Book Adjacent: Day of the Jackal

Back with another recommendation for a film based on a book this weekend, but I’m going to start off by saying that this film is brilliant, but I’m not sure I can ever watch it again. If you read on, I will explain!

OK lets start with the fact that I’m talking about the 1970s movie based on the book of the same name written by Frederick Forsythe and not the Bruce Willis remake or the recent mini series with Eddie Redmayne. This one is directed by Fred Zinneman and stars Edward Fox as the Jackal, an assassin hired to kill French President Charles De Gaulle in the summer of 1963. The Jackal is hired by a militant group, angry about the independence of Algeria, who have just failed in their own attempt to kill De Gaulle and hire a British assassin instead. The movie follows him as he meticulously plots the assassination, travelling all over Europe, and also the police effort to track him down – led by Deputy Commissioner Lebel, played by Michael Lonsdale aka Drax from Moonraker.

It’s a film full of fabulous but understated performances, but Edward Fox is truly chilling as the Jackal. He is a professional who is completely detached from everything and everyone and will do whatever it takes to get the job done. The reason I’m not sure I can ever watch it again is because one of the murders he carries out en route to his vantage point to take a shot at de Galle upset me so much. I can’t tell you much more than that, but it really upset/disturbed me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards, and in the course of finding the trailer to insert into this post, YouTube also turned up the clip of that scene and now I’m thinking about it again. Hopefully writing about it will help and I’ll be able to get to sleep tonight without it circling around in my head again. I honestly don’t know why sometimes things stick in my head like this, but things do sometimes and this one did.

A few months back I wrote about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I would put this in the same category as that – right up to the fact that there’s a scene at the end of that film that if I hear the music from it, I get flashbacks of it (although it doesn’t stop me from re-watching that one – so maybe I will get over this?). Luckily (!) after the opening sequence, Day of the Jackal doesn’t use music as a soundtrack – it only occurs on people’s radios or TVs or where there are bands or musicians on the street, all of which really adds to the tense atmosphere of the movie. It is also very sparing on the dialogue – you need to be paying attention to follow what is going on – so much is seen or inferred rather than spoken out loud. And on top of all that, it’s great to see what all of these European locations looked like back then and with all of the great 1960s cars.

Him Indoors recorded this one off one of the film channels for me, because he thought I’d like it (he was right, except for that one thing) so it should come around again at some point, but probably isn’t on the streaming services at the moment.