DVD Tuesday: David Fincher Dissects the Serial Killer Called Zodiac

Zodiac courtesy Paramount Home Video David Fincher's Zodiac (2007) strikes me as a fascinating companion piece to last week's DVD Tuesday pick, Manhunter (1986). While both are about the hunt for a serial killer and the toll it takes on the investigators, Manhunter is pure fiction inspired by the work of the FBI's behavioral science unit, while Zodiac (unlike 1971's Dirty Harry or the 2006 Zodiac, which also took their inspiration from the case) hews closely to the facts of a nearly 40-year-old unsolved case. The killer dubbed "Zodiac" — after a cryptic symbol with which he signed a series of taunting letters to the media and the police — is credited with seven murderous attacks committed between December 1968 and October 1969 in and around the San Francisco Bay Area; two victims survived and five died. Zodiac (and/or one or more copycats) played ruthless games with the police, claiming dozens of victims who died or vanished both before and after the acknowledged 1968-'69 spree. He or they sent ciphers, postcards, poems and various other communications through the mail, made taunting calls and even arranged a televised telephone conversation with noted attorney Marvin "King of Torts" Belli (perhaps better known today for his appearance on the Star Trek episode "And the Children Shall Lead" than for his then-stellar roster of celebrity clients, and played by Brian Cox, Manhunter's Dr. Lector). Zodiac played on popular fears of the counterculture, cults, Satanism, sex- and drug-crazed hippies, and the general unraveling of conservative, law-abiding mores like a pro. Fincher's film was a critical hit, but audiences didn't warm to it; I suspect part of the reason is that a lot of younger moviegoers weren't familiar with the case and, having no idea it was unsolved, were disappointed when the film ends on an ambiguous, unresolved note. I think if you go in knowing there's no resolution in the offing, you're in a better position to focus on the personal turmoil of the cops, reporters and forensic experts who immersed themselves in the hunt for a vicious killer who got away and publicly humiliated them in the process. Fincher opens with the 1969 lover's-lane shootings of Michael Renault Mageau and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin (he survived, she didn't) and ends more than 20 years later with the tantalizing suggestion that one of the suspects (John Carroll Lynch) interviewed during the original investigation may well have been the killer. Fincher re-creates the killings, but his focus is the men in the eye of the storm: San Francisco PD inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) — the model for Steve McQueen's character in Bullit (1968) — and his partner, Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), Vallejo Police Department Sergeant Jack Mulanax (Elias Koteas), hard-drinking and -drugging San Francisco Examiner reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and Avery's colleague editorial cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose gift for working puzzles thrust him into the forefront of the investigation (his books about the Zodiac killer were among Fincher's primary source materials). All emerged from the investigation changed men, touched by a malignant darkness they could neither understand nor escape. And just as Manhunter owns "Innagadadavida" for all time, Zodiac now owns Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," whose slyly insinuating tune and hippie-dippy lyrics will now forever sound to me eerie and faintly menacing. Things to consider: What are your thoughts about the argument that people like crime movies because they deliver a sense of closure and the restoration of order that's all too often missing in real life? What true-crime cause haunts or fascinates you? Send your movie questions to FlickChick. Hear Maitland on the weekly podcast TV Guide Talk. See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast. Previously in DVD Tuesday: Manhunter A Simple Plan Taxi Driver Renaissance Blowup Hot Fuzz 300 Ace in the Hole Eyes Without a Face Apocalypto Citizen Kane La Jetée Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) Bob le Flambeur Near Dark Perfect Blue Pan's Labyrinth Les Girls The Girl Who Knew Too Much The Queen Expresso Bongo I'm Not Scared Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! — Scanners and The Candy Snatchers Don't Look Now Re-Animator Casino Royale http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=800073953#comments">Pi The Prestige 13 Tzameti The Departed Suspiria Kiss and Make Up Kiss Me Deadly The Long Good Friday What Alice Found The Devil's Backbone The Descent The Devil Wears Prada Pandora's Box The Thief and the Cobbler Nashville Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview The Pusher Trilogy Scarface Slither Sunset Blvd. In Cold Blood Brick Also: This week's new DVD releases Leave a Comment
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Posted by Maitland McDonagh Sep 18, 2007 12:02 AM Report Abuse

Friendly angel come to me.

I do think that most true crime movies tend to wrap things up at convenient story points so there is a sense of satisfaction and completion for the audience.

Serpico and The Onion Field come to mind as two stories where the plot seems to either come to a sudden halt or real events are "fudged" so that the story has a neat endpoint that can be covered with a few title cards telling what happened next to the characters.

