MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Jackal (1973) Discussion > A couple of questions about the start...

A couple of questions about the start...

posted 10 years ago by DC1977
6 replies | jump to latest

1)How were the OAS able to compile dossiers on contract killers?

It isn't really the sort of thing you can research. And even if it was, who did the research?

Rodin says 'we' compiled dossiers but was showing the results to supposedly the only two other people who knew about the plot to hire a contract killer.

That means someone else must have done the research but the OAS was in the Jackal's words 'riddled with informers'.

Was Rodin lying when he told the Jackal that the plot to kill de Gaulle was known only to the four men discussing it in the room?

2) The Jackal says assassinating de Gaulle was 'a once in a lifetime job. Whoever does it must never work again.'

Why?

It doesn't matter how profile the target is. If the Jackal gets away with it without detection then he could take on more assignments.

To be honest these are minor and probably necessary plot-holes to the story.

It's a fantastic film.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DC1977 9 years ago

Thanks for the response.

If Rodin was publicly recognised as the head of the OAS then anyone he associates with would know that as well and also know his intentions.

However it would be in the interest of those associates to help Rodin whereas the informers within the OAS would be trying to bring him down.

[–] movies789 9 years ago

I was amused by the procedure used by the Jackal to zero his scope. First of all, a day's drive round-trip just for half a dozen practice shots seems a bit much to me; firing a few .22 magnums with a silencer shouldn't require that much distance and solitude. His first practice shot from 100 meters away almost missed; an inch or so farther to the left on the melon's "face" and it would have missed altogether, with absolutely zero indication as to how far off he was, or in which direction.

In real life, he would have had to do one of two things: 1) have a large paper backstop (or cardboard, or a clean board) behind the melon, so he'd be better able to see where his first shot(s) landed, so he could effectively make his scope adjustments; or 2) start shooting from much closer in, then gradually moving farther out, so he could see where his initial practice shots were landing.

Doing it the way he did, he'd STILL be out there trying to zero his scope!

[–] stevekaczynski 9 years ago

The OAS seem to have had no trouble contacting hoods to rob banks in order to come up with the fee to hire the Jackal. Having dossiers on professional assassins to hire would just be an extension of that.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

[–] chester-copperpot-1 9 years ago

You should read up on the OAS. Effectively, they were a far right paramilitary group ready to overthrow the government. It was formed out of already existing networks, from generals down to soldiers. And they had their own intelligence branch.

They had a section called ORO, Organisation-Renseignement-Opération. With subsections for intelligence gathering and operations. I'm sure they has files on everything they thought necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_de_l'arm%C3%A9e_secr%C3%A8te

[–] stevekaczynski 9 years ago

They were essentially a dissident branch of the French state, which gave them advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, they were relatively professional, and putting together files on potential hitmen, potential targets and other useful bits of info was well within their abilities, on the other hand their opponents in the Gaullist establishment would also have been well-informed about them, as they would have been colleagues and comrades in arms only a few years earlier. Such a condition also leads to divided and uncertain loyalties, creating the informer problem the Jackal refers to.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."