Review of The Jackal (1997) by Stuart K — 05 Aug 2013
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones (Memphis Belle (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991) and Rob Roy (1995)), this was intended to be a new adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal. But after discovering it bore no resemblence to his novel and leaning more towards the 1973 film adaptation, Forsyth had his name removed.
It's not all bad, but it does have it's stumbling points, but it has some memorable moments thrown in too. The Jackal (Bruce Willis) is a mysterious yet enigmatic assassin who goes from country to country killing people, but the FBI have been after him for years, America and Canada have been after him for years, but FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier) and Russian Police Major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora) have one hope of finding The Jackal, and they find it in jailed IRA sniper Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), who wants released from jail if he helps them, and Mulqueen has help from Basque freedom fighter Isabella Zanconia (Mathilda May).
Meanwhile, The Jackal is in Montreal, picking up a weapon which he intends to use to assassinate the American First Lady (Tess Harper), but Mulqueen and Koslova are getting closer to their target, but he's a master of disguises.
It turns the events of the novel in 1963 France to America, with Willis putting on a whole array of make-up and disguises, while Gere struggles with a comedy Irish accent, but it's worth watching to see the cameos by Jack Black, J.
K. Simmons and Leslie Phillips. It's not all successful, but you can see the makers went out with all good intentions, but it does drag.
This review of The Jackal (1997) was written by Stuart K on 05 Aug 2013.
The Jackal has generally received mixed reviews.
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