MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Jackal (1973) Discussion > The Jackals mistakes

The Jackals mistakes

posted 15 years ago by civetcat
90 replies | jump to latest

One of my favorite thrillers, but the Jackal makes some terrible mistakes:
1. Why drive like a banshee after you've painted your car and have new license plates?
2. Why use the name Duggan in registering for a room? Pay cash and use a phony name, any name.
3. Why tell the Paris cop the street address of where you are going to (as the one-legged veteran)?
4. Why tell the man in the bathhouse, the name Per Lundquist, when you don't have to?
Nonetheless, one excellent film.

[–] bcstoneb444 10 years ago

For a cool, methodical professional, who, we must admit, did a lot of things right, he did make his share of mistakes. So, my, possibly redundant, contribution:
1. Continuing with the assassination attempt after he’d been tipped off his cover was blown instead of laying low for a while or going back to Italy (where admittedly they'd have caught him at the border crossing).
2. Picking up the rich woman at the hotel, then visiting her, then killing her.
BTW was the killing of the lady at the apartment house necessary? It seems so … callous. Or was the chop merely to stun her?

[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

SPOILERS!!!

1. He had picked out the De Gaulle appearance at the Liberation Day ceremony for his best chance of killing him (and importantly- getting away with it) so he couldn't lay low for awhile- he had a definite timeframe to do it in. His cover wasn't blown- he had backup plans and disguises in case any one of his aliases was discovered. Remember, when he was killed the police had a body but no idea who he actually was!

2. Actually by picking up the woman at the hotel he was using her and her house as a "safe house" in case the authorities were getting close (which they were). He felt he had to kill her once she told him about the police having been there at her house and talking to her. Obviously he knew she would eventually be found dead in her bed but all he cared about was getting a head start from the police in the hours after that.

3. He killed the apartment house landlady because he absolutely didn't want any chance of being discovered upstairs. He was an assassin- not a nice guy!

[–] nickm2 10 years ago

3. He killed the apartment house landlady because he absolutely didn't want any chance of being discovered upstairs. He was an assassin- not a nice guy!

Quite right but for some reason I found the scene of him karate chopping the old lady unbelievably funny. It was just 'wrong'!

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Yeah just give her some sort of scare to cause a heart attack and save the karate-chopping for others...

[–] tmf_scipio 9 years ago

1. Good point.
2. Every European hotel requires a passport to register, even if you're paying cash.
3. He had to convince the cop to let him through the barricade
4. Not sure. But, he did have the passport to back it up.

I agree though, great movie.

Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade.

[–] Jason_Radley 9 years ago

His real mistake was using that fancy dan gun and ammunition when what he really wanted was a plain old 6.5 mm Carcano Model 91/38 carbine that could fire a magical bullet.