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Tarfumes.com - Day of the Jackal
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $6.74
Your Save: $ 8.24 ( 55% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Starring: Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel, Tony Britton
Directed By: Fred Zinnemann
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300182479
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6300182479
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: 1997-11-11
Running Time: 143
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1973-07-30
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Editorial Reviews:
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With its high-intensity plot about an attempt to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle, the bestselling novel by Frederick Forsyth was a prime candidate for screen adaptation. Director Fred Zinnemann brought his veteran skills to bear on what has become a timeless classic of screen suspense. Not to be confused with the later remake The Jackal starring Bruce Willis (which shamelessly embraced all the bombast that Zinnemann so wisely avoided), this 1973 thriller opts for lethal elegance and low-key tenacity in the form of the Jackal, the suave assassin played with consummate British coolness by Edward Fox. He's a killer of the highest order, a master of disguise and international elusiveness, and this riveting film follows his path to de Gaulle with an intense, straightforward documentary style. Perhaps one of the last great films from a bygone age of pure, down-to-basics suspense (and a kind of debonair European alternative to the American grittiness of The French Connection), The Day of the Jackal is a cat-and-mouse thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat until its brilliantly executed final scene (pardon the pun), by which time Fox has achieved cinematic immortality as one of the screen's most memorable killers. --Jeff Shannon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Jackal
Comment: No one can write like Frederick Forsythe. Get the book. DVD not as good as book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: AN EDGE OF YOUR SEAT THRILLER!!
Comment: This political thriller, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, begins with a failed assassination attempt by the OAS, an organization angered by President DeGaulle's liberation of Algeria. They realize they are now under intense surveillance by French security and intelligence and must go outside France to hire a professional killer. His code name becomes Jackal. When the French kidnap and torture a member of the OAS, they get the word 'jackal' out of him before he dies. With that slim clue and Investigator Lebel they go to work to track down this apparent assassin. The film runs two parallel tracks between the French security forces and The Jackal, who always seems to be one step ahead. While the film covers in great detail the plans of The Jackal to carry out the perfect plot and the painstaking intelligence work on the part of the French government (before computers and cell phones), it never seems to bog down or be boring. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, building to the climactic 'Day of the Jackal' when DeGaulle is to be assassinated. You don't have to suspend logic to believe this film. It is based on the cleverness and genius of the assassin as well as the intuition and perseverance of Investigator Lebel. Both are obsessed with their jobs and are up to the challenge. A top notch thriller. Roger Ebert calls it 'spellbinding'. [...]
Customer Rating:
Summary: Original and still the best
Comment: This is an absolutely superior work of cinema that was foolishly judged to be eligible for a remake, horribly done, with Bruce Willis (no joke). Accept nothing but the original!
One of the very few "mysteries" that can be watched again and again, without feeling disappointed at knowing the ending. Edward Fox is chillingly original as a killer with charm and ice water in the veins, the detective tracking him is the classic plodder with an almost sixth sense about the killer, and all of the surrounding characters are interesting, intriguing and imperative to the unfolding story.
Not fully appreciated in its initial theatrical release, it's become a classic -- virtually impossible to find on DVD shelves in even the most well-stocked stores.
Customer Rating:
Summary: EDWARD FOX - THE ULTIMATE JACKAL
Comment: The Day of the Jackal
The Jackal is the code name of a hired killer, Edward Fox, who's asked by rival French General's to assassinate, General Charles de Gaulle. British and French Police, combine to thwart the attempt, about which they no nothing, except that it's imminent. The script by Kenneth Ross is even better than the novel. Edward Fox performs, excellently, much better than Bruce Willis in the latest version, maintining a difficult role, well over a long film. Others in the cast are as cold and calculating as the killer, whose preparations for the crime are intercut with the massive man-hunt, launched to get him, before he gets, de Gaulle. The final race against time, is expertly filmed and edited.
Customer Rating:
Summary: New Edition Needed
Comment: One of the rare films that surpasses the book it is based on. This classic thriller desperately needs to be issued in a special edition. There are brief sequences in the movie that are missing in the DVD. Notably the scene when the Jackal goes up the stairs in the Austrian hotel, and back down to the lobby when he notices the bodyguard hiding in the landing. In addition we need some special features: the making of the film, historical background to the story and a biography of Fred Zinneman.
when so many inferior movies have DVDs repackaged and reissued in every way possible, it is unbelievable that this ultimate political thriller should be neglected.
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