Review by Gary Tooze

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• In the Marksman's Eye - a new interview with Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience (36:00)
• Two rare archival clips from the film set, including an interview with Fred Zinnemann (On Location - 2:37, Zinnemann interview - 2:52)
• Theatrical trailer (2:04)
• Original screenplay by Kenneth Ross (BD-ROM content)
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector s booklet featuring new writing by critic Mark Cunliffe and film historian Sheldon Halls

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Description: In 1971, Frederick Forsythe shot to bestseller status with his debut novel, The Day of the Jackal taut, utterly plausible, almost documentarian in its realism and attention to detail. Two years later, director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) turned a gripping novel into a nail-biting cinematic experience.

August 1962: the latest attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle by the far right paramilitary organisation, the OAS, ends in chaos, with its architect-in-chief dead at the hands of a firing squad. Demoralised and on the verge of bankruptcy, the OAS leaders meet in secret to plan their next move. In a last desperate attempt to eliminate de Gaulle, they opt to employ the services of a hired assassin from outside the fold. Enter the Jackal (Edward Fox, Gandhi): charismatic, calculating, cold as ice. As the Jackal closes in on his target, a race against the clock ensues to identify and put a stop to a killer whose identity, whereabouts and modus operandi are completely unknown.

Co-starring a plethora of talent from both sides of the Channel, including Michael Lonsdale (Munich), Derek Jacobi (The Odessa File) and Cyril Cusack (1984) and featuring striking cinematography by Jean Tournier (Moonraker), The Day of the Jackal remains one of the greatest political thrillers of all time.

 

 

At the time of its release, some critics said The Day of the Jackal was a rare case of a film far surpassing the source material on which it was based. Adapting Frederick Forsyth's hugely popular international bestseller to the screen was no simple task. Knowing audiences would be very familiar with the story, director Fred Zinnemann and screenwriter Kenneth Ross followed the book faithfully. But where Forsyth had to describe the details of a fictional assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle in an excessively verbose novel, Zinnemann was able to take viewers through the intricate plot by means of the efficient visual narrative conventions of film, using very little dialogue. The film skillfully intercuts between the painstaking detective work of the French authorities to foil the scheme and The Jackal's brilliant steps to carry out the plan while evading several near captures and maintaining his secret identity.

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Arrow include supplements. In the Marksman's Eye is a new 36-minute interview with Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience and it has plenty to offer (spoilers exist - so see the film first) in discussing Zinnemann, his work habits, style and the production. There are also two, short archival clips from the film set, including a very brief interview with Fred Zinnemann and some comments on the locations. We get a theatrical trailer and through your PC you can access the original screenplay by Kenneth Ross as a 18 megabyte PDF file for those interested. The package has both a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain and for the first pressing purchasers can get a collector's booklet featuring new writing by critic Mark Cunliffe and film historian Sheldon Halls .