Zodiac (Fincher, 2007)

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Film Description

David Fincher’s adaptation of the Robert Graysmith book masterfully transports viewers to the Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s by drawing on actual case files from the notoriously unsolved Zodiac killer mystery. As a murderer with seemingly random targets starts sending terrifying threats and cryptic codes to police and publishers all around San Francisco, fear and paranoia descend on the city. Through slow pacing, Fincher creates an effectively chilling atmosphere in which he spins a thick web of character-driven plotlines. Early scenes depicting the Zodiac’s first-known murders vividly capture the victim’s fear and agony.

When the Zodiac’s ciphers arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle, they spark the interest of Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young cartoonist with a penchant for puzzles. As the former Boy Scout earnestly tries to decode the messages, eccentric reporter Paul Avery approaches the case from a career-boosting angle. Meanwhile, a string of investigators from four jurisdictions carry on a complex and unsatisfying search for the elusive killer. Inspectors Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) at times collide with Avery and Graysmith, whose interest in the case extends long after most have given up.

This dense murder mystery will keep its audience riveted. A clever script produces well-developed characters, and the film’s art direction, music, and costumes all combine to create an authentic sense of time and place. The sombre tone of the atmospheric thriller gives the film a documentary-like aesthetic at times, and invites viewers to develop theories of their own about the killer.

Film Information

DVD Extras

Audio commentary from Director David Fincher; Audio commentary from Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal, producer Brad Fischer, screenplay writer James Verndbilt and crime writer James Ellroy; ‘Zodiac Deciphered’ (54:15) - Behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew; ‘The Visual Effects Of Zodiac’ (15:18) - Featurette detailing how David Fincher managed to create the look of 1970s San Francisco; ‘Previsualisation’ - Three short split-screen clips showing the difference between 3D animatics and the film's final shots; ‘This is The Zodiac Speaking’ (102:15) - In-depth documentary exclusive to this DVD featuring new interviews with investigators and survivors of the Zodiac, focusing on the events portrayed in the film; ‘His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen’ (42:35) - Documentary focusing on the prime suspect in the Zodiac case, featuring interviews with friends and acquaintances as well as Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal’s character); Theatrical trailer.

Technical Details

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6 Stills

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1 Trailer

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Julian Upton on 5th September 2007

Between 1968 and 1974, a serial killer calling himself the Zodiac terrorized San Francisco and its environs. Five murders are attributable to him; dozens of others are suspected. He was never caught, but what made him uniquely terrifying was his sustained campaign of public letter writing — to the San Francisco Chronicle and other papers he sent complex cryptograms that, when deciphered, taunted the authorities, warned of further murders and promised clues to his identity. The letters trailed off towards the mid-seventies, but at its height, the Zodiac affair sent the city into near-hysteria (one letter threatened a siege on a school bus). Movies like Dirty Harry, which pitted Clint Eastwood against a psychopath called Scorpio, quickly capitalized on this public mood.

David Fincher’s Zodiac owes more to Alan J Pakula’s All the President’s Men than it does to Dirty Harry, however (although one darkly ironic scene does take place at the San Francisco premier of the Eastwood movie). Fincher lets the parallel police and journalistic investigations into this peculiar one-man crimewave unfold with a careful, measured pace. And like Pakula’s film, Zodiac is never less than utterly compelling because of it, thanks to a script that ingeniously fuses endless files of case information with some deft characterizations. Mark Ruffalo gives his best performance yet as the beleaguered, Columbo-like cop on the killer’s trail, while Robert Downey Jnr, as Chronicle journalist Paul Avery, lends the proceedings some flamboyant light relief.

Shot with Thompson Viper Filmstream cameras, Zodiac is also something of a technical marvel: it is the first mainstream Hollywood film created without the use of film or digital videotape; files were recorded directly onto the system’s hard drive, and could be played back instantly in high resolution. This doesn’t in any way compromise the film’s meticulous look; indeed, it seems to enhance it. Zodiac evokes the colours and styles of its chronology with a dazzling precision — from the tatty, sixties Chronicle newsroom to the eerie moonlight of Bay Area nights — and adds a lyrical touch to a complex but absorbing narrative.

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Review by Howard Schumann on 5th September 2007

Beginning in 1969 and continuing into the 70s, San Francisco papers were filled with stories about a mysterious serial killer who called himself the Zodiac. Taunting the police to discover his identity - letters, ciphers, puzzles, and clues filled the newspapers until the story became a daily media event. Based on two books, “Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked” by Robert Graysmith, a former editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and on actual case files researched by the director, David Fincher’s Zodiac dramatizes the search for the identity of the killer, focusing more on the lives of the reporters and police officers who investigate the case than on the killings and their victims. The case has never been solved and no arrests have ever been made, in spite of there being 2500 suspects including one very plausible possibility discussed in the film.

Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Graysmith, an amateur detective who becomes interested in the case while working for the Chronicle. Though the killings stopped long ago, Graysmith continued to pursue leads long after the official investigation ceased. As the Zodiac keeps upping the ante, he holds the media hostage, threatening to attack a school bus filled with children. Fincher, like an episode of Dragnet, gives us just the facts and lets us draw our own conclusions while describing conversations, procedures, interviews, and searches of public and private records in minute detail.

Zodiac is an intelligent and involving film that holds our attention for the 158 minute running time and fully conveys the sense of fear and paranoia that gripped the Bay Area during that period. As completely fascinating as All The President’s Men, Zodiac is a roller coaster ride through tips, secret meetings, false leads, and hopes raised and then dashed. All that is missing is Deep Throat.

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Julian Upton 's Films of the Year 2007 by Julian Upton

A very good year for new and re-releases this year. I found it easy to make this list of films old, new, borrowed and blue, as it were. DVD box sets of the Fassbinder variety continue to become more and more tempting purchases, presenting as they do high quality transfers of films that have been unavailable for too long and adding value with some fascinating extras.

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