The Day of the Jackal (1973)

Directed by

Fred Zinnemann

Genre

drama film, political thriller film

Country

United Kingdom, France, United States

Runtime

2h 27m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 686 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In the summer of 1963, a professional assassin known as the Jackal is hired to kill French president Charles de Gaulle. French authorities race to identify and stop him before he can carry out the plan.

tensesuspensefulmethodicalcolddeliberategrittyclinicallow-key

What happens

The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 political thriller film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. Based on the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, the film is about a professional assassin known only as the "Jackal" who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963. It stars Edward Fox as the title character, with Michael Lonsdale, Derek Jacobi, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel, Donald Sinden, Tony Britton, Cyril Cusack, Maurice Denham and Delphine Seyrig. The musical score was composed by Georges Delerue. A co-production of the United Kingdom and France, The Day of the Jackal received positive reviews and went on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Editing (Ralph Kemplen), five additional nominations (including Best Film and Best Direction), two Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Oscar nomination. The film grossed $16,056,255 at the North American box office, returning $8,525,000 in rentals to the studio. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked it the 74th greatest British film of the 20th century. A remake of the film was released in 1997. A TV adaptation of the novel and film aired on Sky Atlantic in 2024. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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