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Movie Review | 'Zodiac'

Hunting a Killer as the Age of Aquarius Dies

By Manohla Dargis

March 2, 2007

David Fincher’s magnificently obsessive new film, “Zodiac,” tracks the story of the serial killer who left dead bodies up and down California in the 1960s and possibly the ’70s, and that of the men who tried to stop him. Set when the Age of Aquarius disappeared into the black hole of the Manson family murders, the film is at once sprawling and tightly constructed, opaque and meticulously detailed. It’s part police procedural, part monster movie, a funereal entertainment that is an unexpected repudiation of Mr. Fincher’s most famous movie, the serial-killer fiction “Seven,” as well as a testament to this cinematic savant’s gifts.

Informed by history and steeped in pulp fiction, “Zodiac” stars a trio of beauties — Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo — all at the top of their performance game and captured in out-of-sight high-definition digital by the cinematographer Harris Savides. Mr. Gyllenhaal is the sneaky star of the show as the real-life cartoonist turned writer Robert Graysmith, though he doesn’t emerge from the wings until fairly late, after the bodies and the investigations have cooled. A silky, seductive Mr. Downey plays Paul Avery, a showboating newspaper reporter who chased the killer in print, while Mr. Ruffalo struts his estimable stuff as Dave Toschi, the San Francisco police detective who taught Steve McQueen how to wear a gun in “Bullitt” and pursued Zodiac close to the ground.

The relative unknown James Vanderbilt wrote the jigsaw-puzzle screenplay, working from Mr. Graysmith’s exhaustive, exhausting true-crime accounts of the murders and their investigations, “Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked.” Mr. Graysmith, coyly played by Mr. Gyllenhaal as something of an overgrown Hardy Boy, his great big eyes matched by his great big ambition, was a political cartoonist doodling Nixon noses at The San Francisco Chronicle when Zodiac started sending letters and ciphers to the paper, divulging intimate knowledge of the crimes. The first messages arrived in 1969, the year Zodiac shot one young couple and knifed another in separate Northern California counties before moving on to San Francisco, where he put a bullet in the head of a cabbie.

The first cipher stumped an alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies, including the C.I.A. and F.B.I., but was cracked by a California schoolteacher and his wife. The decoded cipher opened with an ominous and crudely effective flourish: “I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal.” The letters, the misspellings and the lax punctuation kept coming, and perhaps so did the murders, though only five were substantively linked to him. A publicity hound, Zodiac claimed responsibility for murders he might not have committed, a habit that added to a boogeyman mystery and myth that chroniclers of his crimes, including Mr. Graysmith, have exploited.

Mr. Fincher made his name with “Seven,” a thriller in which the grotesquely mutilated bodies of murder victims are nothing more than lovingly designed props. Although more than capable of adding to the exploitation annals, he is up to something profoundly different in this film, which opens with the shooting of two people parked on a lovers’ lane at night, an attack that is soon followed by a squirmingly visceral knife assault on a couple during a daytime idyll. By front-loading the violence, Mr. Fincher instantly makes it clear just what kind of murderer this was — one who liked to get his hands wet — and ensures that the murders don’t become the story’s payoff, our reward for all the time stamps, geographic shifts, narrative complication and frustrated action.

The story structure is as intricate as the storytelling is seamless, with multiple time-and-place interludes neatly slotted into two distinct sections. The first largely concerns the murders and the investigations; the second, far shorter one involves Graysmith’s transformation of the murders and the investigations into a narrative. With its nicotine browns, the first section, which opens in 1969 and continues through the mid-’70s, looks as if it had been art-directed by a roomful of chain smokers. Dark and moody, like all of Mr. Fincher’s work, this part has been drained of almost all bright colors, save for splashes of yellow, the color of safety and caution, and an alarming-looking blue elixir called an Aqua Velva that is Graysmith’s bar drink of choice.

