“Zodiac” (2007)
The Best of David Fincher — Vol 3.
The Best of David Fincher — Vol 3.
I grew to love Zodiac. Mainly because it’s a far better film than I initially gave it credit for and it’s a film for which the tired old clichés of “ages like a fine wine” or “gets better with repeated viewings” was made for. Director David Fincher had me from a very early cinematic age as you’ll read in the much longer opus blog article below on the first 22 years of his film directing career. Okay Alien 3 is utterly dreadful but Zodiac falls squarely in the middle of his career to date and remains steadfastly third overall in my all time affections for the films under his direction.
I also grew to love Zodiac as I learned to look past the holes in the story that I long believed were filled in the various books I’ve read on the subject as well as the innumerable podcasts I’ve listened to covering this case in particular as well as the wider grisly genre of serial killers. I rushed to judgement and picked holes in one of, if not the most notorious unsolved cases in American criminal history and I’ve aged liked a fine wine to appreciate the director and the film, and a film voted as the 12th greatest film of the 21st Century by a critics poll for the BBC.
It isn’t the 12th greatest film of the 21st Century but it is a towering achievement and the 3rd greatest film under the direction of David Fincher.
David Fincher — 22 Years in Film
Alien 3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, Benjamin Button, Social Network, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo…medium.com
“I am not the Zodiac. And if I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you”.
A “based on a true story” tale of The Zodiac, and a serial killer in San Francisco of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Set mainly within the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper to whom The Zodiac sends his cryptic codes and cyphers, whilst also cutting away to additional evidence (for the audience in the main), and to the often very violent multiple killings of the mass murderer. But what’s crucial here is the time span involved, the frustration at the inability to solve the murders, to the character’s individual lives falling apart and failing, and often as a result of their failure to catch The Zodiac killer. A stellar supporting cast to the three stand out roles briefly noted below are Anthony Edwards who excels as local Police Inspector “William Armstrong”, Brian Cox as “Melvin Belli”, Elias Koteas as “Sergeant Jack Mulanax” and Chloe Sevigny as “Melanie”.
There are numerous further supporting and cameo roles, notably Dermot Mulroney as “Captain Marty Lee” and Philip Baker Hall as “Sherwood Morrill”. The three main characters are each dissected, slowly and surely with layer upon layer of detail which is painstaking at times, but this is very much a character film detailing their choices, decisions and actions sometimes at odds, often contradictory, but triumphantly so in the hands of Fincher, and his three stand out actors.
“Robert Graysmith” (Jake Gyllenhaal) Gyllenhaal plays Graysmith, upon whose book the film is adapted. Nervous and cumbersome, he stumbles into the investigation by virtue of his hobby of puzzles and codes and quickly becomes a de facto part of the editorial team. Socially awkward, he becomes obsessed with the case to the detriment of his new family.
A stand out performance from Gyllenhaal.
“David Toschi” (Mark Ruffalo) Excellent in the role of a local Police Inspector. Torn between solving the case and/or moving on with his life, the character quickly dissolves into desperation and into aiding Graysmith legally and illegally with the task of solving the case.
“Paul Avery” (Robert Downey Jr) Yet again Downey Jr infuses his on screen character with a heightened mix of the bizarre and surreal. His performance is a true stand out as we again watch as a life is disturbed and pushed to the edge because of abject failure.
Because of the nature of the story itself (Newspaper/Police/Media) as the viewer you are often piecing the puzzle together with the characters. However a minor drawback is the long three hour run time and often the painstaking detail being played out in a newspaper office. A shortened run time and quicker editing between scenes would have taken a good film into a very good/great one.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“The Kings of Summer” (2013)
Charming debut from Jordan Vogt-Roberts.medium.com
“Source Code” (2011)
“You’re acting really strange this morning”.medium.com
“Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Brilliant B/W spotlight on a Media that hasn’t changed.medium.com