Random thought on _The Day of the Jackal_
TDOTJ really switches in to high gear for me when Lebel and Thomas start their investigations. Most of what they do is routine police work, but Thomas' inspiration to check passport applications against death certificates and Lebel's realization that the Jackal is waiting for Liberation Day to assasinate De Gaulle make it possible to prevent the assasination and elevate them above the average detective. Both are absolutely dogged in their determination to prevent the assasination. As the movie goes on, you can see Lebel and Thomas struggling to stay awake while they finish their jobs.
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Something else I find interesting is how Forsythe and Zinneman illustrate the sameness of the methods of both sides. They are both monsters and fanatics--just one side was acting under the color of law while the other was trying to overthrow the government. Zinneman shows how out of touch with reality Bastien Thiry (and by extension the leaders of the OAS) are by immediately following the scene where Thiry says that no French soldier will raise his hand against him with the scene where Thiry is executed by a firing squad which shows absolutely no reluctance to shoot him, including the soldier who administers the coup de grace by shooting him through the head at close range. The other scenes that show that the methods of the lawfully elected government are just as bad as the OAS is when Colonel Rolland says in such a matter of fact way that they will have to cut Wollensky's hand off to get the mail away from him makes me think that the Action Service would not hesitate to do so. The torture scene of Wollensky also shows the similarities between the two sides and willingness to do absolutely anything to do accomplish their aims. The book goes in to more detail about the grisly nature of the war between the OAS and the Action Service, but robbing banks and taking the lives of innocent people in the land you say you love doesn't say much for the OAS and the legitimacy of their governance if their coup had succeeded.
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I really think the movie would have been better if Michael Caine (who is said to have wanted the role badly) had been cast as the Jackal. I liked Edward Fox, but he was the wrong body type for the Jackal (too small), and when Caine played Harry Palmer, he had that kind of unemotional flat facial expression that Forsythe described in the book by saying that the Jackal's grey eyes had no expression or emotion in them. In other words, the Jackal was a psychopath, as were his employers, the OAS, members of the Action Service, and many of the government officials. On the other hand, Lebel did have a conscience. Lebel referred to members of the Action Service as a "bunch of thugs" and got in trouble with the committee overseeing his investigation by not issuing a general alert to stop the Jackal because he couldn't release enough information at the time for the small town policemen or constables to know he was dealing with a very dangerous killer. Lebel wasn't ready to endanger innocent people unneccesarily to do his job.
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Finally, I find it amusing that politicians and those in power in governments are much the same the world over as illustrated by the scene where the Minister dismisses Lebel after Lebel and Thomas have done the hard work tracing the Jackal through his different disguises across Europe to France and finally to Paris as Per Lundquist where the minister and his cronies think they can catch and take credit for apprehending the Jackal. It turns out they still aren't the right men for the job.
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Michael Lonsdale is truly great at showing what he is thinking by his mannerisms and the expressions on his face.
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Zinnemann and Kenneth Ross (the screen writer) did a great job of condensing the book into a great movie. With the exception of the casting of Edward Fox, I find the movie better than the book, which doesn't happen very often. Some of the characters in the movie (especially St. Clair) are more believable than their counterparts in the book.