TV/Movies Megathread

[Barrister]

Enjoying the TV remake of Day of the Jackal. Lot better than I thought it would be.

Not the Bruce Willis thing then?

Coincidentally I recently started re-reading the book and was stuck by a weird 'error' in the description of the initial assassination attempt:

"
Investigating the timetable of his assassination he had consulted a calendar to discover that dusk fell on 22nd August at 8.35, seemingly plenty late enough even if De Gaulle was late on his usual schedule, as indeed he was. But the calendar the Air Force colonel had consulted related to 1961. On 22nd August 1962, dusk fell at 8.10. Those twenty-five minutes were to change French history. At 8.18 Bastien-Thiry discerned the convoy hurtling down the Avenue de la Liberation towards him at seventy miles per hour. Frantically he waved his newspaper.

Across the road and a hundred yards down, Bernier peered angrily through the gloom at the dim figure by the bus stop 'Has the colonel waved his paper yet?' he asked of no one in particular.

"

He's not suggestion sunsets on the same day of the year vary more than a few 10s of seconds from year to year?
If he was talking about an error in the calender printing, wouldn't he have just said that?

Alternatively I'm just having some form of senior moment. 

Day of the Jackal was written by Frederick Forsyth.  My dad was a Forsyth fan, so I think we had most or all of his books - which as a voracious reader as a kid I read them all.

One of the books that I remember most clearly was The Devil's Alternative.  It features some Ukrainian terrorists as major characters.  It was an interesting choice, in that A: their cause (Ukrainian independence from the USSR) was fairly noble and they were rather sympathetic, but B: they were threatening a crazy ecological disaster unless their demands were met.

But even as a kid in the 80s (with Ukrainian heritage) I spotted at least a couple of errors: the one character (recruit4ed to the Ukrainian terrorist cause) , on visiting Soviet Ukraine, was heartened to hear Ukrainian being spoken in Odessa.  Odessa is primarily Russian-speaking - Ukrainian is more widely spoken in the west of the country, not the south.

Second, the book used the soviet-era Ukrainian flag - which was just the Soviet flag but with a blue stripe.  Any Ukrainian patriot would surely use the blue-and-gold flag - or at least would use the red and black flag of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (which most of you would recognize as the "rebel scum" flag from EU games).

So no - don't take anything in a thriller as God's honest truth.

That being said - there's a famous story from Day of the Jackal.  The book describes how the character obtained false ID documents by finding the name of a person who died as a young child by searching a cemetery, then applying for a passport under that name.  The method apparently worked (at least back in the 70s) and was copied by criminals for years to come.  So it's not like Forsyth didn't put any effort into his works.

[Sheilbh]

He was a war correspondent in the Biafran war and a huge advocate of Biafran independence I think long after the civil war.

But also domestically wildly, rabidly right wing Only book of his I can remember reading involved KGB agents planting dirty bombs in the UK which would somehow lead to Ken Livingstone becoming Prime Minister (although I think he was just the useful idiot who would then be replaced by a full on commie).

I think I enjoyed it.

I've heard the same about the false IDs I believe it was used by intelligence agencies too.

[Barrister]

I've heard the same about the false IDs I believe it was used by intelligence agencies too.

I googled it - yup also used by the Met and unspecified foreign intelligence agents.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14127949/Day-Jackal-FRAUD-Frederick-Forsyth-Eddie-Redmayne.html

It was even named the "Day of the Jackal fraud".

[garbon]

Isn't the EU rebel flag on a diagonal?

[Barrister]

He was a war correspondent in the Biafran war and a huge advocate of Biafran independence I think long after the civil war.

As a kid in the early 80s, if we didn't like something we were given as food we'd be told "there's starving people in Biafra who'd love to have that to eat".

As a kid I had no idea where Biafra even was.  Not sure why my parents (actually my dad specifically) went with "Biafra" rather than the more common "China".

[mongers]

He was a war correspondent in the Biafran war and a huge advocate of Biafran independence I think long after the civil war.

But also domestically wildly, rabidly right wing Only book of his I can remember reading involved KGB agents planting dirty bombs in the UK which would somehow lead to Ken Livingstone becoming Prime Minister (although I think he was just the useful idiot who would then be replaced by a full on commie).

I think I enjoyed it.

I've heard the same about the false IDs I believe it was used by intelligence agencies too.

His journalism from that time is well worth a read, as is his book about the conflict, thought the title escapes me.

IIRC the war profoundly changed his view of the world, I think he saw a good deal of British government double dealing/cynicism.

Is the book you're referring to the dame one that BB mentioned, The Devil's alternative? Which I think was made into a passable Piers Brosnan film.

[Barrister]

Isn't the EU rebel flag on a diagonal?

You are correct - while the OUN flag is top red, bottom black.

It's been awhile since I played EU I guess...

[Josephus]

I should point out that the current TV series Day of the Jackal, although based on the book and the main character, is set in contemporary times, and is not about killing De Gaulle

[crazy canuck]

Where is it being streamed?

