Twenty-four years after The Day of the Jackal was released, Universal got its corporate wish and remade the story with howitzers of star power as The Jackal (1997).  Thankfully, because the new film is based on the original’s screenplay, it’s pretty decent.  Technically this is a remake, though it really plays like a completely different story.

As directed by Michael Caton-Jones, The Jackal is as much an action film as a suspense thriller.  The target is someone high in the U.S. government.  The killer is again a ruthless, professional assassin but being played by Bruce Willis makes him charismatic and limits his invisibility.  The top cop is Sidney Poitier, casting which instantly grants the character gravitas and moral authority.  In fact, The Jackal is, so far, Poitier’s final film, though he has appeared in four made-for-television productions since.

Added to the mix are an imprisoned Irish terrorist (Richard Gere), freed to help find the Jackal, and a female Russian agent (Diane Venora), enlisted to aid the hunt and keep watch over Gere’s character.  These alterations admittedly lessen the connection between Forsyth’s novel and its second adaptation, but no one is expecting a BBC miniseries here.  Not with Jack Black in a supporting role so obnoxious that one pines for his character’s demise.

Normally I am not sympathetic to these big Hollywood perversions of solid literary sources.  But here I believe the source material is so strong that even though The Jackal at times ventures into parody, its star power, production proficiencies and unabashed enthusiasm prevent it from self-destruction.  The Jackal is a high-octane Hollywood movie, filmed on a big budget around the world, which largely delivers the thrills it promises.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆.  (9:3).