This movie is a masterpiece! There was an attempt to recreate this story years later on the big screen and it SUCKED! The 1973 production had superior writing, brilliant directing, and a stellar cast. A+ production.

I was in the Air Force stationed in France in this period (totally oblivious to all of the Algerian events). One night four of us were in Paris driving around and we accidentally passed de Gaulle’s residence twice. We were stopped by some military guy who sticks his face along with his automatic weapon into our vehicle and tells us in broken English “do not drive past this house a third time”!

This version was so much better than the remake with Bruce Willis!

The Day of the Jackal is a great movie 👍

The book and the film are absolutely superb. If you read the first 20 pages of the novel or watch the first 20 minutes of the film, you'll be hooked.

I have both seen the film, and read the book. The book goes into a lot of detail, about how each member of the OAS was connected to the organisation. After reading the book, I was glad that the Jackal was unsuccessful, as it shows him as a nasty piece of work. The fact that both the book, and film, are based on true events, is something powerful as well.

Such an underrated gem

I love the book. One of the few movies where I rooted for the "bad guy". Would read it again.

Citroen DS. That's a heck of a car, as it's unique suspension is said to help the car driving although attackers punctured a tire with the bullets. The car can hold itself upright with three tires. After this event Charles de Gaulle is said to just have been driven in this car. It is an icon and still said to be the most comfortable car due to the suspension even in comparison to newer ones

This is a gem, a master piece. Definetly on my top 10.

A great adaptation of the book, as well, which had a more in-depth view of the Algerian Colonial effects inside post-war France.

Definitely in my my top 5. The book is outstanding as well.

An excellent movie , so well written and made . All educated know that the French President was not assassinated and yet the movie still maintains the suspense . And the magnificent performance of Edward Fox !

So good even national security departments have studied it.

8:58 went from the best to the worst assassin ever 😂

Imagine a whole movie and you miss lmao

It’s a great movie, much better than the remake

Amazed at the work these old movies did! 🧐

Tell me you don’t want the villain to win without telling me.

1962, France is in Chaos. 2023. France is in Chaos.

Michel Lonsdale was superb as lebel, and I loved the way once he's done all the hard work it's taken out of his hands, so very true to like in so many cases.

Dude killed three innocent people and missed his target.

Edward Fox is so amazing in this film.

Edward Fox looks so natural wearing an ascot.

A great classic with tension and suspense to the end.

Seen the film a few times and still enjoy it.👍

Michael Lonsdale (Claude Lebel) was a great actor. Remember him as Drax (Moonraker)? Or as Jean-Pierre in Ronin?

One of my favorite movies for many, many years.

I really loved this movie and the main character. Any remake doesn't even come close.

Of course the original is much better than the newer version.

SPOILER AHEAD: Anyone else disappointed the jackel missed?

7:40 The part where the Detective talks about tapping them all is my favorite in the original movie.

Fantastic film. Worth decades of rewatching. Michael Lonsdale - the French detective - is such a great actor and character in this film. Of his 246 IMDB credits, few are released in the USA - but this film and the DeNiro thriller RONIN - are all some actors ever need. The book, too, is a terrific 'read' as well. Highest recommendation for thriller fans.

Well snap, i though the jackal was going to get away with it…

7:05 Per Lundquist was not a pastor but a Danish school teacher

In a nutshell, Drax ran the whole operation.

Well, at least bots can't pronounce French names yet.

Outstanding movie. Better than most of today’s movies.

So the movie with Richard geer and Poitier is a remake wow didn’t know but a well written one as well the jackal . Good movie both of them love the review.

He doesn't make it - he orders it and buys it.

I think this is the first late night movie that I watched with my grandpa at TV around the 80's, due to this was showing after 9:30pm. It was 12:30am when finished. And that's late for a 7-8 years old, that's why I remember this movie so vividly. My grandpa was also couching with me and explaining those movie detail with me It was a master piece even on today standard

Saw it in the theater when it came out. Fantastic movie.

Wonderful film. Lost count how many times I have watched it and still hope the Jackal will win

Damn. I was rooting for the jackal lol

In case anybody was wondering why The Day Of The Jackal is one of the most taut cinematic thrillers there is, it's due to the fact it was helmed by the great Fred Zinnemann who helmed the 1952 Western masterpiece High Noon and 1953's From Here To Eternity which not only won the Best Picture Oscar but also awarded the Austrian-born filmmaker his first Best Director Oscar. He would win another Best Director Oscar for 1966's A Man For All Seasons, which also won for Best Picture.

