The Jackal is a 1997 action thriller based on a bestselling novel about the chase for a hired assassin.
THE STORY: After an FBI bust in Eastern Europe gets an Azerbaijani mobster killed, his older brother takes matters into his own hands and hires a notoriously elusive and highly successful assassin known only as the ‘Jackal’ (Bruce Willis) to take out a high profile target (unseen by the audience). Circumstances lead the FBI to the only man who might be able to identify the killer, a former IRA sniper (now prisoner) named Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), whose relationship with a woman named Isabella Zancona (Mathilda May) may lead them right to the target. He agrees to help in exchange for a chance to be free, and soon it’s a game of cat and mouse as some secrets are revealed and the life of a very important person lies on the line.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Writers: Kenneth Ross (earlier screenplay), Chuck Pfarrer (screen story), Frederick Forsyth (Novel)
Stars: Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Jack Black
THE RUNDOWN: It’s a little hard to believe that a film with a cast including Willis, Gere, and the legendary Sidney Poitier wouldn’t be one of the best ever made in the genre, but unfortunately, director Michael Caton-Jones‘ film is a soggy letdown, with slow plotting and a ton of generic action has beens. Gere is terrific and Poitier always compelling, but Willis is never convincing and plays it all too slick, dampening the whole show. While a few solid set pieces work, and a great supporting cast, including Diane Venora and J. K. Simmons help a lot in keeping the peripheral exciting, this is overall a forgettable thriller. Read the book by Frederick Forsyth. It’s far better.
Easily the performances of Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier who have a great dynamic throughout.
Too long and with the Jackal himself miscast, this is a film loaded with potential that can’t live up to its source.
THAT MOMENT: (SPOILERS) The Jackal is ice cold, the kind of guy that sort of just sneers at you over the top of his shades, sassing you with a witty comeback that lets you know he’s not just in control of the situation, he’ll just as soon pop you between the eyes with a silenced Beretta 84FS “Cheetah” sidearm. He’s cool like that.
After he makes a deal for seventy million US dollars (I’m totally in the wrong profession – curse you, conscience) to kill the secret target, he takes on a series of increasingly varying disguises in order to procure the necessary equipment to pull of his little deadly caper. This includes obtaining a family mini-van with a paint job that washes off and of course, every good assassin’s workaday goodie, a ginormous Polish ZSU-33 14.5MM heavy machine gun (which is in fact, a movie modified Browning M2HB in case you were sitting at home frantically wondering if the Polish ZSU-33 14.5MM heavy machine gun was actually a thing). It’s not.
However, it’s this gun that has some significance, as it’s the one that the Jackal plans to use in shedding his victim of their mortal coil so to speak, but to do it right, he needs more help, as he wants to fire this massive weapon remotely. This isn’t a pick up and shoot kinda boomstick, though. Enter Ian Lamont (Jack Black), an underground gunsmith and enthusiast, who the Jackal hires to build a specialized, highly calibrated, precision-operated mount, no questions asked. The problem is, questions are asked. When Ian finishes the job, he offers his nefarious client an opportunity to give his new gun and remote mount a place to test it out. It’s not a good idea.
WHY IT MATTERS: The Jackal is a surprisingly bland action thriller, with plenty of standard shoot ’em ups and chases, but somehow can’t build up any greater momentum to make it matter. However, it does manage to gather up some suspense, something Caton-Jones does best, and there is no better example of this in the film than when Ian joins the Jackal on the testing grounds.
Having driven out to the far countryside, the two find themselves in an open meadow where Ian has placed a pumpkin head on a post, meant to serve as the target for the machine gun. Even put a smiley face on it. Now all the Jackal has to do is adjust the tracking and aiming system to the remote control device and presto, it’s goodby pumpkin head. With much fiddling, the device is finally ready, and yet, when the Jackal actually fires the weapons, it’s 3mm off, causing the gun to stray just off the target, which he’s not too happy about but what Ian claims is not the mount (and by extension his) error. We believe you, Ian. The Jackal? … well …
Since the Jackal is a very cool dude, he doesn’t simply argue with the engineer, but rather, taps a few keys on the targeting keyboard and swivels the small canon to point directly at Ian. Naturally, he’s a little taken aback. More so when he realizes that the Jackal isn’t kidding when he tells him to run. Now. Run he does.
The thing is, we know where this is headed. We guessed it the moment Ian first showed up on screen. If there is a more obvious bit of collateral damage in these types of movie than the fellow who knows too much, I don’t know what it is. However, what’s so fun about these characters is playing the game of will they make it or will they not? And here, that’s a long game played to near perfection as we aren’t really entirely absolutely sure until well, poor Ian meets his demise in a gooey mess of rapid fire Polish ZSU-33 14.5MM heavy machine gun bullets. I mentioned spoilers, right?
Black, who was still three years away from his breakout role in John Cusack‘s High Fidelity, plays the black market gunsmith as a bit of an oaf, with long stringy hair and pudge belly, chain smoking and wise cracking with just about every line of dialogue, and it’s a strong performance, getting us to believe this is a guy who knows what he’s doing and has built up a certified trust from his usual criminal clients. That ends up a weakness though when he asks for more money, and then lets his guard down with the Jackal, a guy who leaves nothing to chance, especially possible long stringy haired, pudge belly, chain smoking, wise cracking witnesses.
It doesn’t even matter if the gun is off by 3mm’s, Ian’s fate is long sealed beforehand. What works so well is how Caton-Jones stretches out the inevitable, leading us right down to a terrifying moment when we still think the Jackal isn’t about to end this guy’s life. It’s a sensational sequence of tension, made all the more so by Black’s great work as a wannabe who took one step too far in a game he doesn’t know the rules of.
While The Jackal does have a moment or two of good action, what works best are the moments of suspense with this chilling demonstration of a military-grade weapon the coolest in the film. Pay attention to Black who carries the scene from start to finish, hinting both at the star power soon to come and the terrific range he’s always had at the ready. This is a great movie moment.