No Presumption of Innocence in Hollywood

Rating: 5/10 (25 June 2007)

"Zodiac" deals with a series of unsolved murders which took place in the San Francisco area in the 1960s and early 1970s. (These killings were also the inspiration for the film "Dirty Harry", although in that film the murders committed by the fictional "Scorpio" were of course solved). It has never been established whether these murders were the work of one killer or several. It is generally believed that five murders and two attempted murders in 1968 and 1969 were all committed by the same person, who may or may not also have been responsible for several other crimes. A notable feature of the case was that the killer, or someone claiming to be the killer, wrote a series of taunting letters to the police and press, something which happens far less frequently in real life than it does in fiction.
Although the film follows the police investigation into the crimes, and two detectives are featured, the main character is not a policeman but a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle. Robert Graysmith (a real individual) was not, moreover, a crime reporter. He was the paper's cartoonist who gradually became obsessed with the case and continued researching into it in his spare time. One of the film's themes is the way in which the case took over the lives of those involved, not only Graysmith but also the two detectives, David Toschi and William Armstrong, and another reporter Paul Avery. (The name "Graysmith" is used throughout the film, even though at the time of the killings he was known as Robert Gray Smith and did not change his name to Graysmith until 1976).
There is a problem with making films about real-life unsolved murders. For obvious reasons, they cannot be brought within any of the established categories of the crime drama- the "whodunit?", which concentrates on the police and the way in which they solve the crime, the "whydunit?", which concentrates on the criminal and the psychological and social factors which drove him to commit it, or the courtroom drama (or the "didhedunit?") which concentrates on the lawyers and proceedings in court. Each of these categories has a well-defined dramatic focus- the solution of the crime, the explanation of the criminal's motives, the jury's verdict- which must be lacking in any film about an unsolved crime.
One way of overcoming this problem is to provide a sensational fictional solution to a real-life crime. Films about the Jack the Ripper case, the most famous unsolved serial killings in history, often centre upon the preposterous theory, which has no basis in historical fact, that the murders were committed by, or on behalf of, Queen Victoria's grandson the Duke of Clarence. ("Murder by Decree" and "From Hell" are examples). This film takes a somewhat similar view of the Zodiac killings, although at least it does not go so far as to blame them on the British Royal Family. Instead, it takes the view that they were the work of one Arthur Leigh Allen, a real individual who died in 1992. He was investigated by the police as a suspect at the time of the killings, but no charges were ever brought against him. Although there was circumstantial evidence against him, no physical evidence was ever found to link him to the crimes, and neither his handwriting nor his fingerprints matched those on the purported Zodiac letters. Graysmith, however, became convinced that Allen was the murderer, and published a book setting out his thesis. It is this book on which the film is based.
Like a number of David Fincher's other films, such as "Fight Club", "Panic Room" and "Se7en", "Zodiac" is both metaphorically and literally "dark", something which seems to be a trademark with this director. It is metaphorically dark in that it deals with the evil underside of human nature, and literally so in that much of the action takes place either at night or in darkened rooms. The predominant tones are blacks, browns, greys and dull yellows. Fincher is skilled at creating atmosphere, but to make a thriller work atmosphere in itself is not enough. Unlike, say, "Panic Room" there is no real sense of tension in Zodiac, a film which moves at a slow pace and, at over two and a half hours, is seriously overlong. I also found distasteful the attempt to brand a dead man the killer, even though he never stood trial for these offences. (Hollywood is the one part of America where there is no presumption of innocence until proved guilty). I am surprised this film has made your top 250. In my view it is just a rather dull police procedural about how the police spent many years in failing to solve a crime- even with the aid of a cartoonist. 5/10