THE ROLE OF THE VIEWER IN FRED ZINNEMANN’S THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

Resumen

ABSTRACT

Contradicting the notion that The Day of the Jackal is nothing but a skillfully produced and ultimately conventional film, this article argues that it gains relevance by presenting formal and thematic features that make demands on the viewer in terms of narration which are not usually made by the classical Hollywood film, a category it can be inserted in. This unusual narrative structure favors an identification of the viewer with the ideology that it implicitly supports.

Key words: classical Hollywood film; role of the viewer; identification