The Day of the Jackal (film)
The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 film set in late 1963, based on a novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it stars Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "the Jackal" who was hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
Despite being
heavily promoted, and being based on a very successful novel, the film was a box-office
failure. It did, however, make Edward Fox into a star, even though many speculated
that the film's lack of an established star (with Michael Caine having lobbied
for the lead role) was the reason for its lack of success. The film is now considered
a classic, however, and it possesses one of the most nail-biting and electrifying
denouements of all films.
The Day of the Jackal (1971)
is a thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, about a professional assassin who is
contracted by the right-wing OAS French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to
kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.
The Day of the Jackal is a
novel of the spy fiction genre, praised for its convincing portrayal of France
in 1963, and its carefully thought-out plot. It received admiring reviews and
praise when first published in 1971, and it received a 1972 Best Novel Edgar Award
from the Mystery Writers of America. It also is notable for remarkably effective
suspense, considering that the Jackal's target, president Charles de Gaulle, is
a real historical figure who was not assassinated, and for its realism, exploring
in detail aspects of intelligence, covert operations and firearms.
While the OAS did exist as described in the novel, and the film opens with a remarkably accurate re-enactment of the Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry-led attempt on President De Gaulle's life, the remaining plot is fiction.
The story follows the efforts
of an extremely professional assassin (hired by an exiled OAS high command) in
his preparations to assassinate De Gaulle, and the efforts of an equally professional,
but hard-pressed French detective assigned to identify and stop him, along with
elements of intrigue and bureaucratic manoeuvring at the highest levels of the
French government.
Cast
Edward Fox
- The Jackal
Terence Alexander - Lloyd
Michel Auclair - Colonel Rolland
Alan Badel - The Minister
Tony Britton - Inspector Thomas
Denis
Carey - Casson
Adrien Cayla-Legrand - The President
Cyril Cusack - The
Gunsmith
Maurice Denham - General Colbert
Vernon Dobtcheff
- The Interrogator
Jacques François - Pascal (as Jacques Francois)
Olga Georges-Picot - Denise
Raymond Gérôme - Flavigny (as
Raymond Gerome)
Barrie Ingham - St. Clair
Derek Jacobi
- Caron
Michael Lonsdale - Lebel (as Michel Lonsdale)
Jean Martin -
Wolenski
Ronald Pickup - The Forger
Eric Porter - Colonel Rodin
Anton Rodgers - Bernard
Delphine Seyrig - Colette
Donald Sinden - Mallinson
Jean Sorel - Bastien-Thiry
David Swift - Montclair
Timothy West
- Berthier
Bernard Archard
Jacques Alric
Colette Bergé (as
Colette Berge)
Edmond Bernard
Gérard Buhr (as
Gerard Buhr)
Philippe Léotard - Gendarme (as Philippe Leotard)
Maurice Teynac
Van Doude
Nicolas Vogel
Féodor Atkine
Jean Champion
Nicole Desailly - Yvonne De Gaulle
Max Faulkner - Special
Branch Detective
Robert Favart - Minister
Andréa Ferréol
Gilberte Géniat
Edward Hardwicke - Charles Calthrop
David
Kernan - Per Lundquist
Robert Le Béal
Bernard Musson
Howard
Vernon - State Secretary
Nicholas Young - Passport Officer
Plot
Dissatisfied with French President Charles de Gaulle's decision to give independence to Algeria, the OAS, a militant French underground organization, decides to assassinate De Gaulle, believing they can restore the glory of France by killing De Gaulle. The leader of the OAS, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry botches the attempt, and along with several other members of the plot, end up being caught and executed. The remaining leadership of the OAS, demoralized and having fled the country to escape capture, realize that they cannot finish the job they have started through their organization and have to hire a professional assassin to do the job.
After examining the dossiers of several candidates, they settle on one man, who comes to visit them. He points out that they have no choice about hiring a professional assassin: not only is their organization riddled with police informants, but their bungling has now made the job even more difficult because De Gaulle's security has been dramatically enhanced due to the attempt. He agrees to take the assignment provided they pay half of his very large fee in advance, and comply with several minor conditions. There will be no further contact between the four men, other than they will set up a telephone number in Paris he can call to get information. He will only be known by his code name: The Jackal.
The movie follows the methodical preparations the Jackal makes, including the determination of how, when and where to perform the hit (which is not disclosed to us), creation of a number of fake identities and obtaining the resources to do the job, such as a rifle modified to look like something else, and photographs of himself as an old man. Despite being the title character, in the movie the "Jackal" seems to talk the least of all the characters; we understand his motivations and his cunning brilliance by his actions. The violence also seems very subdued; the additional killings The Jackal performs in the process of covering his actions are brief and almost invisible, or are performed off-screen.
