"It's to David Fincher's credit that his films take place somewhere beyond our edge-- yet in a recognizable extension of our nightmares."
-- David Thomson from The Biographical Dictionary of Film (2002)
It was with hell bent rage that I went through our house last night looking for Sharon Waxman's Rebel's On The Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered The Studio System. I must have searched through every room of the house. Boxes, closets and shelves examined for this elusive book. No luck, I could not find it. Even after spending 158 minutes with David Fincher's Zodiac, I still felt the need to spend some more time with him. David Fincher is one of those "rebels". This is a film about obsession and the consequences of obsession. And no I do not think Brain De Palma could do a better job with the material. The thought never even crossed my mind while watching the film. Brian De Palma is an expert at the themes on display in the film, but Fincher seems more at home than any other director. Zodiac is Fincher's beast. Robert Graysmith's book could not be in better hands. The ultimate tale of obsession told with attentive detail to every aspect of the hunt for the infamous serial killer. With this film, David Fincher proves himself to be the ultimate rebel who owns the backlot.
During the summer of 1992, I had no idea what a David Fincher film would entail. "A David Fincher film" had little or no meaning to me while watching Alien 3. The music video and commercial director had not yet registered on my map. It does seem right that a film director who cut his teeth as a technician at Industrial Light And Magic would direct the third installment of bountiful Alien franchise. Hell, he did matte work on Return Of The Jedi. It is not until the end of watching Seven that I realized we are dealing with someone with immense talent and skill. The Game is a wonderful parody of the doomed and dumb white males that Michael Douglas portrayed in films from Fatal Attraction through Disclosure. It is a maddening and suspenseful trip that never lets up. Does the film ever end? Is there any real closure? Fight Club gives us so much to think about, one wonders
how it could ever be released by a major studio. Fincher manages to craft a film that can peacefully co-exist with Chuck Palahniuk's prophetic novel. The film also reminds us that Pitt and Fincher should work together more often. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button cannot get here fast enough. Anything would have would have been a letdown after Fight Club and Panic Room is a mixed bag at best, but Jodie Foster and Fincher are together at long last. Panic rooms were on the wish list of every executive after the film was released. An impressive body of work leads us Zodiac. After all, this is the ultimate cold case. The killer has not been found. Imagine if Kevin Spacey's John Doe in Seven had never turned himself in? Detective Mills and Somerset may never have found him. That is just a hypothetical situation. The horrifying reality of Zodiac is there is not any closure. David Fincher has made the American equivalent of Joon-ho Bong's Memories Of Murder. The truly sad thing is that David Fincher has made two astonishing contributions to the serial killer genre. I doubt he will want to do another one after such an epic undertaking. He is the only director who could bring Caleb Carr's The Alienist to the big screen and make it work.
David Fincher attacks Zodiac with a Michael Mann approach. The police procedural parts of the film echo Michael Mann's "Men at Work" ethos in such films as Heat, Thief, The Insider and Miami Vice. Fincher takes it further with this film taking it to epic heights. The scenes of the newspaper reporters and editors in the offices at The San Francisco Chronicle bring to mind Alan J. Pakula's All The President's Men. Steven Soderbergh loved the opening credit sequences of All The President's Men. David Fincher loved the actual film. Zodiac is based on Robert Graysmith's bestseller of the same name. A serial killer is terrorizing the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960's and 1970's. The serial killer taunts the police with his letters and cryptic messages. The film is a thinly fictionalized account of the obsessive hunt for the killer. It shows in the way the characters interact with each other. The trio of Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the tightest in decades. Each actor is at the top of his game. Downey is the essence of seduction as Paul Avery, the crime reporter who is covering the Zodiac killer story. Mark Ruffalo is electric as San Francisco police Detective, Dave Toschi. He taught Steve McQueen how to wear a gun in Bullitt. And Jake Gyllenhaal is Robert Graysmith, a quiet, political cartoonist who is excellent at solving puzzles. He is the film's Boy Scout. The film belongs to each of these actors at certain points of the film. They work so well together, it is joy to watch them interact with each other throughout the film. The case consumes each of them. The hunt for the Zodiac killer is the only thing that matters. Everything else takes a backseat. Graysmith wants to be in on the chase so badly-- screw cartoons, he wants to work with Avery and find the killer. When Avery comes over and introduces himself to Graysmith, it is one of the film's warmest touches. Their evolving friendship during the first half of the film is a pleasure.
