Good concept, poorly executed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Have read this novel several times during the past 3 decades, and watched this film for several times too at interval during the same period. This is a great film, correctly adapted and realized by the screenplay writer and the director. The only not quite right thing about this film that I have to point out is: It looks too British, almost all of the actors were British, only Superintendent Lebel was a true French. That's why this film didn't feel a bit like what it should be. If the French characters in this film was like what as we read in the novel, they should be played 100% by the French actors. It's an international co-operated operation, the producers and the director should have no problem to use the French to play French, I don't know why he couldn't have done that. The settings in this film were all French, but the cabinet meeting were all British, it just looked unrealistic and funny. The background and the time are when there were no central air-conditioning or window air-condition units, no fax, no cell phone, no internet, no wi-fi hotspots, people were still chain-smoking in windowless offices, no Chinese take-out boxes on the office desk, even no pizza at all. What we got and saw in this film were lot of Citron sedans, Alfa-Romeo 2-seater, phone with rotary dial, or public phone service stations, telephone booth was not available yet. These 70s' scenes are very nostalgic and should be preciously appreciated. The tempo of this film was exactly it should be, and you should not consider it dated. A great film to repeatedly watch time and time before you kick the bucket. : )

I have a natural aversion towards films with a running time of two hours and more, especially when they are politically themed. There is one exception to this peculiar (and admittedly shallow) personal rule, however, namely if I have the rare opportunity to watch such a film on a lazy and carefree Sunday afternoon. It only happens like once or twice per year that my wife doesn't plan an activity or my children don't claim the television, but last Sunday was such a heyday and, coincidentally, a local TV-channel programmed this absorbing and meticulously perfect 70s thriller about the (largely fictional) plot to assassinate the French President Charles De Gaulle in 1963. Fred Zinneman's "Day of the Jackal" shows just how stupid my personal rule is, as the two-and-a-half hour running time literally flies by, and in return you're treated to a nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller with a fantastic screenplay, stupendous acting performances and an astonishingly wide range of authentic Central European (mainly French, obviously) filming locations. "Day of the Jackal" is 45 years old now, but the subject matter is still as relevant now as it was in 1973, and I wouldn't be too surprised if there comes another remake within a few years in which the assassination target gets replaced by, say, President Donald Trump. The biggest strength, as always, is the meticulous and nearly flawless screenplay. Adapted from the novel by Frederic Forsyth, "Day of the Jackal" is steadily paced and patiently embraces all the tiniest details of a convoluted political assassination plot. Following a failed attempt, the French political underground movement OAS approaches a professional and reputedly high efficient hit man. This man, known only by his code name Jackal, seemingly doesn't have a real identity but immediately proves himself a master in preparing his assignment. Meanwhile, the French authorities found out about the new assassination plot via the arrest of an OAS member and put their most hardened Parisian police commissioner on the case. "Day of the Jackal" also owes a lot of its powerful impact to the downright staggering performance of Edward Fox as the Jackal. Perhaps the absence of a big name for the lead role was the main reason for the box office flop, but Fox definitely is the right choice for the role. He's inconspicuous but extremely menacing at the same time and it's genuinely unsettling to see how calm and nihilistic he remains under the most stressful conditions. Michael Lonsdale is also fantastic as the inexhaustible Commissioner Lebelle in hot pursuit of the Jackal, and there are some memorable supportive roles for Derek Jacobi, Jean Sorel and Olga Georges-Picot.

Arguably the finest cat-n-mouse thriller ever made. Fred Zinnemann's film of the Frederick Forsyth best-seller is so well put together and so exciting it's nearly hypnotic. Edward Fox is the eponymous assassin, hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. Michel Lonsdale is the cop charged with tracking him down and stopping him. Filmed at break-neck speed with excellent acting, great cinematography by Jean Tournier and astounding editing by Ralph Kemplen. Fox & Lonsdale are excellent and the large supporting cast includes Cyril Cusack (in quite the unusual role), Derek Jacobi, Alan Badel and Tony Britton. The always interesting Delphine Seyrig has a very odd cameo. Shot in France, England and Italy.

One of the most remarkable men of the last century in my humble opinion was Charles DeGaulle of France. When I was eleven years old he came out of retirement and established the Fifth Republic of France which has survived to the present. I remember as a kid and an adolescent some of the tantrums on the international stage he would throw and be a general pain to Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson.But later on I read a biography of him and clear as a bell I remember what he said about how he saw his role in World War II. "In me you see the honor of France" was the quote. And I thought about it and by God it was true. True for him more than anyone else I could think of. At a time when his country was conquered, when so many more senior military officials either became outright collaborators with their new masters or just played for time to see which way the wind blew, this man would not yield. He was a junior one star brigadier general and when everyone above him yielded, he did not. He and the Free French who served with him carried the honor of their country. Maybe in our history that could only be claimed about George Washington.So only a man of DeGaulle's stature could have gotten France out of the colonial entanglements of her past. Especially Algeria across the Mediterranean who some viewed as part of France. The disgruntled French who had to leave Algeria, mostly army and colonial officials formed an extremist organization called the OAS and made a few attempts to assassinate DeGaulle. The Day Of The Jackal is a novel version of one of those attempts.As we know Charles DeGaulle gave up the Presidency of the Fifth Republic in 1969 and died a year later. Still Fred Zinnemann with no real box office names in his cast of players made one of the best films of the Seventies and one of the best thrillers of all time. Remarkable when you know what the outcome will be.French Intelligence gets a hold of the plot that a lone contract killer called 'The Jackal' has been hired by the OAS who can no longer trust their own network as it has been so compromised to kill DeGaulle. The killer they hire is Edward Fox, an Englishman who is thorough and meticulous in his preparations and as cold as the climate the penguins live in. When the French pick up on him, he manages to elude them a couple of times. He kills three people in his trip to Paris, necessary for him to complete his mission. Among Fox's dead are a woman he picked up during a hotel stay just so he can get her car as his has been spotted. Another is a gay man whom he picked up in a bathhouse in Paris who gave him shelter and then heard the French police were looking for him. The third was a forger who tried to hold him up for more money.Fox even has a weapon especially designed for him to conceal as he goes across the border. I won't say more, but you have to see the weapon he designs for himself. Alan Badel who plays the French Minister of the Interior assigns his own deputy Michael Lonsdale as the man to track down and apprehend the Jackal, dead or alive. Lonsdale who doesn't appear in the film until about a third of the way through is a tireless and dogged adversary who also has to deal with an informant in his own department as the OAS has planted a woman with one of the senior officials to Badel as a mistress/spy. Playing Lonsdale's assistant in an early role is Derek Jacobi.The Day Of The Jackal is at the top of the list in suspense movies. Alfred Hitchcock could not have fashioned suspense and terror any better than Zinnemann does here. Do not miss this film if it ever broadcast.And this review is dedicated to Charles DeGaulle who carried the honor of his country on his very tall frame.