IMy mother was there in Paris in 1962 when there was a genuine fear that the paratroopers would launch a coup

The assassin asked for 500,000 USD which about 5 mil today. This seems to be super cheap to shoot the head of State.

At the beginning of the book, the plan was called and The Jackal does not find out until much later.

All i can say is (EXCELLENT VIDEO)

1:52 - the actor who plays Victor Wolenski also played Col Matthieu in "Battle of Algeiers". Jean Martin. 4:52 - Paul Lebel also played an information broker named "Papa" in the movie "Munich".

I have watched this excellent film often. I still wonder if he killed the rifle maker?

Great book, everyone knew, or should have known that De Gaulle died in his sleep. Yet, I, along with a lot of readers were transfixed waiting to see if Lebell would catch him!

Mistake at 2:04. The two people he contacts are in Italy. Second mistake 5:05 - Valmy is in Molitor, a suburb in NW Paris, not in London. Third mistake - at 6:41 says that Lundquist is a preacher, when in fact he is a school teacher. Fourth mistake - at 7:49 says that August 25th is France's liberation from Nazi Germany. In actual fact it is the anniversary of the liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany, not the whole of France.

The only flaw on this movie is, assasin always have another weapon for defense but jackal dont have.

This sums up french fantasy in a nutshell especially the whole part around de gaulle being liked.