Meanwhile, French security forces, upset because of the sudden rash of bank robberies in France, discover that they are being done by members of the OAS, who do not know why they have been ordered to do them. Realizing that the leadership of the OAS are using the bank robberies to finance something, French Security decides to detain their chief clerk: Adjutant Viktor Wolenski. Rather than request Wolenski's extradition from Austria, French Security decides to invoke self-help: they kidnap him from Italy and smuggle him across the border into France.
Torturing Wolenski to death, French Security extracts enough information to discover that there is quite possibly a plot on the life of President De Gaulle by a foreign assassin whose code name may be Jackal, and if that is the case, it represents a national emergency. The Prime Minister convenes the entire cabinet, and the head of the State Police admits there is no way they can find this Jackal by normal means. They can't detain him at the border; they don't know his name. "Action Service" (the government's professional assassins) can't destroy him if he's in another country: they don't know whom to destroy. They can't arrest him if he's in the country; they don't know who he is. They can't search for him, they don't know what he looks like. Without a name and a face, they can do nothing to stop him. In short, they need the best detective they can find to put out a total effort to discover who The Jackal is - and do it in secrecy - before he succeeds and plunges France into a crisis.
The Police Commissioner admits there is one man, a brilliant detective working for him, who can do the job: Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel. Lebel is told to drop everything, focus on finding The Jackal and stopping him. He will have full powers and any resources he needs, subject to just two requirements of the job: no publicity, and do not fail. As in the novel, Deputy Commissioner Lebel is given a seemingly impossible assignment. Lebel's assistant Caron asks, "But no crime has been committed yet, so where are we supposed to start looking for the criminal?", to which Lebel answers, "We start by recognizing that, after De Gaulle, we are the two most powerful people in France."
As the Jackal has set up his methodical preparations to commit the crime, Lebel also methodically prepares every method he can devise to try to determine where The Jackal might be from, how he might perform the act and when and where he will do so. With assistance from the old boy network of police agencies in other countries, they discover a lead by looking for British subjects who have obtained passports as an adult using birth certificates of deceased children, and find a dead child, Paul Oliver Duggan, who applied for a passport decades after he had died. British MI-5, working "tap room" contacts, suspect The Jackal might be a hired assassin named Charles Calthrop, and realize that - while it may be a coincidence - "Cha" in Charles and "Cal" in Calthrop spell the French word for Jackal.
The police search the apartment belonging to Calthrop, and recover his passport. Which brings up the question, if they have his passport, what's he traveling on? French authorities are notified of Calthrop's identity as Duggan, and will look for him. Lebel discovers only a few hours too late that Duggan - The Jackal's false identity - has already entered the country.
The Jackal stops in a French hotel, finds an attractive married woman, Madame Montpellier, whose husband is away on holiday, and carries on a fling with her. He later goes to her home (after secretly discovering her address from the hotel register) to see her for a few days. After a love encounter, she mentions to him that the police had been there, asking questions about him, and she knows he stole the car he has because it has local plates, but she's willing to protect him if he'll tell her what he's doing. He kisses her and quietly strangles her. Jackal then assumes a new identity and disguise, and leaves early the next morning in Madame Montpellier's car, driving to a train station, heading to Paris.
In the mean time, Lebel discovers that there is an informant in their midst: a telephone tap exposes that one of the members of the cabinet has a mistress, and has been revealing the top-secret details of their investigation to her in pillow talk. It turns out that she was feeding the information to a contact that The Jackal was calling. One of the members of the cabinet is curious, how did Lebel know who's telephone to tap to find out who the informant was. Lebel admits he didn't know, so he had a tap placed on all of their telephones. Several of the cabinet members are surprised and perturbed.
Having disposed of the first identity of Duggan, the Jackal is now a bespectacled schoolteacher, using a Danish passport he stole the month before at London airport . He travels on to Paris. Meanwhile, the police discover Madame Montpellier has been murdered, so now Lebel no longer has to look for The Jackal in secrecy, police can simply make a full publicity search for the Jackal. They discover that the Danish Schoolteacher, Per Lunquist, got on the Paris-bound train. They race to the station only arriving a few minutes too late to intercept The Jackal at the train station.
Lebel realizes that they have only a few days to find the Jackal because he will shoot President De Gaulle on Paris Liberation Day, during a medals presentation ceremony. Apparently dissatisfied at Lebel's presumptiousness in tapping their phones, the cabinet dismisses him with their thanks, saying they no longer need his help.
The Jackal knows that all the Parisian hotels are being watched by the police. He enters a gay bathhouse, is approached by another man, a Parisian, who picks him up. They go back to the man's apartment. Later the man sees a TV in a shop without sound, recognizing the Jackal's face but not knowing why. As he mentions this to The Jackal, the TV in the apartment has a newsflash telling that Per Lunquist is wanted for the murder of Madame Montpellier. The Jackal kills the man off-screen in his kitchen, then calmly sits down and watches the TV.
