![]() ![]() ![]() And the vision of the American government is as squeaky-clean as any 1950s propaganda movie, with Poitier cast as an upright Yank surrounded by shifty foreigners. We're expected to sympathise with Gere and his Basque separatist sweetie (Mathilda May) because they're passionate believers in their causes, and despise the Jackal for being merely a professional killer, though it's hard to argue that in real life fanatics are less dangerous than mercenaries. It's a good job this works so well as a machine-made movie, because its grasp of political realities is nebulous. The plot intercuts suspensefully between the master-of-disguise Jackal (Willis) as he sets up the score, and a messy alliance of compromised good guys - FBI bigwig Poitier, IRA rifleman Gere and KGB cutie Diane Venora - on a race against time to jar his aim. It's a shame Forsyth doesn't rate (or has refused) a screen credit, because most of the strengths of the film are down to him. The new film retains the book's structure and quite a bit of its plot, but jettisons the real-life historical background in favour of a contemporary yarn about grudge-holding Russian Mafiosi. This purports to be based solely on the screenplay of the 1973 Jackal movie, though that was a scrupulously faithful version of the best seller about an attempt to assassinate De Gaulle. There was evidently a remake loophole in Frederick Forsyth's rights contract for The Day Of The Jackal. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |