Wednesday, April 26, 2017

MOVIE DIALOGUE OF THE DAY ― THE JACKAL (1997)

Connection with the previous post (THE DAY OF THE JACKAL): THE JACKAL is a remake of  the first  film.

Ratings: IMDB ― 6.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 15%, ME ― 56% 



The Jackal
: Ooh, that's bad. The blood's almost black, that means the bullet's in your liver. You have about 20 minutes to live. If the pain gets to be too much, you can take your hand away. Then you'll be dead in 5 minutes

Valentina Koslova: When Declan kills you, you think of me, OK.
The Jackal: OK. I'll make a note of that.
[grabs her head
The Jackal: If you see Declan before you die, you tell him that he can't protect his women.

Bruce Willis as The Jackal and Diane Verona as Major Valentina Koslova.


Trivia (From IMDB):

After the filming of this movie, Bruce Willis and Richard Gere reportedly vowed to never work with each other again.

Bruce Willis asked for the scene where the Jackal kills a gay man to be re-shot so it was more obvious that he was being killed due to the fact that he knew too much (having seen The Jackal on a news report) rather than because he was gay.

Because Richard Gere and Bruce Willis filmed many of their scenes separately, they would often ask each other "How's your movie going?" when they'd meet.

Frederick Forsyth, who wrote the novel "The Day of the Jackal", insisted his name be taken off the credits of this film, which is why it is billed as "based on the screenplay".

Before Bruce Willis was cast, Richard Gere was offered the role of The Jackal. He turned it down and instead asked if he could play the hero.

At age 91, just months before his death, Fred Zinnemann, director of the original The Day of the Jackal (1973), on which this film is based, fought with Universal to change the title of the film. He said the original had stood the test of time and did not want the remake to have the same title.

Both Richard Gere and Diane Venora worked with language coaches to develop their accents.

The large, remote-controlled machine gun is a mock-up of the Soviet-designed KPV (Krupnokaliberniy Pulemyot Vladimirova) Heavy Machine Gun. The weapon used for the mock-up is actually an American M2HB .50BMG Heavy Machine Gun with a lot of parts added to it to make it look like a KPV. The name "Polish ZSU-33" is fictional.

Sean Connery, Liam Neeson and Matthew McConaughey all turned down roles.

This isn't the first time Richard Gere was considered for a role that Bruce Willis got. The first was the role of John McClane in Die Hard which Gere turned down and it went to Bruce Willis who he later worked opposite in this film.

Edward Fox is rumored to have rejected a cameo role (possibly the Leslie Phillips role, Woolburton).

The "Hotel Porvoo" is the old town hall (it's nowadays a museum) in Porvoo, Finland. The "Porvoo Post Office" is a furniture restoring service.

Average Shot Length = ~5.1 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~5.2 seconds.

The pursuit scene in the Metro was not shot in Washington D.C. but in the temporarily re-branded Lionel-Groulx Metro. One of the stations has been identified as being Radisson Metro station. Correction. The metro station used was Lionel-Groulx.

"Endtrack" by Massive Attack, the song that plays over the end credits, is actually an alternate remix of their song "Dissolved Girl".

Bruce Willis' hand double in The Jackal is English actor Lester J Adams.

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