The second, more vibrantly hued section begins with Graysmith sitting in the Chronicle newsroom, its yellow pillars now painted blue. He looks as bright and bushy-tailed as the day he read Zodiac’s first letter, though now he comes equipped with three kids and a wife (an unfortunately familiar scold whom Chloë Sevigny imbues with some welcome wit). But there are demons still loose, inside and out, which is why Graysmith takes on Zodiac alone, warming up the stone-cold case. Domestic tranquillity, it seems, can’t hold a candle to work, to the fanatical pursuit of meaning and self-discovery, to finding out what makes you and the world tick — which is why, while “Zodiac” contains multitudes (genres, jokes, nods at 1970s New Hollywood), it feels like Mr. Fincher’s most personal film to date.

Maybe that’s why it doesn’t have the usual movie-made shrink- rapping and beard-stroking, as in Mommy was a castrating shrew and Daddy used a two-by-four as a paddle. Throughout the film Mr. Fincher and company keep focus on Zodiac’s crimes, on the nuts and bolts of his deeds, rather than on the nurture and nature behind them. There is no normalizing psychology here, and no deep-dish symbolism either, maybe because the title crazy is so peculiarly fond of symbols, which he sprinkles in his missives and, for one murder, wears superhero style on a black-hooded costume that makes him look like a portly ninja in a Z-movie quickie. It’s no wonder the victims don’t see the threat behind the masquerade until it’s too late.

Psychology isn’t Mr. Fincher’s bag; he isn’t interested in what lies and writhes beneath, but what is right there: the visible evidence. And what beautiful evidence it is. His polished technique can leave you slack-jawed, as can his scrupulous attention to detail: the peeling walls of a derelict building in “Fight Club,” the rows of ant-size letters marching across the pages of a composition notebook in “Seven,” the bruises splashed across a woman’s arm in “Zodiac.” There is mystery in this minutiae, not just virtuosity, and maybe, to judge from reports of his painstaking process, a touch of madness. Like his detectives and journalists, Mr. Fincher seems possessed by the need to recreate reality — to revisit the scene of the crime — piece by piece.

There’s a moment early in the film when Mr. Downey stands in the Chronicle newsroom, back arched and rear gently hoisted, affecting a posture that calls to mind Gene Kelly done up as a Toulouse-Lautrec jockey in “An American in Paris.” Avery has already started his long slip-slide into boozy oblivion, abetted by toots of coke, but as he strides around the newsroom, motored by talent and self-regard, he is the guy everybody else wants to be or wants to have. Like Mr. Ruffalo’s detective, who leaves everything bobbing in his rapid wake, Mr. Downey fills the screen with life that, by its very nature, is a rebuke to the death drive embodied by the Zodiac killer. Rarely has a film with so much blood on its hands seemed so insistently alive.

“Zodiac” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It contains extremely graphic gun and knife violence, as well as alcohol abuse and cocaine use.

Opens today nationwide.

Directed by David Fincher; written by James Vanderbilt, based on the books “Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked” by Robert Graysmith; director of photography, Harris Savides; edited by Angus Wall; music by David Shire; production designer, Donald Graham Burt; produced by Mr. Vanderbilt, Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Bradley J. Fischer and Cean Chaffin; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 158 minutes.

WITH: Jake Gyllenhaal (Robert Graysmith), Mark Ruffalo (Inspector Dave Toschi), Robert Downey Jr. (Paul Avery), Anthony Edwards (Inspector Bill Armstrong), Brian Cox (Melvin Belli), Elias Koteas (Sgt. Jack Mulanax) and Chloë Sevigny (Melanie).

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Zodiac Reviews

I love everything about this, the look and feel -- the LIGHTING

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 19, 2024

James Vanderbilt's screenplay convinced me to research everything about the real events as soon as the movie finished which is undeniably an impactful effect of watching such a well-written, captivating narrative with well-developed, authentic characters.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 24, 2023

have come to believe it to be Fincher’s all-time best; indeed it seems likely that it is the best film about serial killings ever made.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | May 11, 2023

Zodiac, ironically, rewards revisiting over and over, while commenting on the spiritual degradation of doing so.