A few Book vs Movie Discrepancies: - The wave of bank robberies took place as soon as Jackal concluded his meeting with the OAS bosses. It was a wave of robberies because the Dollar value was extremely high back then, half a million in the 1960's probably equate to trillions today in 2024. Part of the reason Jackal demanded a lot of money is because due to the OAS's repeated assassination attempts on Du Gaulle; their Alert Levels are at an all-time high. Even if he kills Du Gaulle, he will now live as a hunted man. - Viktor Kowalski could not have been abducted in Italy. In the Book's introductory chapters, OAS brain man Antoine Argoud was abducted by the French Secret Servicemen in West Germany (Germany was divided into back then) and shipped back to France. Because of this little stunt, no country would ever help France again, they would intercept the Secret Service guys, and let their prisoner go. Instead, they studied Kowalski's profile and found out he had an illegitimate daughter posing as another man's child. They used her as leverage for force Viktor to return to France on his own. - After commissioning his rifle and fake ID's in Belgium, The Jackal scouts out France looking for his possible shooting points, finally deciding on the top-floor apartment. He even sneaks inside to have a look around. During that time, he has a run-in with Du Gaulle and (unknowingly) Jacqueline (Denise in the movie). - Valmy is in Paris, not London. He is also the guy that calls Rome after Kowalski's abduction and suggests aborting the mission. Just like in the movie, the Jackal continues anyway as he is confident he will succeed. Valmy is later arrested late in the novel, just as the Jackal calls. Claude Lebel picks up but is unable to impersonate Valmy; alerting the Jackal that his informant has been compromised. - Claude Lebel had daily meetings with the various Security Heads in Paris. A lot of it was getting updates on possible candidates to the Jackals identity. As the story progressed the list got shorter and shorter as they learned the candidate was either dead, working elsewhere(one guy who seemed to match The Jackals skill level was working in security for a diamond mind in South Africa), or looks too different or too old to be the Jackal. Some of the officers start grumbling about how slow it is taking, and Lebel then counters by offering them his position...so that if they screw up they will face the consequences. They shut their mouth. - The "Charles Calthrop" angle was meant to be a red herring. Nowhere in the Book does the Jackal ever confirm even in his thoughts of his knowledge of the Trujillo assassination. The whole point of this angle was to show the dangers of going by second-hand rumors. The real impact of the Charles Calthrop angle however, was to double the efforts of Scotland Yard. The knowledge of Calthrop happened because the British Inspector started asking around MI-6 if they have rumors of any super assassins. One guy then mentioned a rumor in the Dominican Republic that a sniper shot through a tiny unarmored window on a fast-moving armored car, killing the driver and leading to Trujillo's death. The MI-6 guy then volunteers to check the files because rumor or not; a report should have been filed anyway. After giving out this info and Charles Calthrop's name, some higher-ups reprimand him for helping France. In response the Prime Minster tells Scotland Yard to screw those guys and spare no expense to double their efforts in helping France. - Part of the reason the British believe Charles Calthrop was The Jackal was because he was conveniently away on a vacation and a neighbor saw him packing fishing rods, making them think it's a disguised gun. They couldn't find him until the end of the novel. Additionally when they interview his former employers; they find he was once involved with the Arms Industry. When the French bosses learn of this, they were eager to drop the case believing the Jackal had decided to abort the mission once his "true identity" was discovered. Only Lebel insisted they continue checking. - The discovery of Alexander James Quentin Duggan came in much, much later. Which led the British and French to conclude that either Calthrop was the wrong man, or Calthrop had picked Duggan as his false identity. It was this discovery that once again fires up the rest of the French guys to follow Lebel and continue investigating. Because the of Duggan picture, they were also able to discount many other candidates provided by the other countries. - The discovery of Duggan inside the hotel (which he shared with the Baronness) took over half a day before the report came through. When his bosses try to reprimand him, the higher ups reminds everyone that they cannot do it any faster unless they initiate a public manhunt, which is against the President's rules. If the Press were to find out that the police and secret service were frantically looking for someone, and in 1960...there was only one and one reason alone WHY. - The Jackal crashes his car deep in the woods to hide it, and it takes forever to get police to haul it away and examine it because everyone was looking for a white car, not a blue one (The Jackal had painted it and put a fake license plate), furthermore the whole village the Jackal was living in didn't like cops and thus nobody would talk even when asked. He actually stays in the chateau for almost a week while getting constant info from Valmy that the cops have lost the trail. He kills the Baronness when he finds out she was listening in on the calls. - The Jackal specifically picked an Italian Alfa Romeo due to it's chassis' underside having enough room for him to store his gun. This is how he was able to go through so much security checks, especially when entering France. He also had all his hair-tinting dyes stored in aftershave flasks. As aftershave was a new product and only a thing in America, customs dismissed it as nothing interesting. - Instead of a Turkish bath house, the Jackal goes to a gay bar while posing as an American student Marty Schulberg. He leaves with a gay lover and paints his face with makeup and acts foppishly, digusting and preventing the police from carrying out any checks on his luggage. As a result, he's able to lay low in the man's house for several days. - The French police have enlisted even the Union Corse; France's Mafia but even they cannot find the Jackal. - The Jackal "old war veteran" disguise involves a WW1-era greatcoat which looks very out of place, as well as tons of medals. This extracts pity from the Gendarme who lets him through without question. The long coat also helps him disguise the fact that he's really not a one-legged man.

There were two unrealistic aspects to this film. First, when the Jackel wanted to pass through a border to another country and he's worried that his gun will be found by the authorities, he decides to stick the gun pieces into the exhaust system. He cuts about a 3-foot length out of the exhaust pipe. Then he welds a circular piece of metal to the exhaust pipe at the end closest to the engine.Then he puts the gun pieces into the gap that he had cut out. By welding that circular piece and covering up the existing exhaust pipe he has prevented the engine from running. An engine cannot run without a free flowing exhaust. The second thing that is unrealistic has to do with the height of General De Gaulle. The general was a very, very tall person but in the movie he was depicted as rather short

I visited the Universal Studio Lot in the 1970's and I saw this Rifle in a Display case.

5:44 i’ve read a lot of census records from that time and absolutely none of them are that neat 😂😂

Great film, builds up the suspense even though you know he fails to kill De Gualle.

Thank you from 🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭

They should have hired Inspector Clouseau

This was awesome movie , thanks for summerising this

Movie was fantastic, except the assassination attempt. Jackal had the PERFECT chance when they started the La Marseillaise. De Gaulle was standing there motionless for the entire song. They were all motionless and had zero chance of someone getting in the way. A solid TWO minutes him just standing there. First time I saw the movie I thought, "He should have blasted him during the anthem." Best part is that he tapped everyone's phone because he knew someone was spilling. The exploding bullet was amazing.

I am surprised that his film didn't make Edward Fox a big star.

