One thing about the first release was the film about the Zodiac killer was that one of the special features was a teaser trailer for a more elaborate two-disc edition that would be released at a later date. That date has now arrived and it was worth the wait.
What I said about Zodiac in my first review (cheating I know, but it hasn’t changed):
“The Zodiac killer is a modern version of Jack the Ripper in that it still holds fascination for our current crop of both professional and amateur investigators alike in that it was never officially solved. The film wisely takes the focus off of the killer and doesn’t try to create a fictional backstory since the authorities never really found out any solid information about the killer, besides the facts of his crimes.
Although there is still some doubt about some of those since the Zodiac was one to take credit for crimes it was believed that he didn’t commit. Instead the film focuses on the pursuers of our mysterious killer. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist in the San Francisco Chronicle’s newsroom, happens to be around when the killer’s first letter is sent in. He eventually will write the book that this film is based on. Robert Downey, Jr. is Paul Avery, a feature writer at the Chronicle, who will be the prime reporter on the case and eventually have the killer make threats against him (leading others in the newsroom to wear “I’m not Paul Avery” buttons in a amusing twist). Detective David Toschi is played by Mark Ruffalo and is the cop assigned to find our twisted title character, along with his partner William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards).
Each of these characters, amongst others, will have a different level of obsession with finding out who the killer is, some of them will sacrifice careers, marriages, health, and perhaps sanity in looking for the mysterious Zodiac. Since this is based on Graysmith’s novel the person fingered for being the Zodiac is his personal preference, but you should know that the case has officially never been solved.
So the film does have a suspect but there’s no official word as to whether that suspect was really the Zodiac. Fincher offers Graysmith’s evidence and never really sways in the direction that this person was the Zodiac. The film is quite compelling but does have a bit of a slow middle section, but picks up steam (and suspense) as Graysmith begins his amateur investigations.”
Not much has changed of my opinion of the David Fincher’s examination of the Zodiac killer. This cut does feature about three more minute of footage, but where the film excels this time around is in the special feature department. The first release only had some trailers and one of them was for this two-disc release (which probably didn’t set well with buyers of the first release). However, what we do finally get on this set was well worth the wait and extremely interesting.
I think that Fincher’s film will only continue to grow in reputation as time goes on. I know that it was one of the better films I saw in the last year. The DVD case is also stylized to look like one of the letters that the Zodiac sent to the San Francisco Chronicle (complete with purposeful misspellings).
Zodiac is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features are spread across two discs in this release. Disc one has two commentaries.
The first is a solo track from director David Fincher and the second features actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., producer Brad Fischer, screenwriter/producer James Vanderbilt and author James Ellroy. Disc two is divided into two sections.
The first is “Film” and features the 54-minute “Zodiac Deciphered,” a multi-part documentary on the making of the film and the care and reality that was injected into it. Next is the 15-minute “Visual Effects of Zodiac” that examines the computer effects for the film. The majority of the Washington and Cherry Street killing was done with visual effects and I bet you could’ve never guessed that (I didn’t until this one and Deciphered).
The “Previsualization” section takes 3 scenes (Blue Rock Springs 1 minute, Lake Berryessa 4 minutes, and San Francisco 1 minute) and shows you the computer created visualization of the scene and the final product in split screen. Finally, this section contains the 2-minute theatrical trailer.
The “Facts” section contains the 1 hour 42 minute “This is the Zodiac Speaking” documentary about the case and interviews various law enforcement officers in the case (excluding Toschi, who is seen in the making of doc) and the two surviving victims, Michael Mageau from Blue Rock Springs and Brian Hartnell from Berryessa Lake.
Next is the 42 minute “Prime Suspect: His Name was Arthur Leigh Allen” which examines Graysmith’s prime suspect, but also talks to some people who don’t think it was him.
This second edition features some excellent special features that only enhance the film; it’s too bad that this couldn’t have been released in the first place. In defense, I presume it took this long to produce the documentaries I don’t think they were done when the first DVD came out. However, they’re excellent and extremely interesting.
Zodiac - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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