# Day of the Jackal... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435 "2011-12-08T00:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/21 "2011-12-08T13:14:05Z")
Didn’t feel sad when he was shot. But the scene at the end where it’s revealed we’ll never know who he was, and he is buried in an unmarked grave had more of an impact. It’s a very well made film. My favorite moment “I didn’t, I tapped all of them.” ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/22 "2011-12-08T13:57:43Z")
I moved into the Jackal’s camp when he cinched his rifle to the tree with a belt and distributed watermelon seeds over a 10 foot radius. I moved out when that woman was killed just so he could get a nut. I liked Fox in this and **Force 10 from Navarone** , not so much in **Never Say Never**. Free radicals… ugh. Another vote for **The Odessa File**. _“My name is Salomon Tauber…”_ Plus, there’s far too little of Maximillian Schell out there. Thank goodness for it and **Judgement at Nuremberg**. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/23 "2011-12-08T14:11:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Forsyth has written many books since, but his first trio of books were arguably his best, and have the same feel I think **The Fourth Protocol** deserves inclusion there. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/24 "2011-12-08T14:22:04Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I think **The Fourth Protocol** deserves inclusion there. I’m not saying it’s not good (I liked it a lot better than **The Dogs of War** ), but it was written long after that initial trio of books. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/25 "2011-12-08T17:21:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If you liked Forsyth’s book, try reading **The Odessa File** , which came out shortly afterwards. Or **The Dogs of War** , which came out shortly after _that_. > > Forsyth has written many books since, but his first trio of books were arguably his best, and have the same feel (although I’m not so fond of Dogs of War. The other two books were filmed, as well, but they weren’t nearly as good as **Day of the Jackal**. ) Or, if you like early Forsyth, check out some of his contemporaries. Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett Triple - Ken Follett The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett Man on Fire - A.J. Quinnell The Mahdi - A.J. Quinnell Snap Shot - A.J. Quinnell The Eiger Sanction - Trevanian The Eagle Has Landed - Jack Higgins Storm Warning - Jack Higgins Unfortunately it appears to be the rule that authors who write taut thrillers in their early career seem to get more wordy and indulgent as time goes by. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/26 "2011-12-08T18:09:36Z")
Just in time for Christmas, Forsyth’s [The Shepherd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd) is a good, guy-friendly holiday read. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/27 "2011-12-08T18:17:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Or, if you like early Forsyth, check out some of his contemporaries. Or go Cold War with John le Carré’s series employing master spy George Smiley. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/28 "2011-12-08T18:21:11Z")
If you considered [The Day of the Jackal (1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069947/) to be above average to excellent, then by all means disregard the attempt at an “update” known as [The Jackal (1997)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119395/) which is, to be charitable, poor by comparison. One of the worst remakes of a classic that I can point to. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/29 "2011-12-08T18:35:14Z")
I saw it as a kid, when it first came out, _long_ before I had any idea about the existence of _Day of the Jackal._ “Caper” movies and espionage/intrigue movies seem to be the genre that is most prone to remakes (and they’re always terrible.) Why is this? ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/30 "2011-12-08T22:32:55Z")
I started reading these spy novels in my early teens, about 1980 or so. I still love a good spy thriller, but these books are where I started. I’ll second **Little Nemo** , and add _The Bourne Identity_ - Robert Ludlum. I didn’t like the followups. And don’t worry if you have seen the movie - it’s relationship to the book is fleeting. The original reflects a completely different geopolitical situation and people. and **lieu** has good suggestions, too. I think I enjoyed all the Le Carre books. Oh, and the new _Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy_ movie is really excellent. And as for _The Spy Who Came In From the Cold_ - classic in both book and film (Richard Burton as the lead). Le Carre books have been pretty well adapted to film, although _The Little Drummer Gir_l wasn’t as good as the others. Len Deighton, _The Ipcress File_. Filmed with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. And Forsythe _The Fourth Protocol_ is a good tense read, too. Another good film, with Michael Caine as a worldweary spy in a murky world of cross and double cross. Si (who is probably going to hit Amazon shortly to see if these are available on Kindle yet) ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/31 "2011-12-08T22:44:24Z")
