The Jackal (1997) Review
Bruce Willis plays a cold, charming assassin who changes faces like coats, Richard Gere the IRA sniper sent to catch him, and the target is a real surprise. Critics hated it. It's an 8.5 and my favorite Jackal.
Actor: Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis came from television comedy in Moonlighting and was an unlikely action lead, which is precisely why Die Hard worked. John McClane is frightened, outmatched and barefoot, and the film established a template the genre used for twenty years.
The range is wider than the persona. Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are all performances built on restraint, and the last two are almost entirely still.
He spent his final working years in a large number of low-budget films, which drew criticism at the time.
He was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and subsequently with frontotemporal dementia, and retired. The late output has been reassessed considerably in that light.
