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"The Assignment'' is a canny, tricky thriller that could serve as an illustration of what this week's similar release, "The Peacemaker,'' is not. Both films involve an international hunt for a dangerous terrorist, but "The Peacemaker'' is a cartoon and "The Assignment'' is intelligent and gripping--and it has a third act! Instead of an action orgy, it has more than enough story to see it through to the end and keep us absorbed the whole way. Yes, it ends with a deadly struggle, but as the setting for another stage of the movie's web of deceit.

The film is centered on a CIA plot to discredit and kill Carlos, the feared terrorist who operated for years, despite the best efforts of the free world's security agencies to capture him. Donald Sutherland plays Fields, the CIA agent for whom Carlos has become an obsession, and when he finds a U.S. Navy officer named Ramirez ( Aidan Quinn ) who's a dead-ringer for the terrorist, he devises a risky scheme: He'll train Ramirez to impersonate Carlos, then use the double to convince the KGB that their attack dog is disloyal. As a result, Carlos will either be dead or, almost as good, discredited in the eyes of his sponsors.

Fields works with an Israeli named Amos ( Ben Kingsley ) in training Ramirez, after first using psychological tactics to persuade the reluctant Navy man to leave his wife and family and become a counter-terrorist. (The scene where Fields shows Ramirez a dying child in a hospital is a direct echo of " The Third Man ".) Then the false Carlos, is sent into the field to work the deception, which I will not describe.

"The Assignment'' is fascinating because its characters can be believed, because there is at least a tiny nugget of truth in the story, and because from the deceptive opening credits, this is a film that creates the right world for these characters to inhabit. Sutherland's CIA man is especially well drawn: "I don't have any family,'' he says, "and I don't have any friends. The only people I've ever cared about were the ones I've killed.'' Quinn plays a dual role, as Ramirez and Carlos, and has some tricky scenes, especially one in which a former lover of Carlos helps train him sexually so that he will be a convincing bedmate for another of the terrorist's lovers.

The screenplay, by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai , has action scenes that grow from the story and are not simply set pieces for their own sake. It's impressive the way so many different story threads come together all at once near the end.

The director, Christian Duguay , is new to me. What he has is a tactile love of film, of images. He and the cinematographer, David Franco, don't use locations so much as occupy them; we visit Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Tripoli and Moscow (or sets and effects that look like them) and yet the movie's not a travelogue but a story hurtling ahead.

I have seen so many lazy thrillers. They share the same characteristics: Most of the scenes involve the overpriced star, the villain is underwritten, and the plot is merely a set-up for the special effects, the chases and the final action climax. "The Assignment'' gives us ensemble work by fine actors, it has a villain of great complexity (developed through the process of imitating him), and at the end there is a tantalizing situation for us to unravel as we leave the theater.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Assignment (1997)

Rated R For Strong Violence, Sexuality and Language

115 minutes

Claudia Ferri as Maura Ramirez

Aidan Quinn as Annibal Ramirez/Carlos

Ben Kingsley as Amos

Celine Bonnier as Carla

Directed by

• Christian Duguay
• Sabi H. Shabtai

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The Assignment

1997, Action/Mystery & thriller, 1h 55m

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The assignment   photos.

Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn) is an American naval officer who looks remarkably like notorious international assassin Carlos Sanchez (also Quinn). Veteran CIA agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) has a vendetta against Sanchez and recruits Ramirez to impersonate the fugitive. Along with Mossad operative Amos (Ben Kingsley), Shaw begins training Ramirez to become Sanchez, but the mission proves to be incredibly perilous, and the American soon wonders if it's worth the risk.

Genre: Action, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Christian Duguay

