HD DVD Review: Zodiac (Two-Disc Director's Cut)

David Fincher matures greatly as a filmmaker with his latest work, ‘Zodiac’, his first film since 2002’s disappointing ‘Panic Room’ and his first film to tackle a real-life subject matter – and judging by the subtlety and attention to detail he bring s to this pic – I think he may have found his forte.

Mostly known for the Brad Pitt pop culture juggernauts that were ‘Seven’ and ‘Fight Club’, I imagine it wasn’t a far cry to expect Fincher to take on the Zodiac story with a striking visual and ostentatious zeal – a zest that his fans have come to expect. That he makes a visually striking film is no surprise but that he makes a serial killer film that aesthetically bears no comparison to ‘Seven’ does surprise.

‘Seven’ and ‘Fight Club’ certainly look amazing - the seedy, grungy alleyways of an exaggerated urbane society - alleyways maybe not a block or two from the steamy, rainy sets that made up ‘Blade Runner’ or Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’. Yet, Fincher tackled ‘Zodiac’ with a reverence to the period that astounds – an attention to detail that doesn’t draw upon his past faux-comic book look. Upon first look, the intentional drabness of the pic may turn people off (the visuals provided by the HD camera Thomson Viper Filmstream Camera has a lucid, dreamlike quality perfect for what Fincher was trying to pull off) but more scrutiny will provide a rewarding experience – a mastery of a how a film is captured that will make me want to return again and again. And if Fincher has certainly matured as a visual storyteller (a sigh of relief after the maelstrom-infused camera-work of ‘Panic Room’ where Fincher swoops us through Coffee Pot handles possibly to arrive up his own arse), his tackling of a narrative has impressively kept up as well. A mesmerizing account of the infamous, yet-to-be-solved serial killings and murder case that spanned almost a couple decades in the Bay Area, this epic-length pic examines the obsession of these ‘Zodiac’ killings through the perspective of several men futilely trying to catch this cocky, showboat killer. An adaptation of Robert Graysmith’s book (a key character in the film) was written in superb detail by James Vanderbilt who went back to the rat-a-tat-tat dialogue beats of the political and police thrillers of the 70s to find his narrative voice (pics like ‘All the President’s Men’ and ‘Three Days of the Condor’) where half a dozen characters zoom around political and journalistic settings while grappling with two or three storylines. The film and story starts off on the July 4th, 1969 where the shooting of two teenagers ‘parking’ gets things started on a suspenseful note. Cut to a month later, where the killer sends letters to the leading Bay Area newspapers, notably the S.F. Chronicle, claiming the killings and threatening to do it again unless his ciphers are published. Supplying a code to crack with his letters, the ‘Zodiac’ killer becomes infamous for these ultimately indifferent puzzlers. With these ciphers published, the Zodiac killer continues to kill anyway, this time a more aggressively violent knife slaying of a couple in Napa valley. The violent apex of the pic, this bloody sequence establishes the nastiness of this psychopath where the film then turns its focus off the killer and onto the poor souls who struggled to capture him.

Crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) of the S.F. Chronicle becomes the first to take a stab at the case. A goateed, cocksure specimen whose swagger around the office would make Ron Burgundy proud (a funny aside being that not one female reporter is spotted in the office – ‘Anchorman 2’ anyone?), he eventually takes up with a quiet cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) whose intriguing deductions on the ciphers prove useful.Their partnership mostly consists of a lot of brainstorming sessions where a heap of empty beer bottles and cigarette butts lay as a symbol of not much progress being made. As the serial killer moves to S.F., city cops take an interest in the form of homicide detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards). Proving not to have any more luck than Avery and Graysmith, most of these scenes are filled out with false starts and small domestic flourishes filling in the details of the characters i.e. Graysmith’s son and some attempted light humor when Toschi consistently inquires Armstrong on the whereabouts of his favorite on the beat snack, animal crackers - A cursory attempt at the 70s cop buddy camaraderie that is now de facto. As the state-wide investigation continues, some solid leads draw attention to a peculiar, bulky loner, Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), a former child molester who fits the bill perfectly as far as circumstantial evidence is concerned. When a handwriting analysis proves this isn’t the one, the search goes on…and on. Years pass, and almost everyone that was once obsessed with the case has moved on for the worse. Avery has become a drug-abusing burn out, while Toschi has mostly let it go – a decision that has spurned him indifferent to a job he once enjoyed. Graysmith, however, has yet to let it go, and picks up on the case again with the intention of writing a book. Sporadically enlisting Toschi’s assistance, who dutifully helps out Graysmith, the road once again leads back to Leigh Allen.A climatic, brilliant sequence of suspense has Graysmith run into an old Leigh Allen cohort where it becomes quite obvious that maybe Leigh Allen could be our man after all – which makes the resolution that much more frustrating. It’s achingly observable yet everything is circumstantial.

