The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michel Lonsdale. It is based on the 1971 thriller novel The Day of the Jackal by English writer Frederick Forsyth, the film is about a professional assassin known only as the “Jackal”, who is contracted by the Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS), a French dissident paramilitary organisation, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France in the summer of 1963.
The novel received admiring reviews and praise when first published in 1971, and it received a 1972 Best Novel Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The novel remains popular, and in 2003 it was listed on the BBC’s survey The Big Read.
The OAS did exist as described in the novel, and the book opens with an accurate depiction of the attempt on de Gaulle’s life led by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, but the subsequent plot is fiction.
The film received positive reviews and went on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Film Editing (Ralph Kemplen), five additional BAFTA Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination. The film grossed $16,056,255 at the box office, and earned an additional $8,525,000 in North American rentals.
Film Details
Title
The Day Of The Jackal
Year of Film
1973
Director
Fred Zinnemann
Starring
Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Cyril Cusack, Delphine Seyrig, Philippe Léotard, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel, Tony Britton, Denis Carey
Origin of Film
UK | France
Genre(s) of Film
Crime | Drama | Thriller
Box Office
Budget: Unknown
Opening Weekend: Unknown
Gross: $24,581,255 (USA)
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