the 1973 day of the jackal and direct by fred zinnemann from the frederick forsyth novel and while not a masterpiece in the general scheme of thing and be nevertheless quite an above average thriller and write and carry out with considerable panache and wit and and style . it remain a pleasure to rent and watch now and then . in adapt that for the 1997 the jackal and it seem that at every turn the writer and director make the bad possible choice and make it all quite leaden and overdone and unsuspenseful and unsurprising and unsexy and and unthrilling . if we put together a catalog of all the specific that go into this movie and big and small and i could give you a mini essay for each topic on how the 1997 adaptation ed up . item represent the weapon . in the original and there be considerable intrigue over how the assassin be go to smuggle it onto the scene and how he intend to disguise it and and why it need custom work from his underground craftsman . in the remake and they apparently think that today action flick raise audience wouldn not tolerate a small rifle whose point be precision and would demand the lugubrious off the [ black market ] shelf machine gun and which need a minivan to transport it and and whose point be to shout macho . the whole involved and interesting business about disguise it component and have be reduce to show u ( repeatedly and like this be a difficult point to follow . ) that the joystick for his absurdly high tech remote control system have be in his pocket a a pen . item represent the conspirator and motive . without resort to dry lecture and the original still manage to give u a good understanding of the historical situation of the pieds noirs [ blackfoot ] and the french algerian irredentist who could not accept that the century be move away from colonialism and and form the view that de gaulle have betray them . this give the whole plot some historical weight . the remake seem to leave it a a gangland shootout revenge story and minimally spice it up by make them russian gangster . note please that i be not oppose to update represent they could have do this intelligently and come up with something more current but non trivial . certainly russia and the rest of ex ussr have be through huge change of late and and an updated story could have be situate there in a way that would make u feel that it matter . item represent the relationship of the assassin on the run and the police hunt him down while and the complex steering of the viewer sympathy from the bad guy to the good guy . above i hesitate somewhat at call the original a masterpiece overall while but in this aspect it really be one . we follow along with the assassin for much of the first portion of the film and and have see his cleverness and resourcefulness we begin to admire him and and not want to see his plan thwart or see him catch at least and not too soon . then we meet the policeman who get push into head up the investigation or protection effort and and bit by bit we take to him and and see he be not the sad sack his domestic trouble may have suggest . by the time it matter and we have be win over to his side . in the remake and perhaps poitier could have handle that sort of development and but gere sure can not . and the absurd 48 hour derive gimmick of the con bring out to help the police should have be leave in those comedy where it come from . the remake have the assassin and the assassin hunter talk about how they re like player above a chessboard and communicate indirectly via their move and only able to infer what the other be like . that be achieve superbly in the original . but in the remake in fact theyre bring into face to face confrontation way too soon and so they can grimace at each other and bloody the place up and and go through some fairly standard chase scene . item represent photography and and scenery . the remake do have some nice image and particularly in snowy finland in the opening section . but the washington and d. c metro can not really compete with the street of paris for interest perspective and bystander face . .