me, was that the movie’s makers got a little too pleased with showing off Bruce Willis in various disguises.  While the idea of him changing his looks made sense, after a while it felt like overkill.  Perhaps that’s just me.

Still, the movie nonetheless moves nicely and the star power gathered together is fun to watch, as is spotting cameos by some then up-and-coming actors in early roles (J. K. Simmons and Jack Black both appear in the film and you can spot them, if you look hard, in the trailer above).

The bottom line: While no classic, I came away with the impression The Jackal was a better film than what I originally thought, though it still doesn’t quite reach the levels of a really great suspense film.  If you’re in the mood for a decent action/suspense film with some major star-power, you could do worse than watch The Jackal.