Jackal
When is a remake not a remake? Well, even though such enterprises are (rightfully) shunned by those with discerning cinema tastes while the masses still continue to wolf it down their throats to this day, there is also the matter of having a new film be more of a ârebootâ or really a modern update with usually just one main character being reprised or even in the case with the newest Star Trek franchise, which boldly depicted the original characters with younger actors and then ran with a âtime warpâ storyline to make it clear that this was now a fresh timeline in which every new possibility was on the table. But in the case of this 1997 release, an update on the widely considered good (but not great) 1973 film The Day Of The Jackal (about a nearly faceless international assassin who had targeted real life French President Charles DeGaulle), the only thing that is retained was the core element of having a seemingly anonymous killer for hire who is contracted to do a very high level hit (on American soil no less) as the authorities scramble to try to find a way to stop him. The casting of Bruce Willis as the title character was of course a masterstroke, placing the perennial good guy in his first ever real villainous role, allowing Willis to use a cold as ice persona combined with a possible contempt for all others around him in order to play a guy who has no real reservations about killing ANYBODY if he has to. But the real firestorm was the rancor raised by the older filmâs creators, in particular its director Fred Zinnemann and original writer Frederick Forsyth who both blasted and condemned the new film with such a passion and fury that few other makers of original films usually show, despite the fact that the STYLES of each film are also completely different, with the 1973 film being more of a suspense drama whereas this one rather resembles an action thriller, 90s style. The film begins with a raid on a Russian Mafia stronghold where a high ranking member is killed before he can be apprehended. His grieving older brother (the real boss of the family and the type of guy who would brutally kill his own henchman for screwing upâŚwhich is what he does here) declares war not only on Russian law enforcement but also on the American FBI who assisted in the raid, finding a way to contact and set up a face to face meeting with Willisâ Jackal, who is given a very high profile target (in a hit that could well be called âmaking a statementâ) and then names his (very high) price. At this point the Russian crime boss (who in truth appears to practically rule the whole country from abroad) disappears from the film, not to be seen again, and the focus of the story goes straight onto Willis, a brilliant tactician, strategist and master of disguise who purposely plants information on a false decoy target, travels from place to place using a variety of fake identities and makes use of various people to help him achieve his aims while keeping them on a strict need to know basis, one of whom is Jack Black as an incredibly annoying engineer who also winds up stupidly blackmailing Willis for more money than was agreed upon, setting up one of the filmâs best scenes where the shit talking Black is cruelly and methodically set up by Willis to ensure that heâll stay quiet about any future plans. Meanwhile, the FBI Assistant Director (Sidney Poitier in the legendâs final role to date) is heading up the investigation assisted by a Russian liaison officer played by Diane Venora (one of the rare actresses who seemed to get better looking as she got older). Problem is, once they get the intel that The Jackal (who has done freelance work for several governments including The Russians) is planning a high profile hit on U.S. soil, it then becomes a matter of finding somebody who has actually SEEN The Jackal in person and is known to still be alive in order to make the ID. That leads them to a federal prison and Richard Gere as Declan Mulqueen, a former IRA operative and sharpshooter who crossed paths with The Jackal years ago and who still holds a grudge from being set up by him and nearly killed. If thereâs any major actor whoâs ever been more criticized for being âemptyâ in his performances, it would probably be Gere, but here trained to speak in an appealing and understandable Irish brogue and being carried in his scenes by trusted pros such as Poitier, Venora and J.K. Simmons as another FBI agent (in contrast to Willis who not only gets more screen time but also acts as a cipher to virtually every other actor whom he comes into contact with on camera in order to conceal his true intentions and identity), Gere gives one of the better performances of his career and even makes for a decent action hero if need be. As far as the âgrudgeâ goes between Willis and Gere from way back, it almost feels implied that the two of them were just two alpha male pit bulls who butted heads in the wrong sense which possibly led to the set up. The movie is not so much a battle of wits as it is one long buildup to their final confrontation (even as they cross paths at least once in the film prior to that). Indeed, when Willis (who potentially could abort the mission at anytime and still walk away with a $35 million payday) learns that Gere has been brought in on the case to try and stop him (knowing full well that he could) he laughingly chooses to continue on anyway as if almost daring his old rival to find a way to bring him down while Gereâs intricate descriptions of Willisâ methods (which are shown to be accurate) paint a picture of a man who OBVIOUSLY knew The Jackal a hell of a lot better than even he was letting on to the authorities and the fact remains that the one thing that seems to make Willis human (and his one mistake) is for him to continue on all while knowing he doesnât have to in order to humiliate and embarrass Gere and guarantee him a one way ticket back to prison for failing to stop him from finishing the job. In spite of all this, the standout performance here might be from Venora as the female Russian cop, sporting a thick accent complete with a disfiguring burn scar and STILL managing to exude a certain kind of sex appeal which Gere picks up on right away, engaging in a flirtatious relationship with her which had culminated in a love scene between the two that had wound up being left on the cutting room floor (a development which had reportedly resulted in Venora being left completely distraught afterwards). Poitier for his part plays the standard commanding officer role pretty well as he backs up Gere to the point where he eventually gives this furloughed federal prisoner his own firearm based off of the level of trust that has been built between the two of them. And Jack Black in his early role astonishes all of us at just how he really became a well liked, A list movie star with this loud mouthed performance as the contractor who assists Willis in building a targeting device that Willis decides to test out on him. The film might be unrealistic at times (as are so many high octane action films from that time) but the fact that The Jackalâs target is also obviously fictional whereas the original featured him going after DeGaulle (a real world leader who was portrayed through archive footage which nonetheless was meant to send a bit of a cheeky political message at the time) allows the film to have a little bit of leeway in terms of plot holes and farfetched story developments. The depiction of Willisâ Jackal as being somebody who immerses himself in homosexual relationships in order to set up his own personal safehouses based on the concept that many gay relationships are of the fly by night variety and thus making it easier to give himself someplace to hide without making it clear on whether The Jackal was actually gay or rather that he just saw gay men as an opportunity to continue being under the radar and anonymous because thatâs what their very lifestyle is predicated on comes across as being a new level of sinister thatâs even more shocking considering that itâs someone such as Willis being depicted as doing this (even as itâs implied that the falling out between him and Gere might very well have been over a woman). But still, with the film itself being given an unfairly maligned reputation even amongst the slew of remakes shit out every year by Hollywood, this turns out to be a tense, exciting but still fun thrill ride that transcends the remake disease by being rather an early form of a reboot and yet still succeeds in keeping the viewer watching all the way through its running time as it sets up its final confrontationâŚ
8/10