[mongers]

I should point out that the current TV series Day of the Jackal, although based on the book and the main character, is set in contemporary times, and is not about killing De Gaulle

Thanks that rings a bell, and as CC asked I wonder what streaming service it's on.

Certainly makes a lot of sense to not have De Gualle as the focus, I guess when the majority of us who saw it*, De Gaulle would have been a rather vague public figure, till we each did a bit of proper history book reading. If you see what I mean.

* think I first saw it when I was 10-12, so he would have just been a generic French president. :gasp:

[Josephus]

Where is it being streamed?

I watch it on Showcase.

[Josephus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal_(TV_series)

The ten-episode series premiered on 7 November 2024, airing in the United Kingdom on Sky Atlantic and Now, and streaming on Peacock in the United States.[20][21] NBCUniversal Global Distribution distributes the series internationally outside of Sky's markets, airing through its agreements with Foxtel (Australia), Showcase (Canada), JioCinema (India), Showmax (Africa), TVNZ+ (New Zealand), Disney+ (Latin America) and SkyShowtime (Europe) among others.[22] Subsequent episodes were released weekly, concluding on 12 December. NBC broadcast the pilot on US television on 30 December 2024 even though they have no intention of showing the rest of the series, for free, on the network-.[23]

Love this: NBC broadcast the pilot on US television on 30 December 2024 even though they have no intention of showing the rest of the series, for free, on the network

[Sheilbh]

[quote author=mongers link=msg=1465055 date=1737414124His journalism from that time is well worth a read, as is his book about the conflict, thought the title escapes me.

IIRC the war profoundly changed his view of the world, I think he saw a good deal of British government double dealing/cynicism. [/quote]
I can believe it. I find it really weird how the Nigerian Civil War didn't become a Cold War proxy - I assume the Americans were just too busy with Vietnam.

But it's so odd in the context of a global all-consuming superpower showdown that in Africa's most populous country you had the UK and USSR backing Nigeria (with Nasser's Egypt) opposed to Biafra supported by France, Salazar's Portugal, Israel, apartheid South Africa, Cultural Revolution China, Nyerere's Tanzania - and Frederick Forsyth.

Is the book you're referring to the dame one that BB mentioned, The Devil's alternative? Which I think was made into a passable Piers Brosnan film.

No and yes.

I searched Frederick Forsyth and Ken Livingstone and I'm thinking of the Fourth Protocol which is a decent Brosnan film (also starring Michael Caine) which I've seen Not read or seen The Devil's Alternative.

[The Minsky Moment]

I can believe it. I find it really weird how the Nigerian Civil War didn't become a Cold War proxy - I assume the Americans were just too busy with Vietnam.

I don't think that was the reason. The US almost never got seriously involved in Africa in the Cold War. The regimes were too unstable and the stakes too low. Defending Europe was always a priority, the Pacific and Korea a priority, and Latin America was a core interest. Africa was always the lowest priority.  For the Soviets, OTOH, Africa presented opportunities precisely because US interest was low, and because their economic constraints were not as disabling in African conflicts, where they could materially move the dial by flooding the zone with small arms and a few "advisors"

My first sense of that strategic reality came in the mid-80s as a kid playing Chris Crawford's Balance of Power. it was tempting to get involved in Africa because of all the opportunities to meddle cheaply, but as the US I just found myself losing prestige because it made no sense to escalate.  Crawford really captured something there with a relatively simply game design by modern standards. (A few years ago I grabbed a copy of the game off an abandonware site as my original Mac copy is long gone. I had forgotten what a PITA the interface was.  That's a game I'd love to see a modern touch up for, but I'm not holding my breath.)

[Sheilbh]

I don't think that was the reason. The US almost never got seriously involved in Africa in the Cold War. The regimes were too unstable and the stakes too low. Defending Europe was always a priority, the Pacific and Korea a priority, and Latin America was a core interest. Africa was always the lowest priority.  For the Soviets, OTOH, Africa presented opportunities precisely because US interest was low, and because their economic constraints were not as disabling in African conflicts, where they could materially move the dial by flooding the zone with small arms and a few "advisors"

My first sense of that strategic reality came in the mid-80s as a kid playing Chris Crawford's Balance of Power. it was tempting to get involved in Africa because of all the opportunities to meddle cheaply, but as the US I just found myself losing prestige because it made no sense to escalate.  Crawford really captured something there with a relatively simply game design by modern standards. (A few years ago I grabbed a copy of the game off an abandonware site as my original Mac copy is long gone. I had forgotten what a PITA the interface was.  That's a game I'd love to see a modern touch up for, but I'm not holding my breath.)

Interesting. On the USSR I read a book in part on Maoist policy and part of it may also be that in the 50s-70s Africa was also a venue for Chinese foreign policy (particularly in Zimbabwe and Tanzania) - particularly from a radical anti-colonial and Third Worldist perspective. So there may also have been a Sino-Soviet competition of the US wanting to prove they were still the radical, anti-colonial force and not get gazumped.

I suppose for sub-Saharan Africa the exceptions where the US was pretty involved were South Africa and DRC/Zaire. Not sure how involved the US would have got to protect them.