Throughout the first half of the movie, they show the Jackal as a professional who never lets arrogance or confidence get the better of him. When he sees Declann at the dock, he smiles, waves and THEN, whips out his pistol. Of course, the Russian distracted him but in gee, maybe the Jackal could have hit him had he just done it quickly and disappeared. What happened to the cold bloody efficiency we saw throughout the movie?
shareHe was trying to throw Gere off guard by waving then turning around. If he reached in his jacket for the gun in front of Gere, he'd have more time to react (although he still seemed to react very slowly to heighten the tension etc) Willis' character also didn't have anything to worry about because he knew they were protecting the wrong person anyway, so yeah he became maybe too confident, but the character he's playing is still a human being, you can't be perfect all the time.
shareI thouight they change his character throughout the movie anyway. In the first half he didn't kill any innocents and he was friendly, he even gave that girl that made his false passports some extra money.
In the middle he kills that annoying Jack Black character but thst stil was kindof okay. He was annoying, he got greedy and tried to squeeze extra money out of that deal and the jackal wasn't pleased with his work.
But towards the end of the movie he starts to kindof kill randomly. I think they changed that in a lame attempt to make us hate the jackal. For me it didn't work, I so much wanted him to beat the crap out of Gere.
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He didn't have to kill the gay guy, that's for sure. I just had the impression that he went from charming asassin to "normal" assassin that doesn't alow himself to get screwed to absolutely coldblooded towards the end. Of course, by that time, his mission was getting more complicated each day, but that's still my impression.
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Sure, the point is, why didn't he change the channels as soon as the news started, why didn't he meet him somewhere else, etc. He wasn't even trying to play the gay again, he behaved strange the entire scene (strange for the gay guy), as if he didn't really care anyway. And that's what I mean, I understand that he kills if he really has to but he could have saved this life if he had played his role as the gay lover again like he did before. BTW, did they explain why he was dating him anyway? Was he trying to extract information or something? Iirc, they never show this.
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Of course not, I don't think the gayness played any role in this. But he could just have stolen the parking permit or something like this, much like he stole the passport and van without killing their owners, that's what I am talking about.
But apparently this is a topic that cannot really be backed up with facts, it's more about impressions, and my impression was and still is that he went from smooth, calm, friendly and charming professional to obsessed, unscrupulous killing machine, gradually, from scene to scene. I may be wrong of course but that was my impression.
Well when you have the precision and accuracy of The Jackal, at some point arrogance is unavoidable.
shareThis part of the movie is actually closer to Forsyth's original book than the Day of the Jackal movie, up to a point. In the older film, the Jackal picks up the gay man right away, whereas in the book (and The Jackal) he takes time to build a relationship with him. In the book/original movies, I believe he used the man's house to hide out from authorities (who were looking for, among other things, a very heterosexual man); the reason given here is pretty friggin' stupid if you ask me.
"I do NOT want your tawdry tales of office lust infecting my newsroom!"
I like how he shoots the gay guy almost as an after thought.
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