Producer: Tom Berry , Franco Battista

Writer: Dan Gordon , Sabi H. Shabtai

Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $540.1K

Runtime: 1h 55m

Production Co: Columbia, TriStar Pictures

Cast & Crew

Aidan Quinn

Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez, Carlos

Donald Sutherland

Jack Shaw, Henry Fields

Ben Kingsley

Claudia Ferri

Maura Ramirez

Céline Bonnier

Vlasta Vrana

KGB Head Officer

Liliana Komorowska

Carl Mickens

Mitchell David Rothpan

Joey Ramirez

Gregory Hlady

Gabriel Marian Oseciuc

Frederic Desager

Kliment Denchev

KGB Technician

Yonathan Gordon

Ndiouga Sarr

Nigerian Oil Minister

Manuel Aranguiz

Venezuelan Oil Minister

Leni Parker

OPEC Receptionist

Christian Duguay

Screenwriter

Sabi H. Shabtai

Franco Battista

David Saunders

Executive Producer

Joseph Newton Cohen

Cinematographer

David Franco

Yves Langlois

Film Editing

Normand Corbeil

Original Music

Michael Joy

Production Design

Art Director

Denis Sperdouklis

Costume Design

Karen Margiotta

Mary Margiotta

Lucie Robitaille

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The assignment.

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Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn). With the aid of his Israeli Intelligence counterpart, Amos (Ben Kingsley), Jack trains Annibal to impersonate Carlos through a series of harrowing physical and psychological exercises and draw the real killer out of hiding and into an elaborate trap.

© 1997 Allegro Film Productions V Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2024 Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc.   All rights reserved

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The Assignment

• Credits 
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• Image gallery  [2]

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

• See all credits
• #106 Best Canadian Movies of all time
• "A film of real finesse, style and intelligence, an espionage thriller of the old school"  Mick LaSalle : San Francisco Chronicle
• "If you believe that Elvis still lives or that a millennial invasion of flying saucers is imminent, you might buy the bogus premise." Stephen Holden : The New York Times
• "Intelligent and gripping. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"  Roger Ebert : Chicago Sun-Times
• "If there's a small saving grace to this crude thriller, it is the work of Montreal-born director Christian Duguay, who shows flashes of real flare." Liam Lacey : The Globe and Mail

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

In its low-rent way, it aims for every frisson, reversal and shock-tactic -- and mostly succeeds.

Like for most action pics, character development is the first casualty.

Stylish spy flick with a surprisingly good cast.

A non-formula spy thriller without the glitz and romanticism usually associated with this genre.

If there's a small saving grace to this crude thriller, it is the work of Montreal-born director Christian Duguay, who shows flashes of real flare.

The plot raises the keenly important question of whether professionals who fight evil may be corrupted by the ruthless means they employ; but the movie takes too much pleasure in sensationalistic digressions to explore this issue very thoroughly.

Quinn is excellent in the dual roles of Jackal and Ramirez.

Additional Info

• Genre : Thriller, Action
• Release Date : September 26, 1997
• Languages : English
• Captions : English, Spanish
• Audio Format : 5.1

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The Stop Button

The assignment (1997, christian duguay).

Since it’s Robert Ludlum week here at The Stop Button (actually it’s not, these two were a coincidence), I watched The Assignment , which is an unofficial adaptation of Ludlum’s Bourne trilogy. Again, I read Ludlum back when I was in junior high–maybe early high school–and I remember seeing this film and wondering why it wasn’t credited to him, since it lifts the major twist in the books. Googling reveals no answer and I suppose it is possible The Assignment –coming out of Sony’s now defunct low budget wing, Triumph Films–might have passed under the radar. Or not. M. Night Shyamalan is renowned plagiarist and I don’t think he’s ever been publicly sued. But Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass has certainly seen this film, because he lifted his lauded car chase from it.

Christian Duguay never made it. It would have been hard, given he directed the first two Scanners sequels, but he’s an excellent director. I remember reading–back around the time either this film or Screamers came out–he used steadicam for every shot. Not the shaky steadicam, the “realism” steadicam, just steadicam. The shots have mobility and urgency. He also used CG to allow for interesting camera movements (like crawling down the Wailing Wall). He’s an excellent director. The Assignment ’s script fails him, but Duguay is fantastic. There’s a ten or fifteen minute action scene in this film–a long chase from foot to car–and it’s brilliant, one of the finest sustained action scenes ever produced. But even his domestic directing is good. It’s because of this direction–and the acting, more on it in a sentence or two–it’s so obvious The Assignment could have been better. It could have been, with the right script, the Manhunter of espionage movies. Instead, it just shows the super-budgets of Matt Damon’s Bourne movies don’t make them better films.

