Agreed totally with your assessment of this Jackal remake. The ridiculous wife and family overstepping with curiosity ruin the icy resolute assassin that is the Jackal. She is so annoying that I can't say that I will get to the end of the series. A great disservice to Frederick Forsyths book and the superb performance of Edward Fox in the original which I've seen many times because of huge replay value.
Maybe passionless hitmen were more popular in the 60s - you might also have mentioned Alain Delon in Le Samourai - because men could relate to them and women could desire them without feeling guilty. I guess feminism really did destroy western culture.
Tarantino, of course, was asked to direct a Bond film and said he'd only do it if he could set it in the 60s. He could see that the Bond paradigm - quick-witted womaniser single-handedly takes down evil megalomaniac - doesn't work in the age of spy satellites and the web.
In the original film, Charles Caltrop is played by the guy who was Watson to Jeremy Brett's Holmes. Also, the Caltrop misunderstanding reminds me of the whole 'is Brian Jesus?' controversy in Life of Brian
He was certainly sensitive to misunderstandings of his work - he wrote at least one letter to the Daily Telegraph correcting their claim that the character is eventually identified as Charles Calthrop. That detail (retained in the 1st film) has always stuck in my mind as an example of the sort of fortuitous coincidence that fuels bogus conspiracy thinking (even when a real conspiracy exists).
I never read Jackal but I did read The Odessa File. It's a pretty heavy backstory about the Holocaust, old Nazis on the run, modern Germany wanting to leave the recent past alone, and a late appearance by Mossad, who might be getting their first high profile role in a western thriller. Also notable for some Clarksonish detail about why it's harder to fit a booby trap bomb to a British car rather than a European model (our ones have better suspension, at least in the early 60s).
Agreed totally with your assessment of this Jackal remake. The ridiculous wife and family overstepping with curiosity ruin the icy resolute assassin that is the Jackal. She is so annoying that I can't say that I will get to the end of the series. A great disservice to Frederick Forsyths book and the superb performance of Edward Fox in the original which I've seen many times because of huge replay value.
Glad we are in agreement
Maybe passionless hitmen were more popular in the 60s - you might also have mentioned Alain Delon in Le Samourai - because men could relate to them and women could desire them without feeling guilty. I guess feminism really did destroy western culture.
Tarantino, of course, was asked to direct a Bond film and said he'd only do it if he could set it in the 60s. He could see that the Bond paradigm - quick-witted womaniser single-handedly takes down evil megalomaniac - doesn't work in the age of spy satellites and the web.
You may be right but I am not ready to abandon my love of ice cold hitpeople just yet. Surely feminism can live with a human machine?
'Hitpeople'. Word of the year.
In the original film, Charles Caltrop is played by the guy who was Watson to Jeremy Brett's Holmes. Also, the Caltrop misunderstanding reminds me of the whole 'is Brian Jesus?' controversy in Life of Brian
Re: Forsyth and his politics.
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He was certainly sensitive to misunderstandings of his work - he wrote at least one letter to the Daily Telegraph correcting their claim that the character is eventually identified as Charles Calthrop. That detail (retained in the 1st film) has always stuck in my mind as an example of the sort of fortuitous coincidence that fuels bogus conspiracy thinking (even when a real conspiracy exists).
I never read Jackal but I did read The Odessa File. It's a pretty heavy backstory about the Holocaust, old Nazis on the run, modern Germany wanting to leave the recent past alone, and a late appearance by Mossad, who might be getting their first high profile role in a western thriller. Also notable for some Clarksonish detail about why it's harder to fit a booby trap bomb to a British car rather than a European model (our ones have better suspension, at least in the early 60s).