The Day of the Jackal : Would hate to see a modern re-film

Would hate to see a modern re-film

One thing that made this film so good (to me) was the attention to the countless details involving hunting through mounds of paper and documents. A remake would just have detectives pushing a few computer keys and, voila! everything they need to know all there on a magic screen. Feh. To compensate for the lack of reality, they would then ramp up the speed of the film and every scene would have blaring music.

I don't think that authentic police work is just hunches & computers.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Already been done; stunk, too.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Thanks, Grendel, for your response. I guess I could look up this remake on netflix but it would be a waste of my time!

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

I agree with you.

The American (2010) vs. The Day of the Jackal (1973)

The American - George Clooney and The Day of the Jackal (1973)- Edward Fox are both contract killers. And they are expected to kill.

The American /considered the second best movie for 2010 for unknown to me reasons/ is a movie without any direction at all, no logic, no aim, no action at all (except some sex with a prostitute). One expects something to happen and it never does.

I think the movie is a bad mixture /compilation/ of several movies - one being The Day of the Jackal (1973), the other Assassins (1995) and may be some others.

If I have to judge/rate - I would give 10 for The Day of the Jackal and 1 for The American.

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Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Hey, that's a great description of a bad film I had the good fortune to not see! More grateful than ever I saw the original. Tks.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Hey miso5000 - You are a very happy person not to have seen the American. They make an excellent actor as George Clooney act like a clown.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

I think you have both overlooked the most direct remake - the appallingly bad Bruce Willis flop "The Jackal", of 1997.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

@YaSvoboden

"The American" actually was an adaptation of a novel.

Nothing to do with The Jackal, and it was a good film, to boot. Maybe not perfect, but a good watch, and well acted by Clooney.

I said I never had much use for one....never said I didn't know how to use it.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

YaSvoboden,
The American is actually a better film than that. I am of the opinion that it is Clooney's best film (watch his expressions). Give it another chance. Some films are better the second time around.

- JKHolman

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

actually there was a remake of the day of the jackal, but it was the jackal, not the american. it starred bruce willis in a role as a guy trying to assassinate the president of the us even had him killing the guntech who had built him a remote control gun for the accuracy being off as a reference to the original with the accuracy of the specialist rifle being off and needing adjustment and the scene which was shortened in this movie, originally the jackal after asking for one of the bullets then shoots the gunsmith, but it was cut to leave it that maybe the forger would have lived if he hadnt of broken the deal. the scene in the terminator where arnie kills the gunshop owner with one of his own weapons is also meant to be an homage to the lost scene. they also offered edward fox a cameo in the jackal which he refused and the poor old director fred zinneman, in his 90s shortly before his death, fought the company to change the name and not connect it with his movie which he felt stood as a great movie and would be diminished by a remake. oh and the books author, frederick forsyth, made them remove his name from the 90s the jackal so it says based on a screenplay the day of the jackal rather than saying based on the novel by, i just checked, if you put his name into imdb it doesnt even register 'the jackal' on his page even though it was made from his book.

the american was pretty similar though, especially in style and how it is shot and certainly the makers must have affection for day of the jackal, but it was more about the guy having to be totally alone, have nothing, no one etc and was more like leon, the whole falling in love and wanting to get out type thing, just swap the underage girl for a prostitute as the object of affection, and new york for rural italy and it is basically leon (or 'the proffessional', for the purists). but yeh the american has nothing about the struggle to prevent an assassin carrying out a hit, it is purely the sad lonely assassin wanting to live long enough to get out of the business and not even wanting to go through with the hit. the jackal will snap your neck if you sneeze on him, the american was more looking for a hug, very different character.

the jackal is less similar in style but closer in story to day of the jackal, its about a cold hearted killer who will happily kill any innocent person who might be the slightest problem without even blinking, the attempt to stop him finishing the hit, and his attempts to carry on with it, an absolute remorseless killer out for a big score. although overall the story is the same the details are very different, rather than the police carrying out an intensive investigation, they release an ira hitman from jail and set him on the other assassin, its more like assassins, the 2 hitmen going mano a mano, which turned it more into a 90s patriot games type lite action movie.

funny thing is in all the movies i can think of showing the worlds greatest assassin, of which there are a few, they all have a conscience and just want to get out and go live happily ever after with their girlfriend, except the jackal. the jackal is the only sociopath protaganist i can think of in an assassin film, who is only going to retire as a practicality, that after such a big job he will be hunted more vigorously. if you think of all the others, the stallone character in 'assassins' wants to walk into the sunset, 'leon' is melancholy and lonely learning to live again when he meets a young girl, 'the matador' is having a break down picturing himself as a child everytime he approaches a target, 'hitman'
***********spoiler alert***************






he only keeps killing those who used to exploit him to keep the girl he saved safe, 'the american' is lonely and isolated and wants out, 'killer elite' (modern, havent seen original) the top killer has retired to the outback and gets back in only to save a friend, 'the mechanic' (this time original, havent seen remake)
********spoilet alert*********









is maybe the closest to a sociopath but is tired of life and allows himself to be taken out by his protege, either as a kind of suicide or because he doesnt have the heart to kill him in case the kid wouldnt have gone through with it and leaves the car bomb as revenge from beyond the grave just in case.

so only the jackal is portrated as a protaganist who is totally unphased by killing any innocent he has to (and sometimes doesnt have to) and shown with no redeeming features to endear him to the audience, just simply as a ruthless killer with all the emotions, mercy and remorse of the terminator, while everyone else feels the need in their movies to win over the audience at least a little and soften their character in some way.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Is the shift key on your computer broken?

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

That's why I use caps lock.

I'm afraid that you underestimate the number of subjects in which I take an interest!

