one measly movie

I watched the 1972 film The Day of the Jackal, based on a novel of the same name, which is loosely based on real assassination attempts on then-President De Gaulle in 1962. Weird real-life interplay that I was unaware of: apparently the Venezuelan terrorist and assassin known as Carlos the Jackal received that nickname because the novel The Day of the Jackal was spotted near a weapons stash belonging to him, and it was assumed that he was reading it.

Anyway! The movie was a dandy, with a driving narrative and nicely-done character acting. Although I'll admit: I had gotten this film confused with another 1970s political thriller called Three Days of the Condor, and was wondering when Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway would show up. ("Wow, this is a bold choice, not showing us our big-name stars for the first 40 minutes!" That, uh, was about the time I finally checked which movie had Redford in it. Not this one!)

Things to know: in spite of being set mostly in France, there is almost no French spoken onscreen. The French characters--there are many!--are mostly played by British actors. But the movie was filmed on location in mainland Europe, and it's a real time capsule in terms of "Oh, hey, Paris looked like that 50 years ago, cool." Oh, and relatedly, one of the unintentionally funny moments was when our would-be paid assassin demands... half a million dollars to do the job. And everyone gasps at the audacity! Half a million!

Also, there are rotary phones and people are smoking cigarettes EVERYWHERE, whether inside or outside.

In other words, I enjoyed it as much as a time capsule as a film. But it really is a good film, too!