The Jackal - Collector's Edition
by Michael Caton-Jones
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DVD details
Actor: Bruce Willis, Diane Venora, Richard Gere, Sidney PoitierDirector: Michael Caton-Jones
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 124 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-04-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Product features:
- TESTED
DVD Reviews of The Jackal - Collector's Edition
DVD Review: More Mutt than Jackal
Summary: 1 Stars
I learned recently that Tom Cruise and Mike Nichols had toyed with the idea of collaborating on a remake of The Heiress, with Cruise subbing for Montgomery Clift as Morris. To this end, they scheduled a viewing of said classic, sat through it, looked at each other...and ruefully concluded that with all due respect, there was no WAY they could come up with anything to compare with what they had just seen, much less better it. The project, mercifully, died in utero.
Would that Michael Caton-Jones had possessed a similar grasp of reality and lack of hubris.
Fred Zinnemann's 1973 The Day of the Jackal is on my shortlist of perfect films. The quintessential political thriller, it carries not an ounce of fat--there's not one extraneous frame or word of dialogue to mar the near-perfect visual re-creation of Frederick Forsyth's novel based on factual events in early-1960's France. Despite knowing its outcome before we even start watching, we're nevertheless on edge throughout the entire film, awed by the completely convincing cat-and-mouse game to which we're privy between two equally-matched, consummate professionals. Neither is personally involved with the task at hand--they're both just doing the jobs for which they've been hired.
This film, on the other hand, is an abomination. Instead of Charles de Gaulle, the First Lady is targeted for assassination. Edward Fox's sleek, elegant Jackal is replaced by a mugging Bruce Willis, and it would seem that Sidney Poitier (who must've needed the money) is meant to be the equivalent of Michel Lonsdale's plodding, henpecked police inspector. What this amounts to is that we're treated to a predictably 90's-style counterpoint of physical types: Willis is white, Poitier is black. The whole effect, unfortunately, comes off beige.
Myriad (gratuitous) characters are thrown into the pot, including Richard Gere as an incarcerated IRA terrorist with a bone to pick, sporting, in addition to one of the corniest Irish brogues in cinema history (right up there with Gable's Parnell), his trademark American Gigilo/Jesse Lujack swagger. I kept hoping Jerry Lee Lewis would break into "Breathless"--it would've been an improvement over the pedestrian soundtrack. In addition, we're forced to deal with--God help us--"character development" (the beauty of the original is that we're spared such contemporary "essentials" as motivation, psychology, romance, slow-motion confrontations, or even much of a soundtrack). High-tech equipment (including quasi pre-GUI computers and a rather unsubtle "weapon of choice," which we're asked to believe is produced by someone--no doubt a savant of sorts--who probably couldn't order a hamburger at White Castle) and the obligatary shock-soaked special effects (including buckets of blood) are, presumably, meant to compensate for the woeful lack of substance.
The Spotlight Reviewer is correct about Zinnemann's wanting to disassociate himself and his masterpiece from this mess, and his insistence on the title change; he died soon afterwards with his stellar reputation intact. I was unaware that Forsyth was similarly vocal but I'm not surprised. I wish it were possible to assign a zero-star rating to this gimmicky, self-indulgent disaster, if only on the basis of its rubbing our noses in Hollywood's inability to come up with and develop new material--how many inferior remakes of classics will we continue to be forced to deal with each year?
My suggestion is to avoid this film at all cost and acquaint yourself with the original (available on Amazon for a pittance; you can't afford NOT to own it), a textbook example of how to produce a classic, despite its being given unsurprisingly pedestrian treatment on DVD by--guess which studio?--Universal. Contrast that disk with this Collector's Edition and all its extras and you're forced to wonder (alas, yet again) who's making the decisions over there and on what basis, especially considering that this film--deservedly--sunk like a stone almost immediately following its release.
Description of The Jackal - Collector's Edition
DVDThe best way to enjoy this 1997 thriller is to forget the much better film that inspired it (1973's The Day of the Jackal) and get whatever kicks you can from this heavy-metal remake. It's not bad as hokey thrillers go, but all of the original film's suspenseful finesse has been traded in (not traded up) for bigger, bolder action and nonsensical plotting. It's as if Hollywood had forgotten to create excitement without resorting to overblown action and heavy hardware, but there's ample compensation in the casting of Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. Willis is the elusive assassin known only as the Jackal, whose latest target (he uses a cannon-sized gun that's anything but inconspicuous) may be the first lady of the United States. Gere plays a former IRA terrorist who is recruited by the deputy head of the FBI (Sidney Poitier) to trace the Jackal's maneuvers, and Diane Venora offers some gutsy support as a Russian-born agent who assists Gere on his mission. The movie has fun turning Willis into a master of disguise, and Gere adds much-needed gravity to counter the plot's escalating absurdity, but this is the kind of film that falls apart if you think about it too much. Still, that doesn't stop the Collector's Edition DVD from offering an impressive array of bonus features, including a director's commentary, a "making of The Jackal" documentary, deleted scenes, an alternative ending, cast interviews, and more. --Jeff Shannon
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