--- title: "The Day of the Jackal" year: 1973 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-day-of-the-jackal" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-16T11:04:47.849061+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T11:04:48.238269+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Day of the Jackal (1973) Directed by Fred Zinnemann · 2h 23m · MPA PG · Action, Thriller **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 69 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* We became rather too interested in whether an assassin had organised his work properly > Fred Zinnemann’s patient assassination thriller makes the work absorbing. Edward Fox is chillingly persuasive, and the procedural detail sustains the long pursuit, though the politics receive disappointingly little attention. ## Synopsis In France, The Jackal (Edward Fox) prepares to assassinate de Gaulle, keeping his identity concealed as his planning takes him across Europe. The preparations call for the expertise of a Gunsmith (Cyril Cusack). On the other side, Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) works within the French security effort trying to find and stop the assassin. The Jackal needs to complete the job without being identified. Lebel has a bureaucracy to contend with, as well as a man whose movements and identity are deliberately difficult to trace. ## Review Fred Zinnemann’s *The Day of the Jackal* is a gripping procedural thriller that trusts us to take an interest in how people do their jobs. One of those jobs happens to be assassination. Kenneth Ross, adapting Frederick Forsyth’s novel, gives the practical demands of the attempt and the opposing investigation room to develop, although the politics receive less attention than they deserve. The patient approach earns its 143 minutes. Edward Fox makes The Jackal unsettling through his lack of visible excitement. He treats the preparations as work requiring concentration, with little suggestion that political anger is driving him. We caught ourselves wanting those preparations to go smoothly, and felt uneasy about it. The performance encourages that response by making his competence easy to follow while giving us little emotional distraction. His reserve keeps our attention on whatever he needs to accomplish next. The opposing investigation has its own pace, slowed by the French security bureaucracy. Michael Lonsdale gives Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel a patient, unshowy presence that suits this work. He makes persistence watchable without asking us to applaud it. The contrast with the assassin’s independence generates pressure, so that the pursuit can tighten without either man becoming frantic. Each side has a task to get through, and the film makes us attend to both. Jean Tournier’s cinematography gives the movement across Europe a matter-of-fact clarity that makes the concealment credible. The locations remain places where work has to be done, without the fuss that might announce a grand adventure. Ralph Kemplen’s editing is equally important: the alternation between preparation and pursuit lets us measure one side’s progress against the other’s. We need time to understand what has been accomplished before the next difficulty matters. The patient cutting supplies that time. Georges Delerue’s music is effective in its restraint, leaving the procedural rhythm undisturbed. It allows the business on screen to hold our attention without continually insisting that something alarming is about to happen. As a thriller, the film puts considerable faith in our willingness to watch people prepare, wait and reconsider. The reward is a clear sense of mounting difficulty, in which a practical problem can demand our whole attention. There is little need to hurry the action once we understand what might go wrong. The limitation is the treatment of politics. Kenneth Ross keeps the practical questions so prominent that the reasons for the assassination plot receive too little scrutiny; de Gaulle becomes chiefly the man around whom the job must be arranged. The supporting figures can feel similarly restricted to whatever assistance or obstruction they supply. This keeps the pursuit easy to follow, but it narrows the human interest, particularly beside the attention lavished on the assassin’s competence. If the attraction of a thriller is seeing a difficult task carried out under pressure, this is an easy recommendation. It does ask for an evening’s concentration, and anyone looking for a close account of political extremism should look elsewhere. Nor does it offer much reassurance about our interest in the people doing the work. Give it your attention, but be prepared to question whose progress you are hoping to see. *Fi1m score 84, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics regard The Day of the Jackal as a successful procedural thriller, with praise centred on Fred Zinnemann’s patient direction and Edward Fox’s controlled performance as the assassin. The reviews repeatedly note the attention to planning, investigation and practical detail, which gives the pursuit its steady momentum. Fox’s coldness is a particular strength for several critics, while the methodical pacing and documentary-like approach draw much of the admiration. The spread is wide, however, ranging from strong enthusiasm to doubts about whether the premise can sustain suspense. Historical foreknowledge is a recurring concern, though several critics find the film absorbing despite it. Some describe its appeal as more intellectual than emotional. Time Out offers the clearest dissent, questioning its documentary conviction and political depth while acknowledging some tension in the contrast between the assassin’s adaptability and the security services’ bureaucracy. