The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal (1973)

3 commented-on entries

(8 votes)

Corrected entry: At the beginning, just after the title credit the President's car is machine gunned and you see the back windshield shatter and disintegrate. Moments later the car arrives at the airport with the windshield intact. We see de Gaulle get out of the car with the intact rear windscreen.

Correction: I have just watched the film, paying close attention to the sequence of events in this scene. There are two Citroens shot up by the putative assassins. One has its rear windscreen shot out but we do not see the occupants - but the diminutive Mme Yvonne de Gaulle certainly is not one of them. This car is the one occupied by de Gaulle's bodyguards. Later, de Gaulle and his wife get out of the Citroen with the intact rear windscreen.

At 02:46 we see index plate of the rear car: 6352 KZ75. This is not the car DeGaulle enters. At 03.13 we see the index plate of his car: 5249 HU75. At 05:17 we see this car pull up at the airport with a slightly damaged rear windscreen. It was the other car, 6352 KZ75, that had its rear windscreen shot out, but we do not see the rear windscreen when it pulls up at the airport.

Corrected entry: When the Jackal arrives at the house used to shoot at the president, he unhooks his leg (folded behind him as part of his disguise) and he is wearing just a sock. as he is walking up the stairs to the room he also has a sock but, while sitting waiting for the president to arrive, we see he is now wearing two shoes. Where did the second shoe come from?

christian467

Correction: This is explained in the book. The shoe is strapped to the inside of his strapped up leg. He uses mocassins so they will fold flat.

It is explained in the book but not in the film, which makes it a legitimate movie mistake. Further, that is not a moccasin he is wearing. It would not "fold flat."

Corrected entry: When the Jackal boards the train for Paris, about 40 minutes from the end of the film, the engine of the train is blue; when the train arrives in Paris, the engine is red.

Correction: The train has had a change of engine en route. The original engine was diesel and arriving in Paris was electric. This would actually have happened but wasn't shown as it would serve no part in telling the story.

Yes but how many changes? It makes sense to change a locomotive from diesel to electric or vice versa if the railway infrastructure would require this change. On usual train routes the locmotive is changed once from diesel to electric or vice versa. On few ocasions it would be possible to change the locomotive from diesel to electric and then back to diesel so two changes on one train route in total. But it wouldn't make any sense at all to change the electric locmotive with another electric locomotive. This is a continuity error in the movie.

There are three shots of the train: one arriving at Tulle, one in transit, and finally one as the train arrives in Paris. In each of the three shots, the train is pulled by a different locomotive. Also, the train in the second shot is a different length and made up of different types of carriages than the train that arrives at Tulle. It's obvious that stock train footage was used and any attempt at continuity was disregarded.

Other mistake: Interior Minister Roger Frey advises Commissioner Lebel that all members of the police, military and other security forces attending the ceremonies on the day the Jackal is expected to strike will be issued with lapel badges at the last moment, in case he is going to try to masquerade as one of them. We see hundreds of such people in the next part of the film, including Lebel himself and the CRS private who allows the heavily disguised Jackal through the barricades around the site of the ceremony DeGaulle is due to attend. Only the CRS private wears a lapel badge. Not one of the other police or military officers in attendance is wearing a lapel badge of any kind. (01:58:15)

More mistakes in The Day of the Jackal

The Interrogator: You're being very foolish, Victor. You know yourself, they always talk in the end. You've seen it with your own two eyes in... where was it, Indochina? And Algeria, of course. Why don't you tell us what they're waiting for in that hotel, eh? Rodin, Montclair, Casson: what are they planning, who have they been meeting? Nobody? Not a soul, hmm? Then where were they before they went to Rome, eh? Tell us, Victor.

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Trivia: Fred Zinnemann wanted the Jackal to be played by an anonymous actor, so he passed over established stars such as Michael Caine, Roger Moore, and Jack Nicholson in favor of Edward Fox. He later admitted that his decision might have been what contributed to the film's sub-par performance at the box office.

Cubs Fan

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Question: I have seen this movie many times, but one question continues to bother me: How did the Jackal plan to escape if he was successful in shooting the president? (He had already removed his disguise).

Answer: He would have just slipped away into the crowd, probably with some minor alteration to his appearance. He was a master of disguise and no one knew his real identity or what he looked like.

raywest

Answer: When the Jackal entered the parade area, he was disguised as an old army veteran, with one leg and false I.D. When the job was done he would walk out as a younger man with two legs and another set of of false I.D.

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