Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor & Neil Davey
Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Chloë Sevigny, Anthony Edwards, Mark Ruffalo,
Elias Koteas, Dermot Mulroney | Written by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 155 minutes | Directed by David Fincher
The words "director's cut" evoke a completely different take on the film — think Ridley's Scott's reworking of Blade Runner. Fincher's new cut of Zodiac runs just 4 minutes longer, and it's difficult to tell the difference between this and the original cut. But that doesn't matter one jot; Zodiac is still one of the best crime thrillers of the past two decades.
This is not the first film to be made based on the infamous San Francisco serial killer who called himself Zodiac — that honour goes to 1971's The Zodiac Killer — but it's fair to say Fincher's effort is probably the best. It's also fair to say that David Fincher has evolved into a very smart, mature filmmaker. Forget the flash of Fight Club and the grisly gore of Se7en, this is a quiet, considered study of an unsolved mystery — although the three murders we do witness are very nasty indeed.
Zodiac was the name a serial killer gave himself in his taunting letters to the press during his murderous spree in San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s. To date, he has not been caught. To date, the police have pinned him with seven definite victims. Zodiac, however, claimed dozens more, stating that he’d made them look like routine robberies and accidents. The true figure then will probably never be known. Shortly after his first slayings, he wrote letters to three of the area’s papers: The San Francisco Chronicle; The Herald and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Each letter contained references to details that only the police or the killer would know, plus part of a coded message that the killer demanded be published on the papers’ front pages. Failure to do so would lead to more killings.
At the Chronicle, cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) is in the meeting when the letter is opened. While he doesn’t solve the cipher, he works out that the killer is referencing a classic movie, and he becomes enthralled by the case. The other key figures in the investigation — detectives Dave Toschi (Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Edwards) plus Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery (Downey Jr, excellent as always) — become celebrities, but as the case remains unsolved for years and other issues creep in, their stars wane and their lives suffer. Only Graysmith — on whose book this is based — kept digging. But at what cost?
This is not a film about the killings, or even the killer, per se; it's a film of how these events impacted on the lives — professional and personal — of the people involved in trying to solve the crimes. And the person on whom the killer has the biggest impact is the person you'd least expect — Graysmith. Perfectly portrayed by Gyllenhaal, Graysmith is a rather quiet, meek and thoughtful man who lets his obsession to uncover the killer's identity ultimately take over his life — more so than the police officers involved and crime reporter Avery. Long after these three have moved on, Graysmith is still plugging away, digging through old files, interviewing witnesses and survivors. All to no avail — the killer was never caught, and the case is unsolved to this day.
Zodiac reminds a lot of Alan Pakula's All The President's Men. It beautifully evokes the era — rotary-dial telephones (just how did we cope before mobiles?), newsrooms full of smoke, typewriters and boxes full of paper rather than computers, a much slower pace of life — and never sensationalises or glamorises the events on which its based. Although there is no ultimate resolution, Zodiac is a must-see, if only to watch a master craftsman at work.
EXTRAS **** A much more thorough package than on the previously-released single-disc edition. There are two audio commentaries — the first with Fincher, the second with Gyllenhaal, Downey Jr, producer Brad Fischer, screenwriter Vanderbilt and crime novelist James Ellroy. The second disc has a bunch of featurettes: Zodiac Deciphered, The Visual Effects of Zodiac and Previsualisation all deal with the making of the film. This is The Zodiac Speaking and Prime Suspect are documentaries that deal with the facts of the case itself — including new interviews with the police involved and surviving victims, plus the truth about the main suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen. If you don't already own Zodiac on DVD, then this is definitely the edition to get.