chinese zodiac: zodiacal

Zodiacal

At some point in the mid-1990s, a stand-up comedian cracked wise about

how the End of Days was obviously nigh because the highest paid

directors working in Hollywood were Opie and Meathead - meaning, of

course, Ron Howard and Rob Reiner, respectively the directors of

PARENTHOOD (1989) and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989). It was a

medium-funny joke to me at the time but I flashed back to it while

watching David Fincher's ZODIAC (2006).

For those unfamiliar with the case, Zodiac was the name chosen by a

writer of hectoring letters to the San Francisco Chronicle which took

Jack the Ripperesque credit for several brutal killings by gun and

knife in Southern California, starting in 1969. Ultimately, the letter

writer (who may not have been the killer but who manifested knowledge

of the crimes not reported in the press) claimed authorship of other

murders he or she could not have committed and the case was punctuated

by long periods of seeming inactivity, during which leads grew cold,

investigators retired, got fired, quit or died and the public forgot

or lost interest.

The movie DIRTY HARRY (1971), made relatively early in this protracted

mystery, did a slick spin on the known facts, substituting the name

"Scorpio" and having its sniveling villain really go after a bus load

of kids (a threat the real Zodiac never followed up on). That same

year, the cheapie THE ZODIAC KILLER stuck closer to the known facts

but focused (speculatively) on the killer and peopled its dramatis

personae with fictitious characters. A prestige release for Paramount

(which means it didn't make any money but got a lot of nice reviews),

ZODIAC was based on two books by Chronicle cartoonist Robert

Graysmith, depicted by Fincher (in the person of feted mouth breather

Jake Gyllenhaall) as a wide-eyed true believer who can't let the case

go and must see it through to the ruination of his nerves, his career

and marriage.

ZODIAC is a corking 2hr 38m drama that feels only half its length. (I

love the way Fincher uses the construction of the Transamerica Pyramid

to mark the passage of time between inciting events.) I've never been

the biggest fan of Fincher, whose best film for me until now has been

the ballsy (but far from perfect) ALIEN3 (1992), which delivered a

well-deserved kick to the groin of fanboys who grievously overrated

James Cameron's (not unenjoyable) ALIENS (1986). I thought SE7EN

(1995) a bit obvious and without any real ideas of its own about the

subject of sin and THE GAME (1999) a snore. I had high hopes for PANIC

ROOM (2002), which panned out to be a botched handling of a great

premise. I never saw FIGHT CLUB (1999); too many young men of my

demographic were praising it to high heaven, so I turned and ran the

other way - not fair, I know, but that's how I roll.

What I really appreciated about ZODIAC is how Fincher, who may be

mellowing with age, kept the notoriously creepy killings squeezed into

the first third while letting the bulk of the film be consumed with

the career disappointments of his law enforcement and Fourth Estate

protagonists. Of course, there's a built-in Disappointment Factor

involved. As with Charles Pierce's classic (but woefully uneven)

B-film THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976), which was based on the

unsolved "Texarkana Moonlight Killings" of 1946, ZODIAC builds to a

fever pitch... only to stop when you're most in need of a resolution.

While the Zodiac was never caught, Fincher's ZODIAC offers a couple of

potential suspects in convicted pedophile gun owner and squirrel lover

(and eater) Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), who fit a

physical profile based on witness description and boot prints, wore a

wristwatch bearing the Zodiac's crosshair logo and had once made a

remark to a coworker about shooting children on a schoolbus...

... and creepy, gay-coded, jug-eared silent movie organist Bob Vaughn

(Charles Fleischer), whose hand lettering of movie posters matched the

penmanship of the Zodiac's letters.

ZODIAC essentially asks you to pick as your serial killer-of-choice

either Norm Gunderson or Roger Rabbit.

Tough call.

Labels: Dirty Harry, gay, Norm Gunderson, Roger Rabbit, squirrels,

Texarkana Moonlight Murders, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The

Zodiac, Transamerica Building

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Tuesday, 12 February 2008

zodiacal

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