The Day of the Jackal (1973)

We get a fascinating historical look at the early 1970s in this cat and mouse thriller. A detective uses all means possible to thwart an elaborate plot to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. There is a bit of melodrama, but essentially the film is saved by the sleepless detective who has an army of people in several countries combing through paper files as they try to identify the hit man hired by a terrorist organization (it wouldn't have been nearly as engaging if they had the internet and electronic databases at their disposal).

Kind of a cool film with some intriguing characters.

IMDB