I don't think this is any different than a fictional crime story. Usually, the audience seeks a sense of closure in almost any movie.

But in this case, they get to know that a real criminal was caught and that real justice was served. And that does seem more gratifying. I also think people just tend to get off on macabre sex and violence that seems all the more lurid when you know it's a true story.

Posted by achyfakey

Sep 18, 2007 12:33 AM

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I think in the United States we like things wrapped in neat packages with bows on top. So, when it comes to movies we want a beginning, a middle and an ending. It's satisfying, after all. If you watch as many foreign films as we do, particularly European films, you find many where the movie seems to come to an abrupt stop. There is no resolution. In the special features of the French movie Caché, the director Michael Haneke says specifically only those audiences in the US expect an ending to a movie. So many things in life have no ending. I think he is in part at least right in his statement that we here in the US expect it more than anywhere else.

I personally thought David Fincher's Zodiac was brilliant on many level. I do remember the killings from when they were happening. There was a sick sort of "he'll never be caught" feeling. It was news all over the country - kind of a vigilante against love, which caught everyone's attention. The movie catches the feeling so well and personally there is nothing I love more than a scene like the one with Graysmith in the basement of the house where no one was suppose to be upstairs but the indication was there was someone there. It adds tension even when nothing comes of it and I appreciate it greatly.

Jeffrey Dahmer haunts me. Not so much the how or the actual act as the why. I wish I knew why. When you read about him and the case it doesn't fit for him to go so deep into deviance. I guess I am interested in the answer to psychological questions, even though most of the time the answer will never really be known.

Posted by CinderAngelkc

Sep 18, 2007 2:01 AM

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Off topic but since it was mentioned in the last column... It is my sad duty to report that there is a remake/revision of Near Dark in the works. Back to your regularly scheduled program...
Posted by achyfakey Sep 18, 2007 1:54 PM Report Abuse

Here's a strange thought- Instead of ripping off a Title to gain box office numbers. why not just make a GOOD movie?">
Posted by Mr. Furley Sep 18, 2007 7:39 PM Report Abuse

Now, now, Mr. F. You're just mad they haven't made Three's Company: The Movie yet.
Posted by achyfakey Sep 18, 2007 8:30 PM Report Abuse

Hey Acky! I guess you haven't seen 1982's Summer Lovers.... I'm the one with the camera...with the disguise....in the closet....behind the palm tree....">
Posted by Mr. Furley Sep 18, 2007 8:41 PM Report Abuse

OMG - Acky - hush up or someone will do it. Seriously. Of all the potential ill conceived movies from TV shows, that one really is a scary thought.
Posted by CinderAngelkc Sep 18, 2007 10:43 PM Report Abuse

Um, what about Manimal vs. The Misfits of Science? I'm working on the script right now...
Posted by achyfakey Sep 19, 2007 2:50 AM Report Abuse

Achy--It is my sad duty to report that there is a remake/revision of Near Dark in the works. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh please no!
Posted by raputathebuta Sep 19, 2007 9:08 AM Report Abuse

This isn't completely relevant but...I just saw Zodiac and while I thoroughly enjoyed it I was reminded of two things:

I hate it when a film that shifts focus between so many characters, especially those modeled on real life persons,fails to more clearly identify them. In fact, even though I think that when a film's character's over use another character's name when speaking directly to them is a sign of sloppy or improvised scripting (see any Vincent Gallo film) I do think that in just about any film most characters should be referred to by name at least once, with some exceptions of course. I certainly would have enjoyed something like the Dorothy Parker film (Mrs. Parker and ther Vicious Circle) if I had been able to better identify all the characters and connect them to the stories I had been reading about for years and was so anticipating seeing onscreen.

And, in viewing Zodiac I was once again reminded of what a great actor robert Downey Jr. is and how he was truly robbed of an Oscar for Chaplin. The other nominees were all worthy-
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Stephen Rea - The Crying Game
Denzel Washington - Malcolm X-but Al Pacino who I like quite a bit and who won for Scent Of A Woman was the absolute wrong choice that year. In that role he was simply emptying the bag of tricks that he often employs in lieu of an actual nuanced performance and which threaten to send him over the line of parody.
I might have been okay with Denzel or Clint picking up the statue instead of Downey but really, there certainly wasn't a better performance than Downey's in that or almost any other year in recent history.

Posted by DaMess

Sep 20, 2007 2:54 AM

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