150 Word Review: 'The Day Of The Jackal' (1973)
The man with the folding gun
Edward Fox stars as 'The Jackal' in this political thriller about an assassin hired by domestic terrorists to murder President Charles DeGaulle in 1963. Fox plays a foppish English gentleman with a head full of feathery blonde hair who kills mercilessly, a sort of anti-James Bond who very good at his job.
Based on Frederick Forsyth's classic page-turner, The Day of the Jackal dates here and there -- there is some nudity, but the Jackal has a lethal karate chop? Fine. The old country is sexy, though.
Director Fred Zinnemann treats this movie like a documentary, as if we're observing some wild animals from afar. The film is still riveting, and as you watch Fox's hitman outthink and outrun Michael Lonsdale's calm and collected French inspector Lebel, you slowly start to root for the old boy. Or at least I did. And, yes, he's a sociopath. Zinnemann knows what he's doing.