The Jackal (1997)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Michael Caton-Jones

Writers (WGA):

Kenneth Ross (earlier screenplay Day of the Jackal)
Chuck Pfarrer (screen story)

Release Date:

14 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

How do you stop an assassin who has no identity?

Plot:

An imprisoned IRA sniper is freed to help stop a brutal, seemingly "faceless" assassin from completing his next job.

Plot Keywords:

Jackal | Assassin | FBI | IRA | Major

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	The Jackal
Richard Gere	...	Declan Mulqueen
Sidney Poitier	...	FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston
Diane Venora	...	Major Valentina Koslova
Mathilda May	...	Isabella Zanconia
J.K. Simmons	...	FBI Agent T. I. Witherspoon
Richard Lineback	...	FBI Agent McMurphy
John Cunningham	...	FBI Director Donald Brown
Jack Black	...	Ian Lamont
Tess Harper	...	The First Lady
Leslie Phillips	...	Woolburton
Stephen Spinella	...	Douglas
Sophie Okonedo	...	Jamaican Girl
David Hayman	...	Terek Murad
Steve Bassett	...	George Decker

Also Known As:

Der Schakal (Germany)
Le chacal (France) (dubbed version)
The Day of the Jackal (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA | UK | France | Germany | Japan

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:18+ (Ontario) | USA:R (certificate #35563) | South Korea:15 (video rating) (cut) | South Korea:18 (original rating) | Philippines:R-18 | Norway:18 (original rating) (1998) | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KT | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Mexico:C | Netherlands:16 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | Australia:M (original theatrical version) (cut version) | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Burnham Park Yacht Club - 1500 Linn White Drive, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Alphaville Films

Trivia:

Both Richard Gere and Diane Venora worked with language coaches to develop their accents.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When "The Jackal" first enters the subway station after the big shooting, he uses the metro card upside down. You can clearly see the magnetic part of the card never goes in the machines.

Quotes:

[to FBI Director Brown, about the Jackal]
Declan Mulqueen: This man is no clown. He knows all your moves, back to front. Right now, you've got a name; that's all you've got. The Jackal has got a target: you. He's got a timetable. And as to making mistakes, he's spent twenty years in a trade that doesn't forgive error. And he's prevailed. You think he's the one who's up against it? It's the other way around.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Soundtrack:

Wonderwall

So very, very bad...

Plot holes the size of Mongolia, acting so wooden you could use it to build a tree-house and the dullest, most inept attempts at 'suspense' and 'action' I have ever seen. Don't be fooled into thinking this is some mindlessly enjoyable time-waster: The Jackal is so awful that it exerts a strange, hypnotic power over viewers (every time we thought it couldn't get any worse it astonished us and actually did) and it's no surprise that it derailed Michael Caton-Jones's career. You know a film has sunk to new, formerly unimagined depths when you actually find yourself feeling sorry for the amazingly wealthy and (formerly) successful souls trapped in front of the camera. Incidentally, only sub-literate adolescents could describe the politics in this film as "realistic".