Obviously, the difference between The Assignment and the Bourne duo is easily identifiable. The Assignment was made for a rational, thinking audience interested in character development and… narrative quality. The script is poor, not bad. There’s a difference. The acting in The Assignment finally reminded me why I like Aidan Quinn so much (I managed to finally get his wavering accent from Blink out of my head). Quinn is fantastic in this film and the role requires him to cover an incredible range of emotion. He’s just great. Ben Kingsley does a good job too, but it’s really Donald Sutherland who has the most fun. I’m not sure how “good” Sutherland’s performance is in The Assignment , but he’s an absolute joy to watch. An actress named Claudia Ferri–who’s in nothing, of course–is great as Quinn’s wife. The acting is so good and there are some dialogue I can’t believe was in the script, you feel like the actors just had to be improvising because it fit their acting so well.

This film is another one where some creative handling of the timeline would help–starting in the middle of the story, not going linear and explaining everything. To some degree, with Quinn playing two roles, they trick the viewer, but it’s not enough. There’s not enough of a hook, or at least as good of a hook if they’d jumbled the timeline. Even though The Assignment has the writing problems, it’s still worth seeing. It’d be worth seeing for either Duguay or the acting alone, but with both… again, all it really needed a good script polish….

One response to “The Assignment (1997, Christian Duguay)”

Hi Andrew, Thanks for all the nice things you said about this film. I must correct you on one shot however. The Wailing Wall shot was done by shooting on a remote crane from on top of the wall. I know it sounds crazy but the Israeli’s actually let us do it. Remember this film is pre cheap CG. I also think this is amongst Aidan’s greatest performances and Christian is a really good director who operates himself and a lot of it is off a SteadiCam.

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The assignment.

1997 Directed by Christian Duguay

Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.

Aidan Quinn Donald Sutherland Ben Kingsley Claudia Ferri Céline Bonnier Vlasta Vrana Liliana Głąbczyńska Von Flores Gregory Hlady Gabriel Marian Oseciuc Mitchell David Rothpan Frédéric Desager Kliment Denchev Yonathan Gordon Al Waxman Lucie Laurier

Director Director

Christian Duguay

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Robbie Ditchburn David McLeod

Producer Producer

Franco Battista

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

David Saunders

Writers Writers

Dan Gordon Sabi H. Shabtai

Casting Casting

Lucie Robitaille Mary Margiotta Karen Margiotta

Editor Editor

Yves Langlois

Cinematography Cinematography

David Franco Christian Duguay

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Lighting lighting.

Nimi Getter

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Bruno Philip Georges Archambault John Pingry

Production Design Production Design

Michael Joy

Art Direction Art Direction

Special effects special effects.

Ryal Cosgrove Gary Coates

Composer Composer

Normand Corbeil

Sound Sound

Michel B. Bordeleau Raymond Legault Tim Archer Natalie Fleurant

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup makeup.

Nicole Lapierre

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Benjamin Robin Ronald J. Rolfe

Triumph Films Program de Credits of Impuc Super Écran Satch-Mo Gouvernement du Québec Allegro Films The Movie Network

Releases by Date

28 sep 1997, 01 aug 2005, 08 jun 1998, 01 aug 1998, releases by country.

• Physical 16
• Theatrical 18
• Theatrical R

119 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by marshlandz ★★★★

Carlos the Jackal (Aidan Quinn) is only on screen twice in the film: first, in the opening, when the camera cranes up from an extreme close-up of concrete being pissed on by a child and up and into the hotel room of Carlos who has just finished fucking and stares out the window naked for a while then puts on a costume and heads to a Paris cafe where he bums a light from a well known CIA counterterrorism expert (Donald Sutherland) while smirking before fragging everyone inside, and the end, when Carlos fights his finely constructed doppelganger, a Cuban-American Naval officer (Aidan Quinn) groomed by Sutherland and Mossad (Ben Kingsley) to literally become Carlos in order to catch him…

Review by RexLuscus ★★★½

"don't think of it as cheating on your wife, think of it as fucking for your flag."

pretty solid and handsomely shot b-picture about a CIA/mossad joint attempt to entrap notorious Cool Guy carlos the jackal. aidan quinn threatens to sue "every fuckin' israeli on the planet" while holding a baby, and that's before israeli ben kingsley force-feeds him porridge and doses him with acid as part of his secret CIA training.

