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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Day of the Jackal, The (Blu-ray) (1973)

Day of the Jackal, The (Blu-ray) (1973)

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Released 1-Mar-2017

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller None
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1973
Running Time 142:30
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Fred Zinnemann
Studio
Distributor

Shock Entertainment
Starring Edward Fox
Alan Badel
Tony Britton
Cyril Cusack
Michel Lonsdale
Eric Porter
Delphine Seyrig
Case Standard Blu-ray
RPI ? Music Georges Delerue


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     In 1962 President Charles de Gaulle had granted independence to Algeria. Elements within the French army believed that de Gaulle had betrayed France and formed the OAS, their intention being to assassinate de Gaulle. But, due to the French security forces and internal informers, their attempts failed, so the OAS leadership thought outside of the box and hired an assassin, The Jackal (Edward Fox), a ruthless, ice calm man who worked alone and independently of the OAS, to do the job. When the French got wind of the plot they were faced with finding and stopping a faceless and nameless man of unknown nationality. Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michel Lonsdale) is given the almost impossible task and with his assistant Caron (Derek Jacobi) they call on the old boy network in the security services of other countries to try to identify a suspect. The British led by Inspector Thomas (Tony Britton) come up with a name but The Jackal, using false identity papers, has already crossed into France. The hunt is on to stop him before he can kill de Gaulle in Paris.

     The Day of the Jackal is based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. As far as I can remember from reading the novel quite some years ago, screenwriter Kenneth Ross and director Fred Zinnemann (who won Oscars for From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966) but missed out for High Noon (1952)) stick fairly closely to the book, delivering a tense, suspenseful thriller. This is a classy, old fashioned film which avoids extraneous car chases or mindless action sequences; instead it is a slowly building time bomb, showing the meticulous planning of the assassin as he organises his identity documents and the unique weapon he will use and the methodical police work undertaken by those hunting him down. This is the era before computers, and there are no mobile phones or any of the other aids considered indispensable by modern security forces, so hard copy paper files such as birth certificates, entry documents and hotel cards must all be checked individually by hand in both Paris and London. This makes the hunt for The Jackal both ponderous and time consuming, giving him an advantage; less of an advantage is the fact that before the EU borders were heavily controlled, so the job of getting a weapon into France required an ingenuous solution by the assassin.

     Despite being over 140 minutes long The Day of the Jackal speeds along with not a scene or moment of padding. It feels genuine, almost documentary like without any false histrionics, and the film benefits from marvellous performances from all the cast, especially the ice cool Edward Fox and Michel Lonsdale as the man tasked with hunting him. Even small parts, such as Olga Georges-Picot as the woman given a distressing task by the OAS, are believable. The film also looks spectacular due to its location filming in France, England and Italy. Many scenes feature widescreen shots, especially in Paris where the French government supported the filmmakers to the extent that the real Liberation Day parades and crowds were incorporated into the climax. It is reported that everything felt real, so much so that some of the crowd tried to assist in arrests!

     The Day of the Jackal builds to a heart in mouth climax as Lebel struggles to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Of course, history tells us that de Gaulle was not assassinated, so The Jackal failed; we know this but it does not stop the film building its tension. And the book / film does have one more surprise at the end! Forget the very poor 1997 Bruce Willis, Richard Gere remake, The Jackal; do yourself a favour and watch The Day of the Jackal to see it done properly. After more than 40 years it remains one of the best political thrillers ever made.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The Day of the Jackal is presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     A number of scenes look quite soft and there are small artefacts scattered throughout the print, although none of them are distracting. Close-ups and interiors are much stronger. Colours are nice and natural, blacks are solid enough and shadow detail very good. Contrast and brightness is consistent, skin tones natural. Other than the frequent small marks, film grain was present but kept nicely under control.

     No subtitles were provided.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The film was originally made with mono sound, and this is what we have on the Blu-ray; English LPCM 2.0 mono at 1536 Kbps.

     Dialogue is always easy to understand. Effects such as crowd noises, trains or gun shots are predictably flat but are crisp enough. The score is credited to Georges Delerue but it is unused after the opening credits; instead only incidental music, such as on the radio or by bands, is used.

     There is obviously no surround or subwoofer use.

     I did not notice any hiss or distortion.

     Lip synchronisation was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

     Nothing. The silent menu offered only play and chapters.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     While there are numerous DVDs of The Day of the Jackal around, this Australian release is the only Blu-ray listed on Amazon.

Summary

     They do not make thrillers like The Day of the Jackal anymore; suspense, character, plot and believability tend to be thrown out of the window and replaced by car chases, explosions and shootouts that could be removed without affecting the story. Not that there is anything wrong with well-done car chases and explosions of course. But if you want to see a well-acted, meticulously constructed, character driven political thriller, catch up with Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal. Over forty years after being made, it is still hard to beat.

     Our review of the previous Region 4 DVD release here reported that the DVD was not 16x9 enhanced and that there were aliasing and other issues. While this Blu-ray is by no means perfect the aliasing and moiré issues have been addressed. Fans of the film should not hesitate.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Monday, April 03, 2017
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE