THE JACKAL

This is a brilliant, tense thriller with two excellent central performances. Richard Gere plays an ex-IRA terrorist seeking a fresh start, while Bruce Willis is coldly efficient and menacing as the assassin he must help stop. Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora also shine.

The movie’s moral center gives its violence a larger purpose. It upholds marital fidelity, self-sacrifice to protect others, and justice carried out in self-defense rather than revenge. But the R rating is earned through excessive blood and brutality, foul language, and mild homosexual content.

If you are an adult willing to weigh those concerns against strong performances, suspense, and moral themes, this is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.

After a deadly confrontation in Moscow, a mysterious assassin known as The Jackal is hired to murder a top American official in a public place.

To stop him, the FBI’s Deputy Director and a Russian major enlist Declan Mulqueen, an ex-IRA terrorist who wants a fresh start. Mulqueen once met The Jackal—and was betrayed by him. As the assassin prepares his mission, Mulqueen and the investigators race to follow his trail.

Four stars means this is a brilliant, highly effective thriller. The movie adds fresh angles to a familiar story and increases the tension through the competing movements of the assassin and the investigators.

Richard Gere and Bruce Willis give two of the best performances of their usually lackluster careers. Willis is truly menacing, while Gere is earnest and tender as an Irish version of the archetypal American hero. Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora also excel.

Director Michael Caton-Jones creates a memorable visual symbol when the hero is caught between two speeding subway trains. The conclusion is more dramatically satisfying than the 1973 movie version.

THE JACKAL presents the classic story of a hero caught between society and the dark world he once belonged to. Its central conflict is not merely about stopping an international assassin. It is also about whether a man with a violent past can seek a fresh start and defend the people threatened by his former world.

The film exalts marital fidelity and self-sacrifice. It presents protection of others as noble, especially when women and family are threatened. It also distinguishes justice from revenge: the final punishment of the villain is carried out by two of his victims in self-defense.

The movie’s moral outlook is weakened by the hero’s past membership in the Irish Republican Army, which is not condemned, although he claims he did not bomb or deliberately kill civilians. The film also includes gratuitous violence, foul language, and mild homosexual content.

Its longing for a fresh start points toward the need for genuine moral renewal: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

THE JACKAL is a brilliant, tense thriller with excellent performances and a moral center built around fidelity, self-sacrifice, and justice. Its excessive violence, foul language, and mild homosexual content make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.