Review by Justin ★★★★ 4

This is a quietly great little action/thriller. Quinn gives a wonderfully two character performance. Kingsley is quietly giving gravitas to those around him. Donald Sutherland chews it up masterfully and is clearly having a ton of fun. It’s dated in a lot of regards but it didn’t miss a beat to me from the last time I watched it.

“Don’t think of it as cheating on your wife. Think of it as fucking for your flag.”

Review by Chris Cabin ★★

A grueling chore. Quinn is pretty good but Kingsley and Sutherland are on cruise control. Mundanely directed and edited by a drunk, horny ape.

Review by mattstechel ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I liked it when the action started happening which it does in the second hour where this turns into more of a fast moving Bourne Identity type of action movie. Up until then it wasn't bad, but it was a little lethargic as Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley recruit a naval officer played by Aidan Quinn whom Sutherland thinks is the spitting image of Carlos the Jackal whom he is obsessed with capturing. (Interesting that no one else seems to think so but Sutherland is like "I can build him up and dress him in his clothes and teach him how to move and act" and so before too long Sutherland's shadowy CIA agent along with Kingsley here as an…

Review by WizardmanJones ★★★

I feel like drones have really taken the romance and excitement away from killing terrorists. I bet you they never even tried to find a Cuban-American serviceman who was somehow Osama Bin Laden's exact double and forced him to eat obscene amounts of oatmeal.

Review by Andy King ★★★½ 3

Spionage-Thriller aus den 90ern. Es geht um den Terroristen „Carlos“ der in 70ern und 80ern einige Anschläge verübte und der wohl damals der weltweit am meisten gesuchte Terrorist war.

In einer fiktionalen Geschichte erzählt der Regisseur eine Variante, wie man Carlos das Handwerk legen will. Eines Tages kommt es zur Verhaftung des Marie Offiziers Annibel Ramirez durch den israelischen Geheimdienst. Dabei handelte sich es um ein Missverständnis. Ramirez sieht dem Terroristen Carlos verdammt ähnlich. Daraus entwickelt der CIA (Donald Sutherland) und der Israelische Geheimdienstchef (Ben Kingsley) den Plan durch den Doppelgänger Ramirez Carlos auf die Spur zu kommen und ihm eine Falle zu stellen. Ramirez muss aber erst einer harten Ausbildung unterzogen werden. Er muss quasi lernen, wie Carlos zu…

Review by Waldo ★★★★

Always been a fan of this one since day one. It appeared on video one day back in 1997, don't think it had a theatrical run around my neighborhood. Aidan Quinn is good and sometimes hilarious as Anibal Ramirez. Maybe a bit of a miscast but the funny thing is...he's very good pulling double acting duty here! A USA naval officer that looks exactly like Carlos The Jackal. So the CIA wants Anibal to become Carlos The Jackal. Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley are having fun playing Aidan's trainers. The action sequence of Aidan fleeing from the French Secret Service is a standout. Director Duguay handles the action and everything else real well.

Review by henry 💿 ★½

"what do you suppose he's doing now?" "practicing safe sex. i hope"

donald december #6

sooo bad ❤ the premise and training sequence in the first half are hilarious but it's not worth it. i feel the worst about ben kingsley because i'm sure he's a wonderful actor but i've literally only seen him in horrible movies

Review by Ripvanryan ★★★ 2

Not a masterpiece of espionage cinema, but The Assignment certainly has its moments. Director Christian Duguay ( Screamers) makes some...interesting...stylistic choices, and the clunky pre-millenial CGI adds a surreal sheen to the action. Aiden Quinn does his very best to carry the picture, but as an Irishman playing a Cuban-American officer impersonating a Venezuelan terrorist, he is horribly miscast (in 1997, Antonio Banderas would be the no-brainer casting choice here). As the CIA liaison, Donald Sutherland seems to be having twice as much fun as anybody involved, dropping F-bombs with relish like he was raised in a house that didn't allow cursing. Almost worth checking out solely for the righteous car chase in Act 2.

Review by Dominik Hug ★★★½ 2

Völlig unter dem Radar geblieben ist bislang The Assignment - Der Auftrag. Kein Wunder, denn das Cover der deutschsprachigen Code 2-DVD ist auch wirklich grausig. Entsprechend fristete dieser Film ein zirka 10jähriges unberührtes Dasein auf meinem Pile of Shame.

