It is the sustained gentleness of Fred Zinnemann’s professional temperament that makes the picture a clockwork amusement to watch.

Possesses a tonal coldness that aligns viewers with the assassin’s reptilian machinations. —Guest post by Michael Joshua Rowin

As the tension rises, you feel terribly helpless. You just have to sit there and let it happen.

It may be fiction, but Fred Zinnemann’s “The Day Of The Jackal” feels like a great documentary. The masterful movie proceeds with the precision of a Swiss watch. There is a terrific cinematic beauty to the film’s foundational realism.