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Wasn't this kind of a pointless reply? If you have something to say then cool, I just don't get people who take the time to reply things like "your message was so long I didn't read it". I guess I'm not exactly built for twitter lol but that's just how I type, if you have anything to say about the content of a message which I can then reply to, that just seems a more logical use of your time.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

You're bashing the wrong movie. The American isn't s remake of this movie, The Jackal with Bruce Willis is. It sucked. The American on the other hand is not bad at all.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Why would anyone think 'The American' was the remake of 'Day of the Jackal' when the Jackal is an Englishman and his quarry is a Frenchman. There's not a single american mentioned in the book or 1973 film! Come up is everyone braindead on here?

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Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Fredrick Forsyth was so annoyed with the remake he asked for his name to be taken off the credits.

If your gonna remake "The Day of The Jackel",I would cast Paul Bethany in the Edward Fox role.

THE HIGHWAY'S JAMMED WITH BROKEN HERO'S

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Don't really ever understand the need for re-makes. This is a terrific movie - they got it right on the first go. Just shows that filmmakers are running out of good ideas.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film


Don't really ever understand the need for re-makes.


The need for remakes is money.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Remakes aren't bad if the original film has potential but was badly executed. I point to the Coen Bros. True Grit as an example - it removed the flaws of the (already good) original and ultimately surpassed it. This wouldn't apply to Day of the Jackal, though.

Let's not forget a lot of Golden Age classics were remakes - The Maltese Falcon, The Wizard of Oz, His Girl Friday. So there's no reason to assume a Jackal remake would be inherently bad, unless a bad director/writer/cast got attached.

Oh sorry, The Jackal, I didn't see you there...

"I shall tread uncommon wary and keep my pepperbox handy."

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

SPOILER BELOW!

I think Day of the Jackal had one big goddam flaw that really bugs me; it's after all the planning and hunting, cat-and-mouse etc, it's that Lebel just happens to spot an open window and ask that particular cop at that particular barricade at just the right time.

This movie creates a good buildup of "How can they catch this guy?" then it just cops out with that lame ending. I love this movie otherwise, but the end always bugs me.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

I guess that's the point... that even with ulitimate planning luck just happened to be with the police that day.

SpiltPersonality

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Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

Well, it wasn't all necessarily luck, for the police. The Jackal had a bit of it too. They were really close to catching him on a few other occasions too.

So, while spotting the open window might be considered blind luck by you, the fact that they knew what the Jackal had planned and where he'd need to be, was the result of the exhaustive effort that the police had put in trying to catch him.

Lebel happened to see the open window - but he was looking for an open window, in that spot, because he knew where the Jackal would need to be, because he had already determined that he was trying to shoot de Gaulle.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

It was a sunny summer day in Paris I would think the police would have been faced with lots of open windows within firing range of an assassin. An order should have gone out for Parisians to close all windows that day. (-:

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

When they did the remake, keeping it true to it's English origins and casting Paul Bettany would have been a master stroke. But as always with remakes it had to be "Americanised" for the box office. You don't se people remaking American movies in general. Maybe that's because other nations can come up with their own ideas and not feel the need to rehash something purely for financial gain.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

The Jackal http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0119395/ with Richard Gere and Bruce Willis was an ostentatious example of bad taste and heinous modern film updating.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

The Jackal, not the American, was touted as a remake of The Day of the Jackal. Despite a few similar points and the shunning of it by Forsyth and others, I'd have to say that, viewed as a standalone movie, it's actually pretty good.

A true remake of the original would simply not have hacked it since, in this case, the first movie is exquisite and could never be bettered. Its basis, from the story by Frederick Forsyth, was an OAS attack that could very well have occurred at that time, following the French Government's granting of independence to Algeria. In that respect, it's as close as one can get to a "true" historical drama.

If you view The Jackal as a separate, unrelated movie, it really is a very good watch.

As for The American, this is one of George's best movies, alongside Solaris, Syriana and Mchael Clayton. The only tenuous link is that it's also about an assassin.


There is real life ... and then there are movies!

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

I happened to see The Jackal first, not long after it was released in the 90s. I thought it was pretty good, not being "ruined for me" by seeing the original first. Bruce Willis really played the scary cold-blooded sociopath chillingly well.

Just saw Day of the Jackal yesterday. Very well-executed, and the story was a bit more plausible than the FBI using another terrorist/assassin to hunt him down--I'd say it rates better overall. But even so, I think Willis' portrayal of the character was more memorable--made a bigger impression on me anyway. I wouldn't say the remake "sucked", it was just different.


Understanding is a three-edged sword.

Re: Would hate to see a modern re-film

I'd love to see another remake. The Jackal, for all its faults, shows that this story can be told again. When Poitier runs to save the First Lady, the film works, just like the original worked at the climactic scene. In both films, the sprawling, extended and complicated chase of the first two acts goes a long way in making the resolution thrilling and suspenseful. The premise is patently solid. (In fact, I suspect it may be generic enough to be reused without having to label the resulting film as a remake, which wouldn't help its commercial prospects, but would calm down those who loath remakes.)

I appreciate how The Jackal infused the story with personal stakes, which isn't something that's inherently better or worse, but it's different from the original, as well as interesting, or potentially interesting. However, I don't like how at the end they basically present Willis as a sociopath, because it takes away from the Jackal's coolly professional nature. Unquestionably, the original film remains the best.

The fact a remake would feature computers as means of obtaining information doesn't imply the filmmakers would simplify the investigation that leads to the capture of The Jackal. As for ramped-up speed and blaring music, one would have to see what they would do with those elements to decide whether they would work or not. I don't think their presence would be inherently negative.
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