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5:18 a.m. - 2021-11-26 Bruce Willis plays the title character, an international assassin hired by a vengeful Russian mobster to kill the First Lady (although there's some deliberate confusion early on about the true identity of his target). I think this is one of Willis's better roles, unfortunately wasted in an inferior movie. The Jackal is a cold, methodical, self-sufficient loner, completely focused on the task at hand: a remorseless machine. His complete focus on the assignment is made clear in his first appearance, when he tells a powerful Russian mobster (who has just murdered one of his underlings in a particularly brutal way) to please get to the point. Since The Jackal is also a master of disguise, Willis gets to give us a wide variety of looks, ranging from a crewcut paramilitary type to an overweight Canadian to a bleach blonde gay swinger, changing his facial expression, body language, and speech with each new identity. Toward the end of the movie Willis's character begins to show excessive cruelty and a strange delight in inflicting pain, making it easier for the audience to hate him but detracting from the initial impression of impersonal robotic precision Diane Venora is excellent as MVD officer Valentina Koslova: a laconic, chain-smoking stoic with a hidden sentimental streak. I would have liked her role to have been larger than it was. Sidney Poitier's role also should have been larger, but more on this later. There are several very good minor roles: Jack Black ("sprawl!") as a stupidly opportunistic gunsmith, Sophie Okonedo as a charming Jamaican woman who specialized in fake passports, JK Simmons as a ham handed FBI agent, David Hayman as the cold-blooded Russian mobster Terek Murad, Peter Sullivan as Vasilov, his hapless stooge and victim, and Stephen Spinella as Douglas, a gay man cruelly victimized by Willis. All of these supporting players are sketched very quickly in the Hollywood tradition of disposable characters. Okonedo and Black raise an interesting question about The Jackal's character and value system. The Jackal overpays Okonedo because he is pleased with her work but coldly executes Black for trying to overcharge him. Would the gunsmith have been allowed to survive, perhaps even been more generously reimbursed, had he stuck to the original agreement? Simmons's FBI agent speaks out of turn, jokes about serious matters, and makes ridiculous tactical errors (like taking out the garbage at a potentially dangerous location!), probably to make the Richard Gere character seem even more professional by comparison. Murad is quite menacing despite his small size, more so because he is always in complete control of himself. His bland, understated remarks to Vasilov give way to a sudden burst of shocking, animalistic violence without any warning. Vasilov, long-haired and soft, is an abject flatterer and supplicant from the first time we see him. Douglas is a stereotypically slender and fussy gay man, but there is a darkly humorous scene when he and Willis disagree about eating in or going out, their first and only lover's quarrel culminating in Douglas's peremptory execution, after which Willis turns his attention back to his Thai takeout. I was left wondering why The Jackal got so enthusiastically into his gay role. He used and discarded other disguises as they were useful or not to his mission, but he only needed to seem gay when he wanted to impress Douglas. Why then did he dye his hair blonde and christen his sailboat The Saucy Minx? What was the purpose of the scene where he reclined bare-torsoed with a bottle of champagne, but alone? A bigger question involves The Jackal's choice of weapon. There are many ways to kill someone. Why go to the time, expense, and potential exposure of purchasing, modifying, and transporting a big, expensive gatling gun from Canada to Washington, DC? Why choose a regatta as the means of crossing from Canada into the United States? The worst part of the movie for me was Declan Mulqueen, played by Richard Gere, a character who seems to have been shoehorned into the plot. The opening scenes of THE JACKAL establish the basic conflict and introduce good guys and bad guys. Poitier and Venora vs Willis would have been an acceptable conflict (and given us more time with two very good actors), but a few scenes later, in an awkwardly choreographed jail yard encounter, we learn that Declan can identify the Jackal, or at least so he tells the FBI. Never mind that Willis's character changes his appearance with the ease of a chameleon; it's deemed wise to release a dangerous prisoner on his own word as an eyewitness. And apparently the writers didn't think protecting the First Lady (or the FBI Director) was motive enough; Declan, we are told, has a personal vendetta against the assassin. Years ago, the Jackal shot Declan's girlfriend Isabella, causing her to miscarry. So now it's Gere vs Willis, a plot twist that gives us two (yes, two!) scenes where the antagonists exchange long, meaningful looks deep into one another's eyes. And of course the final showdown manages to isolate Declan from the rest of the posse, setting up a one-on-one with the Jackal. But wait! Just as Willis is about to dispatch Declan, he's shot by . . . none other than Isabella! As the camera reveals her identity, a choir sings in the background, helping us understand that this is a Big Moment. Should I go on? There's also a final scene with Willis coming back to life just in time for Gere to administer the coup de grace. In an earlier scene a perfectly competent military sniper hands over his rifle to Declan so that he can take a shot at the Jackal. There's also an "I'm putting my gun down" moment where the noble Declan is willing to sacrifice himself for a female hostage. Once Declan is inserted into the plot, he becomes the tragic one, the smart one, the brave one, the martyr, the hero, the tragic lover, the glittering star in whose incandescent glory all other characters fade to insignificance. There are some good scenes and performances in THE JACKAL, but there's an awful lot of Richard Gere.
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