This Is the Zodiac Speaking…
The “Zodiac Killer” terrorized the San Francisco area during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Honestly, I had only heard the name of this serial killer before watching Fincher’s Zodiac, and thanks to the extra features which I’ll breakdown later, I was able to find out not only a lot about the film, but also about the actual people and events that the film is based off of.
Before getting ahead of myself, lets take a look at the movie. Zodiac stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey, Jr., Elias Koteas, and John Carroll Lynch. For many, these names may not be very familiar, although I’m sure at least a couple of them are; suffice it to say that everyone turns in a superb performance here and that is just one of several reasons why the film is so interesting.
Given the premise, you might expect this film to take a very violent angle, with lots of scenes of the Zodiac Killer ‘doing his thing’ – but you’d be wrong. While there certainly are scenes of the Zodiac Killer committing murder, the focus of the film is really on the people, and the investigation. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Robert Graysmith, a upstanding young man who is a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle during the time the Zodiac Killer sends his first of several letters to the paper. Robert is immediately intrigued with the killer and his use of bizarre coded puzzles; it’s the beginning of what would become an obsession for Robert, and something that puts a great deal of stress on his marriage into the 1980s as the identity and case of the Zodiac Killer continues to go unsolved despite the ardent efforts of several investigators including David Toschi (Ruffalo), William Armstrong (Edwards), and Mulanax (Koteas). As the years pass and the case goes cold, Graysmith ramps up his obsession with finding the Killer. What happens in the end I will refrain from spoiling, but rest assured the lengthy (two hours, forty-two minutes) feature is enthralling throughout.
Zodiac On Blu-ray
This very nice two disc Director’s Cut release includes, of course, the Director’s Cut of the film and several great extras. Before looking at those, it’s certainly worth noting that Zodiac on Blu-ray looks and sounds great; you can bet this dual layer disc is put to good use in housing the lengthy film and the visual quality impressed me. Paramount’s typical Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio does a superb job bringing you all the dialogue and chilling musical touches, too.
I’ve rarely seen this much effort put into the extra features of a release, or should I say that I’ve rarely found the extra features this good:
Disc 1:
-Audio Commentary with Director David Fincher
-Audio Commentary with Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr., Brad Fischer, James Vanderbilt, and James Elroy
Disc 2:
-Zodiac Deciphered – A fifty-four minute, HD feature that is split into seven parts. This is a very well done ‘making of’ feature that includes tons of info and production footage and interviews.
-Visual Effects of Zodiac – A fifteen minute HD feature including lots of production footage and details on creating the appearance of the film by several crew members.
-Previsualization – A three part feature that totals about seven minutes. Here we have three scenes from the movie, three murder scenes actually, that are presented along side an animatic version of the scene.
-This Is the Zodiac Speaking – A four part, massive documentary running one hour and forty-two minutes. This HD documentary covers the investigation of the Zodiac Killer from all angles, including interviews with the real investigators and surviving victims.
-Prime Suspect – His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen – A forty-two minute feature in HD, this is another very interesting documentary piece whereby friends of Arthur’s and police talk about Arthur and the investigation.
Let’s get to the summary…
