The Day of the Jackal - Tow Jockey Five Second Review

A master class in how to make a tight suspenseful intelligent thriller. Not one scene wasted. Not one event that doesn't have a purpose. Based on a book by Frederick Forsyth, who also wrote the Odessa File, and directed by Fred Zinneman, who did a lot of classic movies including High Noon and From Here to Eternity. The movie is a slow burn of ever increasing tension. The premiss is that an assassin has been hired to kill Charles De Gaul and even though you know he must fail because De Gaul was not killed, that doesn't stop you from see-sawing between wondering how he could possibly escape to how his pursuers could possibly catch him all the way up to the last minutes of the movie. Forsyth wrote in a journalistic style and this is brought to the film wonderfully. Many of the shots could fit in seamlessly into an investigative news report or documentary.  It captures it's time and place magnificently. Edward Fox also did a superb job of playing the Jackal who is all smiles and charm right up to the point where he kills you.

Netflix Status: Currently Streaming