Zodiac

[Lincsong]

About the late '60s early '70s San Francisco (gasp) psycho. I remember this nut when I was a little kid. Anyone know anything about this film?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

If you see a guy wearing a black hood....

I read the book when it came out. Stayed up all night until I was finished. By then it was the middle of the night and I was so scared I slept with the light on, thus making it easier for the Zodiac to find me in the house if he came after me!
I have been awaiting this movie! I am going to see it! And I'm going to see Primeval! They never caught that guy, either!
I only heard about the Zodiac when I had my first job as a teen in college in the 80s; an older guy who'd lived in California at the time told me the gory details and I have been fascinated ever since.

 

[Lincsong]

With the recent finding of the two Missouri abducted boys this movie reminds me of being a kid and told not to ride my bike too far from the house otherwise the Zodiac may get you. In one of his letters he threatened a school bus of children. The high school down the street was located on an on/off ramp to the Nimitz Freeway and it was thought he may try to do something to the students at Pacific High. The psycho in the first Dirty Harry movie was based upon the Zodiac.

 

[RBH]

Read the book... waiting for the film.
If the film is as good as the book, it will be worth the wait.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

He's still out there. I mean the movie is out now. Has anyone seen it?

 

[Lincsong]

Darn, I knew there was something I forgot to do this weekend.:eusa_doh:

 

[Shearer]

I read Graysmith's book years ago, and saw that he has an updated version in the bookstores now.

I saw the film this weekend and I really liked it. Not a huge Gyllenhaal fan (he just didn't age at all during the course of the movie ) but he did a good job with the boyscout type character he was given. I'm really coming to like Robert Downey Jr. as an actor and I think he did a good job with Paul Avery, though the role wasn't much of a stretch for him... you'll see what I mean if you watch the movie. Mark Ruffalo was good too, but overall the majority of the cast was understated.

I was really pleased to see a lot of good character actors in smaller roles. The murder scenes were good and creepy, especially the first one. The only thing "wrong" with the movie was that it was a bit long, but I don't mind that kind of thing... At times I wondered if the end was close, but I wasn't fidgeting and waiting to bolt the theatre.

I'd definitely go see it if you're into that kind of thing. I was a criminology minor in Uni and I you'll definitely have a lot to talk about with friends after the movie about whether so-and-so was the Zodiac, what evidence should have been used, which crimes he actually committed, etc.

So to sum up my rambling, I recommend

ETA: Oh, I almost forgot! They did a GREAT job with the ambience of the film. I'm always looking in the background at the furniture and at the clothes and they were spot on with this one.

 

[Doh!]

I just saw it tonight at a second-run theater, and it's a really good film.

Quibbles: It is too long, and none of the characters are aged appropriately considering the 20-year span of time. Lastly, the ending is not very satisfying because just like in real life, the killer is never caught.

A word of caution to the sqeamish: there are a couple of murders by knife that are pretty damned graphic. It's not done in an exploitive manner in the least, but it truly depicted how ugly getting stabbed must be. Overall, there's a good share of onscreen violence (this is about a serial killer, after all) but it's handled in an adult/mature manner.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I just saw a double-disc collectors edition was available yesterday. I read the book years ago and bought the DVD when it first came out. I thought it was good movie and this new edition might be worth a look.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I really want to see this. I've read Graysmith's book a couple of times and it still gives me the creeps in a huge way (that poem carved on the desk particularly). Thanks for the heads-up on the stabbing scenes; I'll look away.

 

[Spiffy]

I remember thinking that this was one of the few suspense/serial killer movies where someone didn't need to get bumped off every 15 minutes. Even though the murders were pretty much over by the halfway point, I was still tense until the end of the movie. I think the circumstances of the case (unsolved, etc) forced the film to be structured unconventionally. Go David Fincher!

 

[Feraud]

I saw this a while ago. Good film.