Talk:Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)

Changes made
I've made two significant changes; firstly, I changed the claim that the book was published "moments after" de Gaulle's death to "shortly after" - the previous claim is invalid as de Gaulle died in 1970. Secondly, I deleted the Trivia remark about the Jackal taking his name from an animal predator, as this is so obvious as not to be worth saying. Jon Rob 13:26, 24 January 2006 (UTC) oh i don't mind Jon, i was hoping for someone who is better in english then i am to fix the article anyway.

Removed for the page itself
The following I have removed from the page itself, as it looks like it should be on talk anyway.

When the real Charles Calthrop was discovered missing from his apartment but had not seen fit to take his passport with him the British police assumed that he was travelling on a false passport. One of the ways anyone could obtain a false passport in those days was to apply in the name of a deceased child. The British police checked recent passport applications against death records and came up with the name Duggan. Clearly the real applicant for this passport was not Calthrop, but finding the name was not luck at all. It was the result of following a long and methodical process. You are correct to say that he may not even have been British. Batmanand | Talk 10:55, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Melon
It's certainly a watermelon in the film not a honeydew. I read the book 6 years ago so my memory is faulty. would anyone mind checking that the melon's "identity" is correct?

Jackal former legionnaire
The theory that the Jackal was a former legionnaire seems unlikely, since it would have made it far easier for the French authorities to track him down and associate him with the OAS. The OAS-leader needed to do research abroad to find the Jackal and the other two candidates for assasinating De Gaulle weren't former legionnaires either. He could have picked up his French in the Congo - where it is strongly implied that he served as a mercenary and where he was acquainted with a Belgian with a French surname. A theory of my own about the Jackal is that he is a proxy for Forsyth himself. He shares his nationality, age at the time of writing (which tellingly is described in the novel as 'the best age for a man' by a female character) and many of his actions mirror the ones Forsyth must have done while doing research for the book. This would also provide a possible explanation why his identity was never revealed, althought this did not add much to the plot. And, o yes, the melon was a honeydew in the novel.

Identity
The Jackal is described as (looking like) "a tall, blonde Englishman in his early thirties". However he may or may not be English - or Scottish. The identity that he had adopted is that of "Alexander Duggan who died at the age of two and a half years in 1931"- notably a Scottish (or perhaps Irish) boy, not an English one.Royalcourtier (talk) 01:24, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

Two Plot Holes
An entertaining story but two slight plot holes: 1] When his employers find that his Duggan identity has been blown, they try to reach him by phone at His London apartment (yet there is no indication that the French Secret service) who are presumedly keeping the Rome hotel under survaillence have taken note of any outgoing calls! 2] After he kills the forger he doesnt find his drivers license [the one bit of identity that can expose him] the implication is that forger kept it in a safety deposit box; with the evential discovry of the dead man..the box of course would be opened...the license would be found...as a matter of routine the Belgium authorities would make an inquiry to Scotland Yard..and again the Jackel identity would be exposed...! The plot hole being of course after the death of the Forger his depoist box would not be found