Big budget 'The Jackal' tosses out bare bones plot<\/p>\n
By Laksmi Pamuntjak<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The year was 1973, and the movie was Fred
\nZinnemann's The Day of The Jackal. The sight of Edward Fox,
\nstanding with his lightweight rifle, eyes ablaze with the cold
\ndetachment of the truly insane, not only spoke volumes for a
\ndecade traumatized by political assassination and mass paranoia.
\nIt also established the movie as a classic in the political
\nthriller genre.<\/p>\n
Now imagine Bruce Willis, three decades down the track,
\nfiddling with an enormous, computer-controlled Gatling gun,
\nplaying "cool" as only he knows how. It's just as well that the
\nfilmmakers have gone out of their way saying that The Jackal,
\ndirected by Michael Caton-Jones (Rob Roy, Scandal), is no remake
\nof Zinnemann's masterpiece.<\/p>\n
Willis, whose inflationary US$70 million fee is a staggering
\nstupefying leap from Fox's paltry $500,000, makes his Jackal
\nmerely a sleeker version of his last stint as a Man with No Name.
\nIn last year's Last Man Standing, he was also a gun-for-hire and
\na professional to boot.<\/p>\n
Yes, in the freewheeling 1990s, culture vultures make sure
\nthat there's a new take on everything. Poor Zinnemann, who passed
\naway in March this year, was reported to have been violently
\nopposed to this project. In truth, he agonized for naught.<\/p>\n
In The Jackal, the bones of Frederick Forsyth's celebrated
\nstory are barer than ever, the only surviving feature being the
\ncentral idea about a highly-paid assassin stalking a high-profile
\ntarget.<\/p>\n
The rest is pure 1990s formula, although the pace is curiously
\nsedate for a beat-the-clock thriller. Like Mission Impossible
\nbefore it, it has cerebral pretensions but comes off wearing all
\nits surprises in plain sight. Seek and you shall not find even a
\nsplinter of wit or imagination in this movie.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, this kind of shallowness and lethargy
\nreflects the ideological void created by the demise of the Cold
\nWar (witness the movie's impassioned opening montage of
\ncommunism's dying moments).<\/p>\n
On the other hand, it is a typical Hollywood exercise in
\nstupefaction. At the end of the day, after all the crafty bravura
\nof yet another natural born killer, the
\nwhole experience is totally meaningless.<\/p>\n
Just take a look at the radically shifting premise. Whereas
\nThe Day of the Jackal tells the story of a group of French
\nmilitary extremists trying to overthrow de Gaulle's government
\nfor granting independence to Algeria, The Jackal zeros in on a
\nRussian mobster's vendetta against the Feds for accidentally
\nkilling his brother.<\/p>\n
After all, this is The Jackal of the 1990s: the difference
\nbetween "mission" or "personal retribution" has no purchase on
\nhis conscience than does the fact that he's being grossly
\noverpaid.<\/p>\n
Sure, the Russkies are back, and the fate of America, as
\nusual, hangs by its habitual thread. Yet there's no more mission,
\nscreams the movie, there's only money. And so it takes the fight
\nout of anyone trying to look for "issues".<\/p>\n
The problem is that this indifference translates itself all
\ntoo starkly on screen such that broadcasting Bruce Willis as
\n"ice" and Richard Gere as "fire" couldn't be further away from
\nthe truth.<\/p>\n
Granted, Val Kilmer's giddy self-obsession in The Saint is no
\ncompetition to Willis' special brand of cool: he's cool because
\nhe doesn't try to be cool.<\/p>\n
But despite his galaxy of identities, there are no little
\ncurls of suspense which come from waiting for fresh tricks and
\ndisguises, or from generally watching a devil incarnate at play.<\/p>\n
Like its predecessor, the movie aims to create tension through
\na double-chase, with the authorities trying to take the Jackal
\nout before he gets to his mysterious quarry. This is where
\nRichard Gere, as convicted IRA terrorist Declan Mulqueen, steps
\ninto the picture.<\/p>\n
In a way it is a blessing that the monumentally wooden Gere
\ndoesn't try to clamor for attention (prime examples of typical
\nRichard Gere overkill can be found in Mr. Jones and First
\nKnight).<\/p>\n
But underplaying a role described as "fire" proves to be even
\nmore unsettling, as Gere reluctantly sheds his oiled, wise-guy
\nswagger in favor of an emotionless stab at low-key intelligence.
\nHis only salvation lies in his moment of truth during the final
\nscene in the New York subway. Not since Mission Impossible's Tom
\nCruise was perched atop a TGV running at full speed have we seen
\na grimace so convincing.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, while Gere's Irish accent meanders from one side
\nof Ireland to this side of ridiculous, the movie's drab and
\nlifeless proceedings do not lend any credence to his almost
\npsychic leaps of intuition, nor his new-found action persona.<\/p>\n
In fact, the Willis-Gere blood feud is pure souffle compared
\nto the memorable private wars between Clint Eastwood and John
\nMalkovich (In the Line of Fire), Johnny Depp and Christopher
\nWalken (Nick of Time) and, of course, Nicolas Cage and John
\nTravolta (Face\/Off).<\/p>\n
On closer scrutiny, even the Jackal's IQ is highly suspect:
\nimpressive minimalism aside, he has too many branches in his
\ninefficient head. This explains why the movie never lets him
\ndwell on his method, preferring instead to give him sporadic
\nmoments of fawning lechery. Linger a tad longer, and it's easy to
\nsee the schmalzy cracks in logic.<\/p>\n
Caton-Jones further dumps his actors in a sea of boringly
\nstraightforward dialog that does nothing to Forsyth's legacy (no
\nwonder Chuck Pfarrer's screenplay is credited instead to Kenneth
\nRoss' screenplay of the 1973 classic).<\/p>\n
His attempt to dignify the cast is, at best, hit-or-miss. He
\nmisfires with Sidney Poitier, whose performance as FBI Deputy
\nDirector Carter Preston is weightless and outdated, but scores
\nwith Diane Venora. The latter not only cloaks her portrayal of
\nsteely CIA operative Major Koslova in a sense of mounting
\nurgency, but also a Garboesque mix of elegance and aloofness.<\/p>\n
What's likely to stay with us after The Jackal has ended is
\nthose teasingly fitful forays into hipsterdom; like The Saint
\nbefore it, the soundtrack is flooded with the likes of Primal
\nScream, Massive Attack and Bush. Indeed, "freshening" the movie's
\ndemographics seems to be foremost in the espionage genre's post-
\nCold War priorities.<\/p>",
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