Toll gespielt, mit nur einem kleinen Hänger im Mittelteil, die Gefahr stets dich und die Akteure bedrohend und wo es krachen soll, da kracht es auch. Ein guter Film!

Review by Varghese

Olivier Assayas may have directed the definitive film about Carlos The Jackal but this 90s flick has some nifty action set pieces,a strong cast and is consistently engaging. The training sequences were a hoot!

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The Assignment

Film details, brief synopsis, cast & crew, christian duguay, aidan quinn, donald sutherland, ben kingsley, claudia ferri, celine bonnier, technical specs.

Cuban-American navel officer Annibal Ramirez is a dead ringer for Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez. His features are so close to those of Sanchez that he is brutally interrogated as a terrorist while on vacation in Israel. American counter-intellegence agent Jack Shaw and his Israeli counterpart Amos realize they can use Ramirez as bait for "The Jackal." Wanting to serve his country, Ramirez is unsure he can survive the physical and psychological trials he must endure to become like Sanchez. By the end of the training, however, Ramirez knows Sanchez better than anyone alive and enters the world as "The Jackal."

Vlasta Vrana

Liliana komorowska, mitchell david rothpan, gregory hlady, gabriel marian oseciuc, frederic desager, kliment denchev, yonathan gordon, ndiouga sarr, manuel aranguiz, leni parker, jacques lavallée, david francis, daniel pilon, richard jutras, hisham zayed, ted whittall, francis del vecchio, lisa wegner, lucie laurier, neil kroetsch, matthew dupuis, paul stewart, claude genest, michael caloz, david franco, heinz becker, louis bouchard, mark knoeffel, andres lange, martin morf, marcello adatto, benoit alarie, francois allard, pierre allard, alec anderson, michael annett, georges archambault, itzik ben aroya, henri aubertin, jean-paul auclair, nancy auclair, cheryl bainum, mihaly balasko, sandor balo, gyula balogh, itzhak bareli, krisztina barkoczky, franco battista, marc h beaulieu, louise bedard, benoit begin, marc bélanger, novek belanger, richard belanger, caroline beliveau, jocelyne bellemare, christian bergeron, sylvain bergevin, josee bernard, jacques f bernier, michel bernier, mickey binyamini, brian black, andras bogdan, jean boivin, michel bolduc, michel b bordeleau, philippe bosse, diane boucher, virginie boudreau, claude boulet, mary bradley, anderson chet bradshaw, cecile braemer, karoly braunner, michel brohez, michel brouillette, joseph lang browns, joseanne brunelle, frances calder, andrew d campbell, jean-francois campeau, helene canse, alain caporicci, johanne caporicci, annie carignan, claudine carpentier, tim j carroll, denis caspar, yves castonguay, jason cavalier, michel cerro, guylaine chagnon, stephane charron, jean chasse, jozsef cirko, steve clark, steven clark, alain clouatre, guy cloutier, gary coates, joseph n cohen, didier communaux, stephane connolly, sam coppola, normand corbeil, ryal cosgrove, francis covan, mike cozons, donna croce, gabor csakovics, zsolt csutak, denise d'amours, francois daignault, louis dandonneau, gary daprato, james darling, luc deguise, jean-yves denis, louise deschenes, marc desourdy, melina dicristo, robert ditchburn, kristen dolenko, jacques dorion, marion doucet, pascal dufaux, gina duhamel, paul dupont, yanick dusseault, john dykstra, bram eisenthal, shimon elimelech, zsolt feher, attila feherhegyi, bruno ferland, deak ferrand, natalie fleurant, raoul fortin, martin fournier, charlene francique, sassi franco, monika frankl, mario fraser, rene frechette, michel frenette, zoltan fulop, yiftach gabai, daniel gagnon, francine gagnon, sylvie gagnon, paul-emile gallant, gilbert garcia, jean-francois garcia, patrick garcia, benoit gauthier, francois gauthier, michel gauvin, sebastien gervais, nimi getter, michel ghorayeb, michel ghoyareb, stephen gilbert, natalie ginat, suzanne gingras, manon girard, moshe gissis, johnny goar, shai goldenberg, francois gosselin, melany goudreau, anne grandbois, jennifer-lys grenier, naama halperin, johnny harkala, avidan hatuka, terry hawkins, claude hazanavicius, simon hebert, r j henning, roger hewett, mark hoffman, julie houle, monika hufnagel, daniel huysman, france hyman, silvi imbeault, yehuda sar israel, pierric jouvante, michael joy, daniel juneau, boaz katzenelson, nick kerridge, shabtai kimhi, yaacov kimmelfeld, bobe kiraly, attila kiss, pini klavir, michael konydes, daria korolus, agota kovacs, balazs kovacs, gabor kovacs, tamas krausz, yohannan kredo, maurice krouche, brigitte labelle, helene lafrance, eric lafrance st-pierre, stephen laidlaw, miscellaneous notes.

