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The Jackal
1997
The Jackal is filmmaking by numbers: take two huge stars, Richard Gere and Bruce Willis, and pit them opposite each other in a plot that's already been audience tested. That director Michael Caton Jones' film is based not on Frederick Forsyth's novel but on the script for the 1973 original starring James Fox is the first clue .. Read more
| Starring | Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora |
|---|---|
| Director | Michael Caton-Jones |
| Genres | Gay/Lesbian, Thriller |
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The Jackal
The Jackal is filmmaking by numbers: take two huge stars, Richard Gere and Bruce Willis, and pit them opposite each other in a plot that's already been audience tested. That director Michael Caton Jones' film is based not on Frederick Forsyth's novel but on the script for the 1973 original starring James Fox is the first clue that something here is amiss. Fred Zinneman's The Day of the Jackal was a genuinely taut and claustrophobic thriller; the remake is like a Rocky & Bullwinkle take on international terrorism disguised as an action movie. Dashing IRA terrorist, Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), is sprung from jail to help the FBI Deputy Director Carton Preston (Sidney Poitier) track down The Jackal, an amoral international terrorist who is a master of disguise. The FBI believes he is about to assassinate a US political bigwig and is engaged in a race against time to discover exactly who the target is and where they will be felled. Throughout the film Gere sports an Irish accent as ill-fitting and phoney as the bushy lip-wig that Willis adopts at one point as a disguise. The usually warm-hearted Willis plays the steel-jawed terrorist with a cool reserve, but he doesn't have much character development to work with (apart from a misguided attempt to introduce a gay subtext). At over two hours of running time with plenty of exposition and precious few action sequences, this film is a test of will for the audience as well as the protagonists.
On the DVD: The DVD includes a lengthy "making of" featurette, several deleted scenes and an alternate ending with some small dialogue changes. There is also an exceedingly dry director's commentary by Michael Caton Jones which muses on such mind-numbingly dull details as the colour of the subway platform in the film's climactic sequence. The film is presented in a clear print in 2.35:1 anamorphic format with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. --Chris Campion
| Starring | Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora |
|---|---|
| Director | Michael Caton-Jones |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 59 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Gay/Lesbian, Thriller |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | Italian, Spanish |
| Released | DVD: 21 Jul 2003 Production year: 1997 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal gets the Bruce Willis treatment here, courtesy of director Michael Caton-Jones. The classic thriller about an assassin at large has been relocated to America and now comes equipped with all kinds of techno-props that add nothing at all to the original's ruthless efficiency. Willis supplants Edward Fox as the killer and, surprisingly, doesn't make too bad a job of it, despite joining Richard Gere (IRA terrorist) and Diane Venora (Russian intelligence officer) in a competition for the “Meryl Streep Most Authentic Foreign Accent” award.
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Dull thriller, in which an audience is expected to care that someone appears to be planning to shoot the head of the FBI, while he is hunted by an IRA killer, a Basque terrorist and a former KGB agent.
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Most helpful member's review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
The Jackal
This is based on the original The day of the jackal. It has been brought up to date and is compleatly possable. It is entertaining and beliveable which makes it a good film in my book.
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Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
What happen Gere & Willis?
This movie with Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and the great old timer Sidney Poitier, should be tense but seems instead a little unbelievable and sociable, even the assassinations don’t quite ring true . The film plot was ok, had Gere, the Irish character Declan, with an appalling Irish accent, though being so sexy that doesn’t really matter. If you like these actors then the film is worth a look, though it is very long, it has some good dialogue but in the main not that great a movie. In fact very disappointing considering the cast of actors and the film plot.
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News and features
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Gere and Lopez dance onto DVD
- 22 Jun 2005
Shall We Dance? comes to DVD this week, a romantic comedy remake of a 1996 Japanese ballroom dancing film - and the new version boasts a strong leading cast. Richard Gere, who starred in Chicago, Runaway Bride and The Jackal plays the role of a lawyer who takes up dancing lessons in order to get closer to a woman he is attracted to. The woman in question is Jennifer Lopez, his dance instructor, who has appeared in Monster-In-Law, Gigli and The Wedding Planner. Alfie actress Susan Sarandon also... Read more
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The Jackal is filmmaking by numbers: take two huge stars, Richard Gere and Bruce Willis, and pit them opposite each other in a plot that's already been audience tested. That director Michael ... -