One of the sadder aspects of recent revelations has been having to confront the glum reality that real-life national security capers are nowhere near as cool as their movie equivalents. For example, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton kept her nation's secrets in a server in some guy's toilet in an apartment in Colorado. I'd just seen Mission: Impossible 12 or whatever it was in which half the screen time is devoted to figuring out how Tom Cruise is going to break in to the secure computer facility. In real life, all you need is a plumber's get-up. I was doing some event or other out in Hollywood around that time and took the opportunity to re-enact the big scene from Cruise's picture but re-located to the sewer line to Server Boy's toilet.
Now we have the Christopher Steele "dossier". If Steele isn't on Putin's payroll, he ought to be. For it's hard to imagine in James Jesus Angleton's wilderness-of-mirrors heyday you could have distracted Washington half so easily with anything as ludicrous as this "dossier". So I thought it would be fun, for our Saturday movie date, to find a Russo-American thriller whose fictions are as ridiculous as the Steele fiasco. That's all but impossible - until I remembered a Bruce Willis remake from 1997, Michael Caton-Jones' The Jackal.
Back in 1971, it was The Day of the Jackal, a taut, forensic first novel by Frederick Forsyth that was brilliantly researched and hung its plot on real-life details such as a loophole in British passport security. Two years later, Fred Zinnemann turned it into a marvelous film with a chilling performance by Edward Fox and a magnificent supporting cast. In both the novel and the film, the Jackal is out to kill President de Gaulle.
Then came Bruce Willis in The Jackal. Both Forsyth and Zinnemann attempted to get the new filmmakers to change the name, but were unsuccessful. You can, though, see why they tried. The French president is no longer the target, for how many moviegoers of the late Nineties could even name the President of France? So now the Jackal has been retained by a shadowy Russian mobster to kill a prominent American: for most of the film, The Jackal pretends that it's about a plot to assassinate the Director of the FBI, but, in fact, it's perfectly obvious from the word go that the real target lies elsewhere. The Russians' Mister Big, furious that the feds have iced his brother, wants to make a bold gesture that the Americans won't forget.
So he calls in Bruce Willis, the newly Americanized Jackal. The film quickly establishes that he's an international contract killer. All the tell-tale signs are there: he maintains an account with a small, discreet bank in London; he has a post office box in Montreal; he travels on a Canadian passport. This is the usual shorthand of the genre, but I have to say it came as a bit of a surprise to me, since, for most of my adult life, I too have maintained an account with a small, discreet bank in London, operated a post office box in Montreal, and traveled on a Canadian passport. Of course, for a notorious international terrorist, I have a much better cover than Bruce Willis — acclaimed author of Broadway Babies Say Goodnight — but, on the other hand, I don't have the extensive range of bad hairdos Bruce can muster. On and off they come with bewildering speed — the dishwater blond hippie wig, the Canuck exporter's mop, the peroxide gay-disco look — until even Willis no longer seems very sure of what he's meant to be wearing with whom.
The fun in the film comes from seeing Willis as the master of disguise, expanding his acting range to encompass both a stolid Canadian businessman and a gay swinger cruising the bars. To be honest, he doesn't make much effort at a Canadian accent, except to add "eh?" to everything: "Charlie Murdoch, eh? Take another delivery, eh?" And, on the whole, his gay is better than his "eh?" He really gives his all in the gay-bar scene, caressing and stroking his pick-up, and planting a big wet sloppy kiss smack on the lips. With hindsight, I tend to agree with Zinnemann and Forsyth that naming the film The Jackal made it sound too much like The Day of the Jackal. They should have called it The Gay of the Jackal.
Bruce Willis, of course, is much too relaxed and likable to be the Jackal. One misses the icy chill of Edward Fox, clinically dispatching a bit of upscale franco-totty after giving her one final orgasm. Willis doesn't have sex with anyone and, given the trail a mile wide he leaves for the FBI, the Mounties, the Sûreté du Québec and everyone else, it's hard to believe he's managed to stay alive this long.