Released in United States Fall September 26, 1997

Limited Release in United States September 26, 1997

Released in United States on Video March 17, 1998

Based upon a true story.

Completed shooting June 27, 1996.

Began shooting February 11, 1996.

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The Assignment

Cast & crew.

Aidan Quinn

Annibal Ramirez/Carlos

Donald Sutherland

Jack Shaw (Henry Fields)

Ben Kingsley

Claudia Ferri

Maura Ramirez

Céline Bonnier

• Average 5.8

Information

© 1997 Allegro Film Productions V Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Assignment

With action set in the U.S., Canada, France, Libya and Israel, "The Assignment" has the makings of a vintage international spy thriller, but the story of American and Israeli agents trying to entrap notorious real-life terrorist Carlos (The Jackal) Sanchez comes off disappointingly flat. As usual, Montreal helmer Christian Duguay delivers all kinds of eye-catching visuals and crackerjack suspense sequences.

By Brendan Kelly

Brendan Kelly

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With action set in the U.S., Canada, France, Libya and Israel, “The Assignment” has the makings of a vintage international spy thriller, but the story of American and Israeli agents trying to entrap notorious real-life terrorist Carlos (The Jackal) Sanchez comes off disappointingly flat. As usual, Montreal helmer Christian Duguay delivers all kinds of eye-catching visuals and crackerjack suspense sequences. But the less-than-inspired script takes way too long to get into high gear and simply doesn’t dispense the requisite amount of thrilling moments. The film remains a reasonably entertaining suspenser, but it will be a challenge for Triumph to attract a substantial audience given pic’s lack of marquee star power and the crowded action marketplace. B.O. will likely be better overseas and in the video market.

The evil Jackal is first introduced in a flashback to early 1970s Paris, where the longhaired killer Carlos (Aidan Quinn) is shown tossing a grenade into a crowded cafe. CIA operative Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) just happens to be sitting outside the exploding coffee shop and, after seeing the effects of Carlos’ nasty handiwork, Shaw vows to hunt down and destroy the terrorist any way he can.

Globetrotting tale then jumps forward 15 years to mid-’80s Jerusalem, where squeaky-clean U.S. naval officer Annibal Ramirez (also Quinn) is on vacation. He is picked up and interrogated by Israeli intelligence agents after Mossad commander Amos (Ben Kingsley) becomes convinced that Ramirez is, in fact, the dreaded Carlos. It appears that the upstanding naval veteran and the murdering terrorist look remarkably similar.

The mix-up is eventually ironed out, and Ramirez heads back home to Norfolk, Va. In the meantime, Shaw has somehow heard about this guy who is practically the identical twin of his arch-nemesis, and he heads to Ramirez’s home to convince the naval officer to impersonate Carlos in an elaborate scheme to reel in the Jackal. Thanks to some heavy-duty strong-arming from Shaw, the initially reluctant Ramirez gives in and accepts the risky assignment.

Then it’s off to Montreal for some rigorous, downright strange training overseen by Shaw and Amos, with Ramirez learning to dodge oncoming snowmobiles, shooting blanks at people, eating dozens of bowls of porridge each day and ingesting hallucinatory drugs. The far-fetched plan is to make the KGB, which is sheltering Carlos in Libya, believe that Carlos is about to switch sides and go over to the CIA. Once they discover this, the Russians will presumably bump off Carlos themselves.

Ramirez meets an old g.f. of Carlos’, Carla (Celine Bonnier), and Shaw and Amos force him to have sex with the sultry woman just so he’ll pick up a few tips about Carlos’ macho style in the sack. After that, he is ready to hook up with another old Carlos g.f., Agnieska (Liliana Komorowska), in a crucial part of the sting.

