©2008 William Ahearn
Obsession has been a staple of folklore and literature long before the movies and more often than not, that obsession leads to an unfortunate end. What is required for a successful obsession film is a target or end that makes the struggle and sacrifice worth it. David Fincher’s 2007 film “Zodiac” – based on a true story – revolves around an obsessed character, in this case an illustrator and political cartoonist, who is pursuing the serial killer known as Zodiac. Fincher also directed “Se7en” and he brings a tight and respectful approach to the material.
Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction and in this case it is stronger as well. There is no Hollywood ending – there rarely is in true stories involving serial killers – and that’s what makes the story and film so fascinating.
Zodiac – along with Jack the Ripper – will always be the one that got away. There were five victims from December 1968 to October 1969 in a style that may have influenced David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz who would follow almost a decade later. While Berkowitz toyed with the police and media, Zodiac had raised serial killer press relations to an art form. The killer sent 20 letters to the media between 1966 and 1974.
For background on Zodiac, go here, here or here.
For news coverage from the time, go here, here, here and here.
For the letters that Zodiac sent to the media, go here.
Many of those letters contained ciphers or codes and that’s where Robert Graysmith, the illustrator played by Jake Gyllenhaal, gets sucked into the investigation and is constantly peppering Inspector David Toschi with questions. Mark Ruffalo, who also played a detective in another serial killer film, “In The Cut,” plays Toschi. As a contemporaneous case – The Boston Strangler – showed only too clearly, serial killer and multi-jurisdictional investigations were in their formative years only to expand and become sophisticated as the demand grew. And the different law enforcement response in the cases may be why the Boston Strangler was caught and Zodiac wasn’t. Whether Boston learned from the Bay Area’s mistakes isn’t something that is clear at this point, at least to me.
The Zodiac killer has appeared in films before, most notable Don Siegel’s 1971 “Dirty Harry” that began that franchise for Clint Eastwood. “Dirty Harry” is a good film of a different type and plays to the exploitive threats of the Zodiac killer and focuses on the school bus – an action that never actually happened. Eastwood also directed himself in the 2002 serial killer film “Blood Work” and it’s a by the numbers uninspired drama that adds nothing to what is becoming a genre.
One of the reasons that “Zodiac” is so good is that plays to the material and lets the drama unfold from it rather than exploiting the material for its inherent shock value. It’s believable because it’s as true as movies can be when limited by facts and an anti-climatic ending. If – and I say if because the film makes a case and not a conviction – the person suspected in the film was in fact the Zodiac killer, the film portrays a serial killer more in line with reality than the usual Hollywood film. Serial killers do not behave or engage people the way Hannibal Lecter or other fictional killers do. They tend to be unremarkable and forgettable people such as Dennis Rader or Gary Leon Ridgway and that’s what makes catching them so difficult. And Fincher nailed the type in the confrontation between investigators and suspect rather than having some over-the-top caricature of a homicidal maniac sniff their aftershave and make fun of their shoes.
The real story here isn’t the Zodiac killer but Graysmith’s obsession. That the obsession is valid and even constructive – people are being killed – makes this story much more satisfying than your usual revenge or greed saga. Whether stalking a serial killer is worth losing a marriage and career over isn’t something anyone but Graysmith can answer and something tells me he isn’t wondering about it anymore.
“Zodiac” – along with several other films in this series – is a really good film that just happens to be about a serial killer.