Nonetheless, to track him down, crack US agent Sidney Poitier and his Russkie counterpart Diane Venora are forced to yank a hardened IRA terrorist out of jail, because he's the only man alive who knows the Jackal's methods. Being a hardened IRA terrorist, he's played by — who else? — Richard Gere. From time to time, I toy with the idea of doing a lavish coffee-table book on Great IRA Men of the Movies. On the left-hand page, one would have the genuine article — all those sallow, whey- faced, thin-lipped, dead-eyed types from the BBC evening news through the Seventies and Eighties — and, on the right-hand side, we'd have Richard Gere, Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, etc. Admittedly, Gere is a touch more cosmopolitan than most IRA terrorists: he has a former sweetheart who's a Basque separatist from ETA. Until al-Qa'eda and all their vast Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves came along, global terrorism was a sort of international dating circuit. But, as the Russian major puts it, "They say that the Basque live by the vendetta. If they hate someone, it's to the death. If they love someone, it's the same." So, in what passes for motivation in this story, Richard Gere has wanted to get even with Bruce Willis ever since they were in Libya and the Jackal shot the Basque babe while she was carrying the IRA guy's child. From the latterday jihadist sinkhole of post-Gaddafi Libya, it's hard now to recall that it was once the Covent Garden of international terrorism, with the Jackal, the Basque and the IRA man as the homicidal equivalent of those Italian tenors, French sopranos and German basses endlessly cruising the great opera houses of the world.
The Jackal suffers from a wee bit of directorial low energy. You never feel the crackle of real tension, and, by the time the Jackal fixes his actual target in his sights, you don't really care who lives or dies. The film would have made more sense with Bruce Willis — a naturally warm actor — in the IRA role, and Richard Gere — who can play a very cold fish — as the Jackal. But, even then, it's still best enjoyed as a lot of entertainingly pointless running around. For example, to cross the US/Canadian frontier, Willis goes to inordinate lengths, buying a boat and taking part in a regatta on Lake Michigan, all of which activity attracts FBI attention almost immediately. Wouldn't it have been easier just to drive across the border? At the time, the border post between La Patrie, Québec and Pittsburg, New Hampshire was unmanned for 15 hours a day. To be sure, they had a VCR recording crossings, but, the one time anyone checked, the tape had run out, and it froze up in winter anyway.
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19 Member Comments
Not sure how you get from Canada to the US by crossing Lake Michigan, but hey, we're just flyover country as far as Hollywood is concerned.
We had a fairly extensive library of sorts when I was growing up and i used to read my father's so-called "spy" novels. The Day of the Jackal was one that I could not put down, to the point of reading via flashlight in bed. I never saw any versions of the movie but if the chance comes up I will certainly avoid this one. IMO, Bruce Willis is campy in everything I've seen him in and it only fit for Moonlighting, which is available online, but not on Netflix. I am a fan of Cybill Shepherd.
Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle was another page-turner that I read on a single January weekend when it was too cold to go outside for anything other than to deliver my newspapers. I saw the movie version with Donald Sutherland but as the saying goes, the book was much better.
I don't know. I thought Willis was charmingly menacing in Red and Red 2. Of course, the whole premise is a bit campy and you need a lot of suspension of disbelief. Maybe it's the charm of seeing the geriatric set kicking serious butt that appeals to me.
I haven't seen Red or Red 2. I'll admit I haven't seen a lot of Bruce Willis, although for reasons stated I am not inclined to. I really don't watch many movies unless I am trapped on a long flight but with downloads on my personal device I am no longer held hostage by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck et al.
RED was pretty funny. I mean, it was an action comedy and so were the Die Hard movies, so one is best to take them at that. There is no deeper meaning to them than having some laughs. I think I've seen RED 2, but don't take my uncertainty as a condemnation but rather an indication of not taking them as serious and deep entertainment with lasting thoughtful themes. I recall The Whole Nine Yards from 2000 as being pretty funny when I saw it in the theatre. I don't know if it would hold up well but since it was comedy and not current affairs it might be alright.
Hollywood has-beens in self-deprecating roles are often examples of their best work! "RED" was hilarious. John Malkovich deserved an award; I just loved his well-founded sense of paranoia and suspicion, and the "... old man?!" scene at the airport.
I always wondered why the IRA was so glamorous in Hollywood movies. We knew that some Irish Americans supported it, but there can't be many of them in Hollywood. It had a poisonous effect on public opinion in Britain - in the days after 9/11, many of my friends and relatives were openly pleased that the Americans now knew what it meant to be attacked by terrorists.