A key problem here is the length of time it takes for story to reach optimum cruising speed. After nearly an hour, Ramirez is still in training at a dilapidated penitentiary and has not even hit the road to try to draw Carlos from his lair. Duguay, who showcased a sure hand with energetic thrills ‘n’ spills in his previous feature, “Screamers,” once again shows he is a fine action helmer, with various high-adrenaline chase and shootout sequences. But the tale is simply not strong enough to perk up interest, and scripters Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai have not provided enough character development to compensate for the lackluster pacing.

Quinn is the best of the leads, giving some much-needed depth to his portrayal of the goody-two-shoes career naval officer who discovers his own dark demons while impersonating Carlos. Sutherland hardly breathes any life into his role, and Kingsley is equally uninspired.

Duguay, a former cinematographer, and lenser David Franco give the pic a great look and know exactly how to shoot the fast-paced action scenes. All other tech credits are first-rate.

• Production: A Triumph Films release of an Allegro Films production, with the participation of the Quebec and the Canadian governments. (International sales: Columbia TriStar, Culver City.) Produced by Tom Berry, Franco Battista. Executive producers, David Saunders, Joseph Newton Cohen. Co-producer, Stefan Wodoslawsky. Directed by Christian Duguay. Screenplay, Dan Gordon, Sabi H. Shabtai.
• Crew: Camera (color), David Franco; editor, Yves Langlois; music, Normand Corbeil; production design, Michael Joy; art direction, James Fox; costumes, Ada Levin; digital effects, Richard Ostiguy; sound, Thierry Morlaas-Lurbe; assistant director, David McLeod; casting, Mary Margiotta, Karen Margiotta, Lucie Robitaille. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 9, 1997. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 115 MIN.
• With: Annibal Ramirez/Carlos - Aidan Quinn Jack Shaw/Henry Fields - Donald Sutherland Amos - Ben Kingsley Maura Ramirez - Claudia Ferri Carla - Celine Bonnier KGB Head Officer - Vlasta Vrana Agnieska - Liliana Komorowska With: Von Flores, Al Waxman, Mitchell David Rothpan, Gregory Hlady, Gabriel Marian Oseciuc, Frederic Desager, Kliment Denchev, Yonathan Gordon, Ndiouga Sarr, Manuel Aranguiz, Leni Parker.

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The Assignment (1997)

Ben kingsley: amos, photos .

Quotes 

Jack Shaw : Don't think of it as cheating on your wife. Think of it as... fuckin' for your flag.

Amos : When in doubt, close your eyes and think of England.

Amos : When you look in the mirror, I don't want you to find Annibal Ramirez; find Carlos. Because if you find Carlos that's what everyone else will find too. And if you find Carlos and anything goes wrong, he's the only one who can get you out of it, because he's the best at what he does.

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The Assignment (1997)

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Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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Product Description

UK Released DVD/Blu-Ray item. It MAY NOT play on regular US DVD/Blu-Ray player. You may need a multi-region US DVD/Blu-Ray player to play this item. Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Carlos "The Jackal" is the most heinous terrorist the world has ever known. The governments of the United States and Israel for two decades have sought him, escaping each time they come close to capturing him. Actors Aiden Quin, Donald Sutherland & Ben KingsleyDirector Christian DuguayCertificate 18 years and overYear 1997Screen Widescreen 1.85:1Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1)Subtitles English ; Polish ; Czech ; Hungarian ; Icelandic ; Hindi ; Hebrew ; German ; Turkish ; Danish ; Swedish ; Finnish ; Greek ; NorwegianDuration 1 hour and 54 minutes (approx)

Product details

• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.85:1
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.59 x 7.48 inches; 2.4 ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 5050582361827
• Director ‏ : ‎ Christian Duguay
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ PAL
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 55 minutes
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, Claudia Ferri, Céline Bonnier
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, German, Icelandic, Czech, Hungarian, Hebrew, Polish, Hindi
• Producers ‏ : ‎ David Saunders, Franco Battista, Joseph Newton Cohen, Josée Bernard, Stefan Wodoslawsky
• Language ‏ : ‎ German (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Surround)
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00004CYB0
• Writers ‏ : ‎ Dan Gordon, Sabi H. Shabtai
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

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