The Prime minister recalls Lebel, realizing that despite having in excess of 100,000 police and gendarmes looking for The Jackal, they can't find him, he's disappeared and they need Lebel after all.
On Liberation Day, The Jackal, moving into his preplanned sniper position, passes a gendarme who inspects his papers. The Jackal has become a chameleon: by using certain tricks, he has made himself look like an elderly amputee. The Gendarme, seeing a one-legged old man on a crutch, lets him pass. The Jackal goes into an apartment, kills the landlady, unties his leg from behind his buttocks, goes into a top-floor flat, and reveals to us that his crutches had a more sinister purpose, as he disassembles the crutches, a scoped, single shot rifle is assembled, which was disguised as the crutches.
The Jackal sets up his sniper's nest and prepares to shoot De Gaulle where he will stand as he gives out medals at the ceremony. He waits. Meanwhile, Lebel is continuing to circulate, trying to figure from where The Jackal will strike. Lebel runs into the gendarme who had met the disguised Jackal, and the two of them run toward the apartment.
Meanwhile, De Gaulle is presenting medals to war veterans, and The Jackal has him in his sights. De Gaulle has stopped for a moment, and is standing. The Jackal takes the head shot.
De Gaulle presents the medal, then leans his head forward to kiss the man, (per French custom). The Jackal misses the shot. As he reloads for another shot at De Gaulle, Lebel and the gendarme machine gun the door, allowing entry. The Jackal shoots and kills the gendarme. As he reloading to shoot Lebel, Lebel grabs the gendarme's machine gun, and before The Jackal can shoot him, fires a machine gun burst of bullets throwing the Jackal across the room, dead. Lebel looks out the window as the oblivious De Gaulle continues with the ceremony, unaware of how close death came to him that day.
As British police are looking over Calthrop's apartment, he walks in, and demands to know who they are and what they are doing there. So now we discover that the Charles Calthrop that they had investigated was not The Jackal.
At the end of the film, as we watch The Jackal's coffin being lowered into the grave, we are left with the question: "Who the hell was he?"
Trivia
In the movie, the Jackal
buys his rifle from a gunsmith and kills a blackmailing forger in Genoa, Italy;
in the book those locations were Belgium. Also, he meets with the gunsmith a third
time in the novel after the target practice. The ending of the gunsmith's second
scene leads many viewers to believe the Jackal kills him, even though his fate
is left ambiguous. (In The Jackal (1997), the film's unofficial remake, the Jackal
does kill the gunsmith, possibly leading to the confusion.)
In the movie the
Jackal is involved in a car accident and takes the other car, although it is not
explained how he manages to keep from being mauled by a savage dog in the second
car-nor does it explain how he manages to move the dead driver to his own wrecked
car or the fate of the dog.
In the novel the Jackal kills a French noblewoman
when she accidentally discovers he is planning to assassinate Charles De Gaulle;
in the movie she does not discover his objective, but he kills her anyway.
In
the novel, Lebel berates himself for not meeting with the said woman, whereas
in the film he visits her at her estate.
In the novel a French cabinet minister
who unknowingly gives secrets to a mistress/OAS agent resigns his post when his
activities are exposed; in the movie he commits suicide.
In the novel the
Jackal knocks unconscious the elderly caretaker of the building from where he
will make his shooting post; in the movie he kills her.
Many of the character
names are also changed. For instance, OAS courier Viktor Kowalksi becomes Wolenski;
Jacqueline, the OAS agent who seduces the Interior Minister, is re-named Denise;
and Madame Montpellier's name in the novel was Madame de Chalonniere. Also, the
Jackal's alias in the novel is Alexander James Duggan, as opposed to Paul Oliver
Duggan.
In the film, Wolenski/Kowalski is kidnapped in Rome by Action Services
agents; in the novel, he returns to France to visit his daughter, who is dying
of leukemia, and is arrested there.
The OAS leaders played a much more prominent
part in the novel than the film.
Also, in a minor historical inaccuracy, Colonel
Jean Bastien-Thiry, leader of the August 22nd, 1962 attempt on De Gaulle's life,
is claimed to be the head of the OAS. Though Bastien-Thiry was indeed in charge
of planning the real-life plot, he was not actually involved in the organization,
at least officially.
Besides Michael Caine (as mentioned above), Jack Nicholson and Roger Moore were both considered for the title role.
The French government was extremely helpful in the filming of the movie, providing soldiers and use of exclusive locations for the filming of the final Liberation Day sequence. Fred Zinnemann wrote that Adrian Cayla-Legrand, the actor who played De Gaulle, was mistaken by several Parisians for the real thing during filming - though De Gaulle had been dead for two years prior to the film's release.
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