I know from "Plum Duff" you like to write fiction occasionally, Mark. Couldn't you have told us this was another exercise in imagination? Alas, unlike "Plum Duff", which is very believable and inspired by events, no one will believe that such a movie was ever made. I admire the concept of reviewing make-believe movies, but couldn't you have come up with something just a little more credible? Bruce Willis as an international assassin and Richard Gere as an IRA terrorist? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Mark, if you wanted a movie with really taut, suspense-filled detection and chase scenes on the USA/Canada border, why not have a script where the villain is coming south with some kinder eggs and bagpipes?
Mark, obviously you'll include Sean Bean (Patriot Games) and Stephen Rae (The Crying Game) in your coffee-table book, but please be mindful of the fact that there is some gender diversity amongst IRA terrorists (Polly Walker and Miranda Richardson, who happen to have the same hairstyle in their respective roles). That said, who can forget the extremely sexist observation by Jack Ryan in reviewing CIA satellite imagery of the North African IRA training camp?!
Also, without elaborating on potential plot-spoilers (except to mention its "fake dossier" categorisation), "No Way Out" is a great movie.
Mark replies:
No Way Out is indeed a great movie. My take is here.
Another IRA femme fatale was Natascha McElhone in Ronin. She did a very nice job.
OMG.
"look at him in Waterworld, where he's too much in love with himself to notice Jeanne Trippelhorn's standing naked in front of him."
I thought you didn't go in for that stuff (I didn't think you did sensual.) This is by far the funniest thing I've ever read you've written! At least, as far as funny stuff (not ironic stuff) goes.
No Way Out. Layers of never ending surprises.'
P.S. What html directives are allowed on the Steyn posts?
bold
italics
Is this underlined?
A great movie, and an even better review... can't believe I missed it! Thanks, Mark. As usual, the peripheral side stories (I'd always wondered what became of Sean Young) and cross references ("Flying High" is not something I expected to be reminded of, and now look forward to some reruns) are some of the best bits!
Personally, I always thought both the glacial photo development and final plot twist were superb.
Kevin Costner always took himself waaay too seriously, and seeing him mocked by the BBC's Dennis Pennis- and retaliating- was good fun.
This further illustrates why "Make America Great Again" is a brilliant campaign slogan. The Democrats are the lead dance partner. As the Democrat establishment has deteriorated, Republicans have kept in step. Thus, the Republicans have deteriorated. The ne plus ultra of the Republicans in Congress is to write a memo. This is just the first step, we have been told. Get ready for... a second memo.
This reminds me of the idea emanating from the European establishment that, in war, aggression should be met with "proportionate" response. Imagine trying to win WWII that way. Republicans lacking the self-confidence to govern is nothing new. With a large-scale exit of Republican congressman voluntarily retiring this year, we're seeing it again. Very strange: fight to (almost) the end, and then let up, to give the enemy a chance to kill you - a common feature since at least Shakespeare's Richard III and continuing today.
These days they cross the border at manned unofficial locations, with the RCMP offering valet service, free coffee, and no need to leave a tip. Not that these people are illegal migrants, according to the Canadian government, they're irregular immigrants.
It's been a while but I remember "The Jackal". But to cross the Canadian/American border on the only Great Lake that doesn't border Canada, Michigan, I don't think so.
The same thought came to my mind. It must have been a pretty long boat race to connect through one of the other Great Lakes, or they were counting on poor geography knowledge of the audience, or more likely it was due to the lack of geography knowledge on part of the screenwriter.
My favorite scene in Day of the Jackal is where Fox zeroes in the sight of his sniper rifle. It's startling yet not gross. Fantastic movie.
An much more believable IRA terrorist was played by Jonathan Price in Ronin. The movie had an excellent cast and possibly the greatest car chase scene EVAH. I've driven on some of those Paris roads and they were scary enough when going in the proper direction.
Finally, the great Charles Bronson movie Telefon shows how a Soviet agent should enter the US. He flies into Calgary, is met by the lovely Lee Remick and the two just drive south to the border. Simple.
I've only seen "Day of the Jackal"- a brilliant film- and remember that breath-holding scene, and several others. Mark's review is obviously the best thing about the Bruce Willis version. Thanks for the other tips.