This film & 'The Odessa File' are the two best book to film adaptations in cinema history! You can't even consider that Bruce Willis fiasco! I read both books & have always owned copies of both movies. They are SO terrific. Edward Fox is one scary man! He may have missed his main target, but everyone he had contact with wound up dead! They never did figure out just who the Hell he really was! Both movies were based on current events at the time. Historical fiction, with some basis in fact. Algeria & the Nazi rat lines.

Police Commissioner Berthier and Deputy Commissioner Lebel. Seems like Freddy Forsyth chose his character names from the French Army armoury inventories.

Higher quality recap that I’ve seen!

I always remember how the two thoroughly knew each other the first (and last) time they met: "Chacal!! Lebel!! - ratatatatat ..... " A classic suspense and mystery thriller - and not a special effect in sight.

The bullet that the Jackal is hurriedly loading into his rifle when he is shot dead by Lebel was the last of his mercury-tipped assassin's bullets, and he therefore wouldn't have been able to assassinate de Gaulle had he been quick enough to shoot Lebel.

I saw this cinematic gem during the first year of COVID quarantine. I regret that I didn't watch this one when I was younger. Plus, here's three fun facts = ▪︎ The Day Of The Jackal was based on the debut novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. ▪︎ The film was ranked # 74 on the British Film Institute's Best 100 British Films. ▪︎ The legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited The Day Of The Jackal as one of his 100 favorite movies. The other movies he included in his list can be viewed on Far Out Magazine's website.

Great film, anytime it's on, I rewatch it.

Best adaptation of the novel.

Very British French.... but in a good way😊 Manchurian Candidate ending

All you need is a Steel pipe, an end cap and a nail, then some way to smash the bullet back into the pin (usually a second pipe that sleeves over the first), then slam it back to detonate the bullet. All available at Home Depot. You've got to make sure the pipes are the right size. It's pretty easy to make something like this, though shotguns are much easier than Rifles- takes a bit more work/precision for those but still possible ;P

In the movie, I always thought, wondered, assumed that when the Jackal asks the guy who made the rifle, for a bullet, it was to kill him. No witnesses.

Love Lebel . Great cop.

A few years later Fox was in A Bridge Too Far as Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks. There's a scene where Fox as Horrocks gets on stage and his men start applauding - a friend asked me why they were applauding and I said it was because they appreciated his trying to kill de Gaulle several movies earlier.

its the O.A.S. the Organisation armée secrète

A fantastic book

(At 2.05 - 2.09) The Jackal gunsmith is in Genova (Italy) not in Belgium. This not for nationalism but for the sake of precision.

Day Of Teh Jackal a MASTERPIECE

Don't mind me, I'm just here to Observe.... Because that's my name.

I liked this movie, "The Day of the Jackal", much better than the movie, "The Jackal" starring Bruce Willis.

"Oh.. standing I should think.;

when my landline broke, it was the day of the crackle.

Classic. Highly recommend.

As others have said, the movie is a masterpiece. If you're watching this video, stop. Watch the movie instead. You will not be disappointed.

Brilliant film, book is great and film is pretty good. A MUST SEE film

Degaulle survived many attempts Jfk not so lucky!

i guess the movie with richard gere and bruce willis was a reimagining of this one.

I really liked the Bruce Willis remake, but I think this is the better of the two movies. Edward Fox was brilliant, as was Michael Lonsdale. Highly recommend...

Saw this in '73. Gee I was 13. My dad read the book.

Director Fred Zinnemann had the most varied filmography: HIGH NOON, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, JACKAL, THE SUNDOWNERS, MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, THE NUN'S STORY and my personal favorite, JULIA w/ Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.

i actually recreated the lil rifle from this movie. mine is no where near as precise or pretty as the one in the movie but its still fun to plink with.

If you liked "The Day Of The Jackal" you should see "The Killer" (2023).

The Jackal is a werey. He missed 😂

You say the Jackal is an Englishman. Whist it is true, that is how he is portrayed, at the end the British policeman points out they have no idea who he is, and he took on half a dozen nationalities through the operation. He could have been born anywhere and have any nationality. He was a complete unknown.

this movie is a masterpiece..

The novel was very gripping though one knew what had happened. The character of Jackal was very intriguing. Mysterious.