The case takes its toll on everyone involved. The never-ending chase and search for suspects. The handwriting analysis of the letters and just trying to figure out where this guy will strike next has the whole city on the edge. The film's strength is not to play it like a traditional serial killer that shows the killer going about his business. The scenes that do show the killer and his victims are indeed chilling and as an audience, we feel as helpless as the victims. It is to Fincher's credit that he never goes overboard on these parts of this film with excessive violence or gore.
“I like killing people because it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangerous anamal."
That is the first cipher from the Zodiac killer that stomped law enforcement agencies including the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., but it was decoded California schoolteacher and his wife. More letters with misspellings would continue to come over the years. The thing that is made clear is that Zodiac is an attention seeker-- a publicity whore. Is he responsible for all the crimes or is he taking responsibility for crimes he just read about in the papers? Who he is? Did they ever have a solid lead? Did the police make a mistake early on by claiming he was African American? During a screening of Dirty Harry at a local movie theater, Toschi has to walk out of the movie. He is frustrated that they are not even close to finding the killer. The man who taught McQueen how to wear a gun is disgusted because Eastwood can kill the Zodiac on the other side of the screen. On this side of the screen, that kind closure does not exist.
If the film belongs to Downey and Ruffalo at certain times, than the third act belong to Jake Gyllenhaal. As the years go by and the case and story go nowhere, Avery has been let go. His wild life of drinking and drugs has taken its toll. The case has taken its toll on Toschi and his partner, William Armstrong played by Anthony Edwards. The case costs them their partnership. Graysmith has been consumed by the case. His first date with Melanie played by Chloe Sevigny turns into all about the Zodiac. Their marriage over the years falls apart due to his obsession with the killer. He loses his job and to him his only job is the Zodiac. It is his only reason for living. Out of the whole ordeal, he was able to write two bestselling books about the case-- Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked.
Three lives altered and weakened by the cost of obsession.
The marvel of the film is how Fincher and his cinematographer, Harris Savides not only take us back to the 1970's San Francisco, but at how they make us forget about the world we live in today. We are so used to our technology like cell phones, computers, the internet and 24 hour cable news. The film takes place long before any of this is around. It is the pre. pre-internet era. The mail and the simple telephone are the only tools they had to work with back then. The genius of the film is making us forget they we better technology today. The film transports us back to a different time with no problem. Savides shoots the film in beautiful high definition digital. San Francisco has never looked more beautiful. The rest of the cast is excellent. Dermot Mulroney is great as Captain Marty Lee. Philip Baker Hall is great as Sherwood Morrill, the handwriting expert. Brain Cox is a delight as Melvin Belli. Elias Koteas, Donal Logue and James Legros are great as the other police officers from surrounding areas. And John Carroll Lynch is down right creepy as Arthur Leigh Allen. The less said about him, the better.
As with my review for Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, I have written a very passionate review of Fincher and his film. I do not apologize for either review. A lot of filmmakers are my heroes. When they triumph, it is a reason to celebrate and hope that the MBA studio chief does not call the shots. When they fail and disappoint it can be heartbreaking. Watching Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German was not a happy affair. It was a hard review to write, but at least Thomas Newman did a great job with the soundtrack. David Fincher has created an epic film about the hunt for a serial killer. An obsessive quest with staggering results for everyone involved. A film that has some meaning for us today. A film about an unseen enemy. An enemy that cannot be found and strikes out without warning. A film that say more about the times we live in right now. Fincher has made the perfect film for the post 9/11 era.
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