Zodiac (2007)

[Dave]

I saw Zodiac last night on behalf of Chronicles. Warner Brothers kindly gave me an invite to a pre-screening in London. So, I guess I should write a review of some sort for you.

Firstly, I liked it and would recommend it, and though it probably won’t be the best film I see this year, it may make my Top 5 or Top 10, but then this does look like being a good year.

It isn’t science fiction, not even remotely, though there is a little about ciphers and codes. In fact, I would find it difficult to classify it into a genre. It is a crime/cop/ thriller, it is the ultimate cold case, but that is not the main story. The essential story is the obsession that takes hold of the investigators. One at a time, and to some more than others, two detectives, a newspaper crime reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle, and the newspaper’s cartoonist, become so involved with the hunt for the killer that it makes them overnight celebrities before it destroys them.

This isn’t a comedy, but there are also about 5 or 6 very well placed, and very funny jokes.

I won’t go into the plot in detail. It concerns a relentless serial killer who is stalking the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area, leaving citizens locked into a constant state of panic, and baffled authorities scrambling for clues. Though the killer sadistically mocks the detectives by leaving a series of perplexing ciphers and menacing letters, the investigation quickly stalls when none of the evidence yields any solid leads.

In the US this story seems known more widely than in the UK. I don’t think that is because of my age, I was around at the time and I don’t remember it being reported in the way that it would be today. I found that was an advantage to watching the film. Being a real story, it does not have a satisfactory ending, and if I had known the ending in advance it would have been less interesting. The killer has still not been brought to trial. There is strong circumstantial evidence that it was one of the main suspects who is now dead, but the case remains open in some of the police departments.

The police departments themselves participated in the making of the film because they hope that they might find some new evidence to finally lay the case to rest. Witnesses are old or have died now, and yet two of the ciphers have still never been decoded. It was two members of the public who deciphered the original cipher, something that neither the FBI, NSA and NCIS could not.

The film is too long at 2 hours and 38 minutes, but it is based on two books. I’m not sure how it could have been abridged. It doesn’t use everything from the books, but instead comes at it from the point of view of the four main investigators, especially the Robert Graysmith character. They could have missed out the finer details of the murders, but then there would be less reason for the audience to want to catch the killer, or to understand the obsession with the hunt.

There are four main characters:

Mark Ruffalo plays the ambitious Homicide Inspector David Toschi. Toschi became extremely well known and used as a template by Hollywood to model its super cops. He was the basis for Steve McQueen in Bullitt, for Michael Douglas in The Streets of San Francisco and for Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry is even referenced in Zodiac when Toschi cannot stand to watch the film’s premier as the Scorpio killer’s cipher cannot be decoded. It was at the film premier that Toschi would first meet Graysmith. But they deliberately didn’t go out to make another Dirty Harry film here, and there is no Harry Calaghan that cleans up the city streets. Instead Toschi was put under investigation by Internal Affairs, charged with forging a later Zodiac letter and suffered a serious stomach ulcer.

Anthony Edwards plays Toschi’s low-key, meticulous partner Inspector William Armstrong. For him, the futility of the case leads him to leave. Both Armstrong and Toschi had had promising careers, Toschi being tipped for Chief of Police, but instead they were burnt out by this case. Since the case spanned many different police departments, some of them rural backwaters, they were forced to step on shoes to get results.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Paul Avery, a seasoned and cynical star crime reporter. His obsession with the case leads him into heavy drinking and drug taking. He leaves the newspaper crippled by his addictions, and his life ends on an oxygen machine.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith, the newspaper’s cartoonist, but with an interest in ciphers and puzzles. A is a shy, eagle scout, without Avery’s police connections, but with crucial insight that no one expected. He takes on the case when everyone else has left it for dead, but it destroys his marriage and family life in the process.

It is a period piece; it spans a wide period of time from 1969 to the 1990’s. I didn’t find any nitpicks, though the producers admit there are some to spot. I didn’t recognise the make of car driven by Graysmith, but I’ll buy one, since he drove it for at least 10 years! One thing I did read was that they killed two San Francisco Oak trees in the making of the film.

[littlemissattitude]

Thanks for the review, Dave. Unfortunately, Zodiac has already been in and out of the theatres here in the States. I wanted to see it on the big screen, but now I'll have to wait for the DVD.

I'm interested in seeing the film mostly because I've read the books that it was based on, and they were fascinating. Also, I do remember the case from the time it was ongoing...here in California it was widely reported at the time although, as you say, not in the same way that it would have been reported if it were taking place today. I think that's simply because the media is different now, much more sensationalistic than it was then. At that time, the media reported stories; these days, it becomes obsessed by them.

[Dave]

There are a few more things that I was going to mention. I was surprised to read that Toschi was the real life basis for the fictional characters of Inspector Harry Callaghan, Inspector Steve Keller and Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, because my first impression was Lieutenant Colombo. I don't mean that in a derogatory way either, but because of the wild, black, curly hair, and the way he payed close attention to tiny inconsistencies in the evidence. However, he really did design an upside down holster, for the more easy drawing of his gun.

I also wondered why they invited someone from SFF Chronicles-network to the screening. It clearly wasn't science fiction, or fantasy, but then there is no equivalent bulletin board for thrillers (because someone started a thread about that already.) Then about half way through the film it struck me. Graysmith and Avery worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, the SF Chronicle. I'm not complaining mind, they can invite me again anytime.

If this has already been in theatres in the US, what did you think? It has been held back for a long time. David Fincher, the director (Se7en and Fight Club) wanted a scene re-shot. I do think it will have a different response in the UK where the story is less well known. I also think many people will go expecting it to be just another cop thriller with a letter writing psyco, but I think it is something else entirely different.

[Niolani]

Im in Australia and I'm looking forward to this movie, owning both the books written by Robert Graysmith. I am glad that you thought it was good because quite often I see a movie based on real life events and am sorely disappointed.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Niolani

...quite often I see a movie based on real life events and am sorely disappointed.

I think they have really tried to make it true to real life events. They didn't just use Graysmith's books but went back and interviewed everyone involved, including the detectives and surviving victims.

And the film differs from the books in that Graysmith takes a central role in the film, which he doesn't in the books. The screenwriter/producer, Jamie Vanderbilt was fascinated by the involvement Graysmith, the cartoonists turned crime-stopper.