Are you a fan of big-budget nineties thrillers? Well, if you are, do I have a movie for you or what? The Jackal is a mainstream thriller starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis about the hunt for a vicious hitman without a name. Since the FBI enlists the help of an imprisoned IRA sniper to catch this guy, it should be clear that the movie The Jackal is not based on true events. It’s actually loosely based on the 1973 movie The Day of the Jackal, an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s novel of the same name. And while shit like that was good enough for the early seventies, it just feels cheesy in the nineties.
The Jackal, after almost 30 years, is indeed cheesy but also somewhat charming and entertaining. You could say it aged like not exactly fine wine but just okay wine. If you’re looking for that safe big nineties thriller, this one will scratch the itch. You know what’s going to happen, the leads are good, there’s always something odd, and you can confidently turn off your brain for ninety minutes. However, the term something odd is actually an understatement of what you’re going to witness here. Right from the first scene, bizarre and outrageous shit is about to go down.
I am burning with desire to talk about all the ludocris plot twists and decisions but I think it’s best you discover them for yourself. That trademark nineties spirit of “bigger is better” is omnipresent. It’s omnipresent complete with Russians as the main villains. That same year, 1997, we got another movie also featuring exactly the same opening scene with one small difference. Air Force One is the movie I’m talking about and that small difference is the cranking of the bonkers scale to the maximum. I guess the whole movie is a bit bonkers but I digress.
After a botched arrest in Moscow, by FBI agents and KGB no less, a Russian gangster vows revenge on the Americans. He hires a ruthless and elusive hitman The Jackal to carry out this revenge. He’s so good that the entire FBI is practically helpless and has to seek help from an inmate. That inmate is Declan Mulqueen, an IRA terrorist with the most Irish name ever. On top of that, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing Richard Gere speak with an Irish accent the entire movie. I guess it would be weird if he lost it midway through.
We also have a tough female Russian cop who, of course, has scars on her face that make her look even more dangerous. But she’s also kind of hot, played by Diane Venora. Sidney Poitier gave another great performance as the lead FBI agent. Actually, the entire cast was great and practically elevated this B movie to an A rating. All of these changes prompted the writer of the original novel, Frederick Forsyth, to distance himself from the movie.
Again, I have to emphasize that The Jackal might be a cheesy and crazy movie but at least it’s entertaining. I wish it was a bit shorter though as the runtime is two hours flat. If it was ninety minutes, I think that the pacing would’ve been much better. Finally, I must clarify something. The 1997 movie The Jackal has nothing to do with a very real hitman and terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. If you’re looking for a movie about him, you should check out another 1997 thriller, The Assignment.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Writers: Kenneth Ross, Chuck Pfarrer
Cast: Richard Gere, Bruce Willis, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora, Mathilda May, Jack Black, J.K. Simmons
Fun Facts: The huge gun Bruce Willis’s character uses is a M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun modified to look like a Soviet KPV and not a “Polish ZSU-33” which does not exist.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119395/