Playing the author of the book, Jake Gyllenhaal takes a while to warm to me - particularly in light of Robert Downey Jr.’s performance who settles into his character and time era like an old shoe (granted a boozy, cocky reporter isn’t much of a stretch for Downey) nonetheless Gyllenhaal doesn’t automatically scream period actor to me and has a distinctly modern persona but by the middle stretch of the film where his character gets more time to settle in, Gyllenhaal manages to carry the burden of the film ably if not utterly comfortable.This feeling of not belonging - maybe an extension of the character?Mark Ruffalo also has a hard job cut for him with a character that inspired both McQueen and Eastwood in the respective films of ‘Bullit’ and ‘Dirty Harry’. No doubt a take on the life vs. art adage, Ruffalo plays Toschi with mostly sustained frustration and subtlety - no showy scenes or powerhouse villain takedowns. Small roles are filled out with distinguished pros like Brian Cox, Phillip Baker Hall, Anthony Edwards and Chloe Sevigny which flesh out even the most menial of characters. Tech details are top of the line with great production design and costume design and a great complimentary score with some choice songs from the era like Donovan’s ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’. This 2-disc HD-DVD Director’s Cut presents most of its Special Features in HD and is an overall exemplary package starting with the great package design made up to look like one of the Zodiac’s letters sent in to the S.F. Chronicle. The A/V starts off with a 2.35 MPEG4 1080p high-def transfer and it’s demo-worthy. Since the film was shot using a digital camera, a digital to digital transfer instantly gets rid of any grain or film issues that were not intentional. The intentionally muted colors are full of detail and color reproduction is spot on. Not a banging film from an aural standpoint, the Dolby Digital 5.1 plus track perfectly suits the material. Special Features begin with Special Features begin with 2 audio commentaries on disc 1. The first commentary is carried by David Fincher who unleashes a steady amount of info about the film from technical details, his personal involvement and stories from the set. A solid listen for fans, the second commentary features Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal, producer James Fischer, writer Vanderbilt and James Ellroy, writer of L.A.Confidential - A little more fun than Fincher's sole effort if less informative.

Disc Two is separated into sections 'The Film' and 'The Facts'. 'The Facts' consists of ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’, a one hour and forty-two minute look at the four crime scenes that were confirmed as Zodiac murders. An extensive doc that features interviews with surviving police officers and victims; it complements ‘His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen’ nicely – a 45-minute examination of the most likely suspect. With tons of photographs and interviews with those who think he’s the one and friends who think he’s being unjustly pegged, this close to two and half hour look at the facts of the case make the film even more compelling. ‘The Film’ sports ‘Zodiac Deciphered – a seven-part doc that runs just over an hour. The normal making-of check-offs are here with various on-set footage and interviews. ‘The Visual Effects of Zodiac’ is just that with Digital Domain discussing their involvement and finally ‘Previsualization’ – a look at before and after murder footage. The film’s trailer in HD rounds out the extras. A release that probably should have been done right the first time (coming months after a special featureless theatrical cut); this 2-disc director’s cut is easily the superior version and should justify a double dip if appropriate. With exhaustive special features, demo high-def visuals, and containing one of David Fincher’s most accomplished works to date, this HD-DVD release of ‘Zodiac’ is a no-brainer for anybody with an HD-DVD player.