May 21, 2024 03:36 AM
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The 1970s saw a lot of political changes in the world and it reflected in novels, films and other forms of media. Frederick Forsyth wrote a best seller thriller novel The Day Of Jackal taking inspiration from the real life France situation at that time and blended fiction so well that it remains a cult novel till date. In 1973 Fred Zinnemann directed a classic British-France production film based on the novel. The movie starts with the real life assassination attempt on French president Charles De Gaulle by extremists due to their anger on Algerian independence. The president escapes it narrowly an d guilty are punished. Now starts the fiction part of an extremist organization hiring an international killer "Jackal" to complete the task. The killer JACKAL is a cold blooded murderer who handles hi-profile international murders and is very meticulously planned. A cat and mouse chase starts between French Action service and the Jackal and spreads across England, Italy and of course France. The film remains a fav of all assassination genre films till date. Though it is not a hardcore Hollywood style action thriller, this British-French film takes time to grow and is very much into details. The treatment of course does justice to the real socio-political situation of the time and also remains true to novel with minor changes. The term "jackal" was further used in real on international killer Carlos, and this adds to vintage vale of the film. Of the cast, Edward Fox as the villain Jackal stands tall-literally. The film is shot very well in Europe and captures Paris like never before. The impact of this film was all over cinema including Indian cinema. almost all Indian films with an assassination plot including Mani Rathnam's Dil se, Manoj Kumar's disaster Clerk and even Mahesh Bhatt's action film- Lahu Ke Do Rang had clear inspiration of the film. The film is not that easily available online and I got to see through a collection but will definitely recommend it to political and thriller film fans!