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (5/5): A magnificent script and masterly central performance from Edward Fox underpin this compelling adaptation, but it is Zinnemann's matchless direction that elevates it into an object lesson in suspense. The superb pacing methodically builds detail across Europe with atmospheric precision and an outstanding supporting cast. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-yccm7s/the-day-of-the-jackal/) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (90/100, inferred): The film is an outstanding procedural thriller built with Swiss-watch precision around the cold planning of Edward Fox’s charismatic assassin and the diligent investigation opposing him. Zinnemann roots the audience for the Jackal while exposing the moral ambiguities and the documentary-like realism of its execution. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/day-jackal-review/) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a foundational text for modern thrillers whose precise, process-driven style prefigures films by Michael Mann and David Fincher. Edward Fox’s dead-eyed, emotionless portrayal of the assassin is singled out as influential, replacing political rage with nihilism. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-day-of-the-jackal/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (70/100, inferred): Zinnemann's thoroughly competent film version is cool, sober and geographically stunning, playing the material straight where Hitchcock might have made it funny. The suspense depends on wondering how the assassin will fail, given historical foreknowledge. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/17/archives/screenday-of-jackal-fox-cast-as-assassin-in-zinnemann-drama.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The film is a patient, studied and quasi-documentary translation of the novel that appeals more to the intellect than the senses. It succeeds in maintaining interest and suspense despite foreknowledge of the outcome, with strong work from Edward Fox as the meticulous assassin. [Read](https://variety.com/1972/film/reviews/the-day-of-the-jackal-1200422943/) - **The New Yorker**, Penelope Gilliatt (50/100, inferred): The review pairs the film with another release in a Current Cinema column. It covers Zinnemann's adaptation starring Edward Fox as the assassin. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1973/06/02/noah-and-nora) - **Time Out**, PT (30/100, inferred): The adaptation is inherently suspenseless given historical knowledge of de Gaulle's survival, but builds some tension through the contrast between the cold, chameleonic assassin and the bureaucratic French security efforts. It lacks documentary conviction and political depth but offers an intriguing exercise in procedural concealment. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-day-of-the-jackal) ## Details - **Director:** Fred Zinnemann - **Director:** Fred Zinnemann - **Screenplay:** Kenneth Ross - **Novel:** Frederick Forsyth - **Cinematography:** Jean Tournier - **Editor:** Ralph Kemplen - **Music:** Georges Delerue - **Costume design:** Joan Bridge, Rosine Delamare, Elizabeth Haffenden - **Producer:** John Woolf - **Cast:** Edward Fox as The Jackal; Terence Alexander as Lloyd; Michel Auclair as Colonel Rolland; Alan Badel as the Minister; Tony Britton as Inspector Thomas; Denis Carey as Casson; Cyril Cusack as Gunsmith; Maurice Denham as General Colbert - **Runtime:** 2h 23m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 16 May 1973 - **Genres:** Action, Thriller - **Box office:** $16 million ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: AT, BG, CA, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1974: Best Film Editing (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Le Samouraï* (1967): A reserved assassin’s routines become absorbing under equally patient, less talkative direction. - *High and Low* (1963), Fi1m 90: A painstaking police investigation makes procedural detail gripping and social divisions impossible to ignore. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/high-and-low.md) - *The Conversation* (1974), Fi1m 92: Another meticulous professional finds technical skill insufficient when questions of conscience intrude. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-conversation.md) - *The Lives of Others* (2006), Fi1m 84: Patient surveillance work receives the political scrutiny and human attention missing here. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others.md) - *The American* (2010): Another reserved professional, with the practicalities of weapons doing much of the talking. --- © Fi1m Ltd. 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