10 JANUARY 1998, Page 36

Cinema

The Jackal (PG, selected cinemas)

Global terror

Mark Steyn

Back in 1973, it was The Day of the Jackal. But they've simplified the title, and just about everything else. In Frederick Forsyth's original, the Jackal was out to kill Charles de Gaulle, but let's face it, who cares about French presidents these days? So now the Jackal has been retained by a shadowy Russian mobster to kill a promi- nent American: for most of the film, The Jackal pretends that it's about a plot to assassinate the director of the FBI, but, in fact, it's perfectly obvious from the word go that the real target's the First Lady. The Russians' Mister Big, furious that the Feds have iced his brother, wants to make a bold gesture that the Americans won't forget.

So he calls in Bruce Willis, the newly Americanised Jackal. The film quickly establishes that he's an international con- tract killer. All the tell-tale signs are there: he maintains an account with a small, dis- creet bank in London; he has a post office box in Montreal; he travels on a Canadian passport. This is the usual shorthand of the genre, but I have to say it came as a bit of a surprise to me, since, as it happens, I too maintain an account with a small, discreet bank in London; I also have a post office box in Montreal and travel on a Canadian passport. Of course, for a notorious inter- national terrorist, I have a much better cover than Bruce Willis — film critic of The Spectator — but, on the other hand, I don't have the extensive range of bad hairdos he can muster. On and off they come with bewildering speed — the dish-water blond hippie wig, the Cunuck exporter's mop, the