The Day of the Jackal

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The Day of the Jackal

PG

1973

2h 21m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

35 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

An underground French paramilitary group is intent on eliminating President Charles de Gaulle (Adrien Cayla-Legrand), but when numerous attempts on his life fail, they resort to hiring the infamous hit man known as "The Jackal" (Edward Fox). As the enigmatic assassin prepares to shoot de Gaulle, he takes out any problematic people along the way. Meanwhile, Lebel (Michel Lonsdale), a savvy Parisian police detective, begins to solve the mystery of the killer's identity.

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Critics Consensus

The Day of the Jackal is a meticulously constructed thriller with surprising irreverence and taut direction.

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Penelope Gilliatt

The New Yorker

03/04/2024

It is the sustained gentleness of Fred Zinnemann’s professional temperament that makes the picture a clockwork amusement to watch.

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Keith Uhlich

(All (Parentheses)) (Substack)

12/20/2022

Possesses a tonal coldness that aligns viewers with the assassin’s reptilian machinations. —Guest post by Michael Joshua Rowin

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William B. Collins

Philadelphia Inquirer

06/14/2022

As the tension rises, you feel terribly helpless. You just have to sit there and let it happen.

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Michael Calleri

Niagara Gazette

07/21/2025

It may be fiction, but Fred Zinnemann’s “The Day Of The Jackal” feels like a great documentary. The masterful movie proceeds with the precision of a Swiss watch. There is a terrific cinematic beauty to the film’s foundational realism.

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Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

07/06/2025

4/4

...Fox gives us a fleshed-out performance of an intelligent killer who will stop at nothing to take out his target, carefully plotting the assassination but relying on his wits to evade Claude Lebel (Lonsdale) at every twist and turn.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

11/15/2024

5/5

…a great movie because of the detail…the Jackal is the logical extension of the triumph of money over the human spirit, an remorseless killer with zero inner life, existing only to thwart the will of the people for his own personal gain...

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Fred Zinnemann

Director

Edward Fox

The Jackal

Michaël Lonsdale

Lebel

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Synopsis

An underground French paramilitary group is intent on eliminating President Charles de Gaulle (Adrien Cayla-Legrand), but when numerous attempts on his life fail, they resort to hiring the infamous hit man known as "The Jackal" (Edward Fox). As the enigmatic assassin prepares to shoot de Gaulle, he takes out any problematic people along the way. Meanwhile, Lebel (Michel Lonsdale), a savvy Parisian police detective, begins to solve the mystery of the killer's identity.

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Producer: John Woolf, David Deutsch, Julian Derode
Screenwriter: Frederick Forsyth, Kenneth Ross
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal/Universal Int
Rating: PG
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: British English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 30, 1973, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 11, 2015
Runtime: 2h 21m

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