Product Details

• Actors: Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora, Mathilda May
• Directors: Michael Caton-Jones
• Writers: Chuck Pfarrer, Kenneth Ross
• Producers: Gary Levinsohn, Hal Lieberman, James Jacks, Kevin Jarre, Mark Gordon
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English, Russian
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (139 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783223218
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,564 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The best way to enjoy this 1997 thriller is to forget the much better film that inspired it (1973's The Day of the Jackal) and get whatever kicks you can from this heavy-metal remake. It's not bad as hokey thrillers go, but all of the original film's suspenseful finesse has been traded in (not traded up) for bigger, bolder action and nonsensical plotting. It's as if Hollywood had forgotten to create excitement without resorting to overblown action and heavy hardware, but there's ample compensation in the casting of Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. Willis is the elusive assassin known only as the Jackal, whose latest target (he uses a cannon-sized gun that's anything but inconspicuous) may be the first lady of the United States. Gere plays a former IRA terrorist who is recruited by the deputy head of the FBI (Sidney Poitier) to trace the Jackal's maneuvers, and Diane Venora offers some gutsy support as a Russian-born agent who assists Gere on his mission. The movie has fun turning Willis into a master of disguise, and Gere adds much-needed gravity to counter the plot's escalating absurdity, but this is the kind of film that falls apart if you think about it too much. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Actors, Superior Plot but Falls Short in Delivery, May 31, 2008

By 

Erika Borsos "pepper flower" (Gulf Coast of FL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jackal - Collector's Edition (DVD)

Director Michael Caton-Jones has created a good dramatic and suspense filled film with outstanding actors and a riveting, masterful plot. Bruce Willis plays the lead role as the "Jackal" a cold and calculating assassin. Sidney Poitier is superbly cast as the FBI Deputy Director. Richard Gere plays Declan Mulqueen, an IRA. terrorist, imprisoned in the USA. Diane Venora is cast as the Russian Interpol agent, Valentina Kostova. Scenes were filmed in many locations in Europe, primarily Helsinki, Finland which also served to represent Moscow, and London, England; Montreal, Canada; Chicago, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Essentially, the FBI and Russian agents managed to kill a Chechnyan mobster. Unfortunately, his brother is out for revenge and hires the Jackal to assassinate a top US official ... Initially, they believe the target is the Director of the FBI. However, as time evolves, Declan Mulqueen discovers who the real target is.

Bruce Willis is chilling and real in his role as the Jackal. He engages in multiple disguises and identities throughout the film to achieve his goals. He manages to get a computer guided high tech weapon built and smuggled into the United States undetected. He gains entry into the US via a power boat over the Lakes from Canada to Lake Michigan and there he joins a boat race in Chicago by blending in. The FBI gets permission to spring Declan Mulqueen out of jail ... in order to get his help to identify and apprehend the Jackal. He makes a deal to win his freedom, then joins in the chase to catch the Jackal.

It turns out the Jackal has another murder in mind along with accomplishing the task for which he was hired. The Jackal has an old score to settle with Isabella, a woman from his past who can identify him. She survived his attempt to kill her. She was a Spanish terrorist of Basque origins who worked with Declan Mulqueen many years ago. They had been lovers and she was pregnant with his child when the Jackal shot her ... It seems Declan Mulqueen also has a score to settle with the Jackal. While the plot is well developed, the film drags on a bit, as much of the film involves chasing the Jackal while he deviously manages to avoid detection, When he gets closer to his target and the deadline ... the film picks up speed and the story becomes more fascinating and complex. The ending is exciting and satisfying. Some feel the film made in 1973, "Day of the Jackal" upon which this film is based, is superior. Never having seen the former, I can only judge this film. Overall, this could have been a *more* exciting film given the action, drama, and well layed out plot but too much time is wasted in the big chase which makes one feel the film is much longer than it should be. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Remake Without Connection to Original, but Not Bad, July 12, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jackal - Collector's Edition (DVD)

Michael Caton-Jones is one of those directors who never makes a really good movie, but usually there's something interesting about them. Actors must love him because he's certainly lured a lot of the best into his productions. Maybe that's his weakness, a penchant for big names and not really being able to offer them proper vehicles for their talents. They wind up overacting, out of control. DOC HOLLYWOOD is a good example. Cute premise, appealing stars, and what happens? Caton-Jones fails to lift it out of routine romantic comedy. He had an attractive cast, and a fantastic soundtrack, in SCANDAL, the 1989 film of the Profumo/Christine Keeler affair, but it just sat there and failed to give off sparks. MEMPHIS BELLE was more of the same, a war picture that did not revive the war picture as it was meant to. ROB ROY was an aimitation of BRAVEHEART and CITY BY THE SEA--well, what the devil was that anyhow? Caton-Jones had a real success with THIS BOY'S LIFE, in which he uncovered layers of talent in the young Leo DiCaprio, but one is not surprised he is now directing the BASIC INSTINCT sequel RISK ADDICTION. I bet it's a pip.

However, THE JACKAL isn't half bad and in some ways it might be the best of the bunch. Again the enormous cast of talented actors, among them the amazing Diane Venora (of Michael Mann fame) here going all Russian and Ninotchka is some wonderful outfits and the frosty, wet look of one torn between allegiances. Sidney Poitier is in it too, sort of a waste of Poitier's once great talent. Really anybody could have played the part. Richard Gere strikes all the right notes and plays an IRA terrorist, Declan, with a heart of gold and smart as all get out, who helps the USA solve the problem of who will the Mafia send to kill the first lady. (I know, what a ridiculous story, and in such bad taste in our age of terror.) Still Gere is terrific and makes all the right deductions and eventually we begin to realize that none other than Bruce Willis is really evil Carlos, the original Jackal, the hit man beyond compare.

When one compares this film to the original, Apollonian classic made by Fred Zinnemann in the 1970s, one realizes that perhaps they changed De Gaulle to the First Lady because focus groups were employed to find out that nowadays no one knows who De Gaulle was, and presumably everyone knows the First Lady. How stupid! For "First Lady" Tess Harper, once an important actress in US cinema, this was her last movie of the 1990s, and in fact her final studio picture (since then she has appeared in one obscure indie after another. And yet THE JACKAL is an appealing mess of a film, everything but the kitchen sink makes an appearance, and then, around reel eight, there's a kitchen sink! You've got to love it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars German import -- main movie plays fine on US players, February 17, 2009

By 

Joe "jjwmnusa" (NoVA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackal [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I imported this version from Amazon.de some time ago and can say it plays fine on Region A (US & Canada) players. While the main movie plays fine (and looks and sounds great given the age of the movie), don't expect the extras work on your US player (as they are not encoded in 1080p).