- The Dogs of War\* was essentially used as an instruction manual by (amongst other people) Margaret Thatcher’s son in 2004. Quoth [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_(novel)): > [@](#): > > In 2004, in a copycat plan based on Forsyth’s fictional book, an actual attempted coup d’état against Equatorial Guinea, intended to secure lucrative mining rights granted by a client puppet government, involved Mark Thatcher, who was intending to trade on his mother’s (British prime minister Margaret Thatcher) connections and reputation to call favors, and the mercenary Simon Mann, who subsequently stood trial and was convicted.[3] In addition to \*The Fourth Protocol \*I also enjoyed _The Devil’s Alternative_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/32 "2011-12-08T23:04:04Z")
Actually, if you want some good thriller stuff contemporary with Forsyth’s early three novels, there’s always Forsyth himself. He wrote several short stories at the time that were collected in the volume **No Comebacks**. Several of the stories were dramatized on audio (_The Careful Man, Money with Menaces_), and _The Careful Man_ was adapted as a teleplay that I used to have on tape, until someone taped over it. Nor do I mean to slight Forsyth’s otther stuff. I loved _The Devil’s Alternative_ and _The Fourth Protocol_. I have read all of his books, and love them all except for _The Phantom in Manhattan_, his ill-advised attempt to write a sequel to _The Phantom of the Opera_. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/33 "2011-12-08T23:48:25Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > That spoiler appears on roll over. A note for everyone who ever tries this, what shows up in the rollover or not is based on the character count, not line count. 8 empty lines is the equivalent of 8 characters, not eight sentences. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For example, would work better. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/34 "2011-12-09T01:37:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, if you want some good thriller stuff contemporary with Forsyth’s early three novels, there’s always Forsyth himself. He wrote several short stories at the time that were collected in the volume **No Comebacks**. Several of the stories were dramatized on audio (_The Careful Man, Money with Menaces_), and _The Careful Man_ _The Emperor,_ the first story in that book (if I got the name right), is my all-time favorite short story. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/35 "2011-12-09T01:41:39Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I think **The Fourth Protocol** deserves inclusion there. I never understood the ending of that book or film. ☹ I did love the bit, though, [spoiler]when Caine is briefing the SAS team. John Preston: Have they told you anything? Captain Lyndhurst: Just that he’s a terrorist. John Preston: Oh, he’s more than just a terrorist. He is a top Soviet agent, a pro. Captain Lyndhurst: Is he alone? John Preston: Maybe there’s a woman in there. He’s armed with a bomb. Captain Lyndhurst: How big a bomb? John Preston: Atomic bomb. _everyone stops arranging their gear and stares at him_[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/36 "2011-12-09T01:45:46Z")
Great flick. One thing that made it especially good, for me anyway, is that it makes you root for both sides. Why is everyone spoilering for a movie that is decades old? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/37 "2011-12-09T01:48:34Z")
I have lived my reading and listening life in chronic fear that when I read a new author I love (or hear a new CD I love), nothing else they make will live up to it. I’m not sure where that came from, but I can tell you where it did NOT come from: **The Odessa File**. Completely different from **DotJ** , but a knockout from the opening scene where the narrator describes hearing about JFK’s assassination. Such great fun and writing. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/38 "2011-12-09T02:50:13Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > Len Deighton, _The Ipcress File_. Filmed with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. Many of Deighton’s books are very enjoyable. The Bernard Samson mega-series was starting to be a really excellent set of books, but East Germany and the USSR fell to pieces while he was in the middle, and he never caught stride again. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/39 "2011-12-09T03:17:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Great flick. One thing that made it especially good, for me anyway, is that it makes you root for both sides. > > Why is everyone spoilering for a movie that is decades old? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435/40 "2011-12-09T03:20:18Z")
The fact that it’s old does not negate the importance of my spoiler. I can’t _believe_ anyone would think otherwise. We’re not talking about _It’s A Wonderful Life_ here, or some other movie with extreme popularity and cultural significance. We’re talking about a cult film that is obscure to probably the majority of movie-watching people currently alive. There are still plenty of people who have not seen the film, and might want to do so. Why should it be ruined for them? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-of-the-jackal/605435.md?page=3)