Zodiac - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Written by El Conquistadorko
It all started in Novato, a working class suburb of San Francisco, on
July 4, 1969. Two teenagers, Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau, are
making out in their car at a lover's lane cul de sac, when a car
speeds along the road towards them. Ferrin has a jealous ex-boyfriend,
and she's convinced he's been following her around. The car pulls up
and idles menacingly ten feet away, its headlights blinding the
couple. Then it speeds away. And then the car returns, a man of
average height and build jumps out, walks calmly toward Ferrin and
Mageau, and starts shooting.
Ferrin died of her injuries but miraculously Mageau survived. Ferrin's
supposed boyfriend had nothing to do with the murder; there's no
indication he even existed. But a few days later, a letter arrives at
the San Francisco Chronicle from the killer, who calls himself Zodiac.
Thus begins a crime spree that left five known victims dead and which,
along with the Manson family and Altamont, became part of California's
dark departure from the halcyon 1960s and inspired the fictional
serial killer depicted in Dirty Harry. Part of the public fascination
with Zodiac is that he left an elaborate web of coded clues to his
identity. The other part, of course, is that nobody ever completely
cracked the code and caught the guy.
It doesn't ruin the enjoyment of watching Zodiac to know all this from
the get-go. In fact, the lack of resolution in this film is exactly
what makes it so intriguing and terrifying. Director David Finch's
masterful storytelling propels what in many ways is one of the most
subdued thrillers ever made, a film where the actual murders, which
occur on screen are often less creepy than the scenes where the police
and reporters interview suspects who turn out to be innocent.
Zodiac isn't a short film, but unlike Munich, for example, where the
cat and mouse game between Israeli commandos and PLO terrorists seems
to grind on as long as the Arab-Israeli conflict itself, the film's
pacing only grows in intensity as the cops seem to close in on the
culprit only to realize they're no closer to finding the killer than
when they started. These blind alleys and near-misses are exactly what
makes the film so suspenseful and realistic. In fact, as the
Director's cut reveals, every detail in the film is based on fact.
The two-disc set comes complete with a feature-length documentary,
"Deciphering Zodiac," that includes exclusive interviews with
witnesses, police and even two Zodiac victims who managed to survive
their encounters with the killer. There's also a feature, "His Name
Was Arthur Leigh Allen," that profiles David Leigh Allen, and at the
end of the film, despite knowing police could never link him to the
crime and in fact established he couldn't have been the killer, you
still feel like he was involved.
In the film itself, there's one scene toward the end where a San
Francisco Chronicle cartoonist played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who helped
crack the Zodiac's legendarily bizarre coded messages, which were sent
to both the newspaper and police, confronts suspect David Leigh Allen
long after police have closed the case and ruled Allen out as a
suspect. Allen, played by the normally benign seeming John Carroll
Lynch (most recognizable as the wooden duck-painting Norm Gunderson in
Fargo), knows that Gyllenhaal's character believes he's the Zodiac and
Gyllenhaal's character knows he knows. No words are exchanged, but the
scene deserves to be celebrated as one of the most intimately
disturbing conversations ever put on film.
Labels: David Fincher, Jake Gyllenhaal, Serial Killer, Zodiac
posted by El Bicho @ 12:06 PM 0 comments links to this post
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