A new adaptation of Fredrick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal is being streamed on JioCinema. The series of the same name updates Forsyth’s 1971 novel to current times.
Forsyth’s bestseller is a fictionalised account of a plot to kill French President Charles de Gaulle by the terrorist group OAS. Outraged that France has given up its colony in Algeria, the OAS tries to assassinate de Gaulle in 1962 but fails. A second attempt is made in 1963 by hiring a British mercenary whose codename is Jackal. Even as the Jackal goes about preparing for his task, the French government launches a clandestine investigation to thwart him.
In the JioCinema series, the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) is hired by a billionaire to kill a tech maven who is going to release a software that will expose dark money trails. Lashana Lynch plays Bianca, the British secret service agent who pursues the Jackal across Europe.
The show adds sub-plots to its source material, including families for the Jackal and Bianca that come in the way of their respective missions. Although an expanded and quite different version of Forsyth’s book, the series contains references to the previous successful film made in 1973 – from the names of certain characters to the watermelon that the Jackal uses for target practice. An actor in the opening sequence who plays a lookout closely resembles Redmayne.
Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal can be rented from YouTube, Apple TV+ and BookMyShow Stream. The movie is a nail-biting adaptation that follows two operations unfolding side by side before they eventually intersect.
Edward Fox plays the Jackal, a dangerously efficient and hyper-alert assassin. Despite the Jackal’s precautions, French police officer Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) gets enough clues to start piecing together the conspiracy.
There’s no wastage in Kenneth Ross’s taut screenplay, no needless sentimentality or distracting sub-plots. Across 142 minutes, we follow the Jackal as breathlessly as we do Lebel, wondering which one will reach his target first.
Both men are matched in their precision, intelligence and fleetness. And both are equally committed to achieving their aims – an attribute also found in the new series.
While the Jackal is adept at forgery and disguises, Lebel taps into a vast intelligence network. The movie details every one of the Jackal’s ruses, just as it does Lebel’s detecting methods, which are achieved via endless cigarettes and very little sleep.
Fred Zinnemann’s direction is clean, economic and intensely focused. By shooting on several actual locations in France and other places, Zinnemann gives the film the feel of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Zinnemann plunges the camera into the teeming crowds, conjures up a military parade that doesn’t look staged, and inserts shots of ordinary French citizens going about their lives.
Shorn of flourishes but packed with detail, Zinnemann’s movie is a tribute to the power of meticulousness. Although the web series version, which has fine performances by Redmayne and Lynch, is engrossing too, the movie achieves its goals with a quarter of the effort.
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