Full Review | Oct 2, 2022

If you feel like watching a truly great film, then dim the lights, turn off the cellphone and tablet and kick back for Zodiac.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2022

Like a contagion that festers as easily as it spreads, David Fincher's methodical Zodiac is catching.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 14, 2022

A satisfying hybrid of a journalism yarn, a police procedural, and a serial killer flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 16, 2021

More than any American movie of the past decade, Zodiac accepts and embraces irresolvability, which may be why it's so hypnotically rewatchable.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2021

Here and there bits bob to the surface, and we and the characters think we may have figured something out, only to have the sheer immensity of detail leave the entire thing ultimately unknowable

Full Review | Jul 2, 2021

A chiller, more fatalistic...

Full Review | Jun 5, 2021

Carve out three hours for this thinking-person's thriller.

Full Review | Feb 25, 2021

David Fincher isn't rubbing the horrors we inflict on each other in the audience's face. Here, it's something more subtle, the creeping fear of I know I'm right...but what do I do now?

Full Review | Dec 22, 2020

From the visual and technical standpoint - yes, it's fantastic. But art has always been about more than just technique, more than the sum of its parts, and that "more" is where Zodiac falls short.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 17, 2020

[Zodiac] has an interesting quality of subverting expectations, quietly stringing the viewer along until suddenly a decade's gone by and you're still trying to fit all the pieces together alongside the characters.

Full Review | Dec 8, 2020

A procedural masterwork, unencumbered by action, exploitation, or Hollywood expectations.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 28, 2020

David Fincher takes his time with this frightening crime procedural, that's full of dread and excellent performances. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 5, 2020

Jake Gyllenhaal powerfully portrays Robert Graysmith, a mild-mannered political cartoonist whose life unravels as his paranoid quest to track down clues....

Full Review | May 22, 2020

Fincher presents plausible theories that are not rammed down our throats.

Full Review | May 21, 2020

Zodiac is a film that really takes its time, but does a masterful job of showing how these killings didn't just destroy the lives of the victims and their families, but how the case became a burden to almost everyone involved.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 2019

Zodiac is not just a masterclass in film-making and storytelling, it's proof that a horror movie does not have to be showy to be scary.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2019

David Fincher’s Masterpiece Is Still the Greatest True-Crime Film of All Time

Recently upgraded into a 4K release by Paramount, Zodiac remains a seductive study in the all-consuming nature of obsession.

It was the ultimate cold case. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a serial killer haunted the San Francisco Bay Area, taunting the public with ciphers and letters mailed to regional newspapers. He threatened killing sprees and bombings if the letters were not printed. He was never caught, and his identity remains unknown.

David Fincher’s Zodiac brings us no closer to resolution. Chronicling the years-long efforts of a crime reporter (Robert Downey Jr.), a detective (Mark Ruffalo), and a political cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal) to solve the case, it’s as much a study in the all-consuming nature of obsession as it is an oppressive deluge of detail — of codes and ciphers, false leads and partial theories, dead ends and blind alleys. All its forensic evidence accrues and overwhelms, casting the world in shadow without bringing truth to light.

In this respect, Zodiac still functions, 17 years after its initial theatrical release, as a bracing corrective to our cultural obsession with “true crime,” a genre that implicitly distorts the truth about crime by imposing sensational narrative frames around murder investigations that are more unsatisfying, murky, and mundane than would lend themselves to popular entertainment. Instead, with its hypnotically methodical focus on three men who tried and failed to catch the killer — and on the maddeningly inconclusive wealth of information they obtained — Fincher’s film gazes deeply into the abyss to evoke what, at the center of the case, remains unknowable.

Zodiac , recently upgraded into a 4K release by Paramount, thus dwells in all kinds of darkness — literal, psychological, intellectual, metaphysical — as it peers into the dimly lit corridors of the past to exhume this cold case. Across all his films, Fincher has become known for a potent visual style in which low lighting, point-precise detail, and complementary, desaturated color schemes mirror the psychological intensity of his storytelling, establishing a visceral naturalism.

Though a film like Zodiac is visually dark and haunting, it’s also far from impenetrable. Instead, filming an endless night with striking clarity, Fincher compels audiences to stare into the darkness, where characters and their actions are barely perceptible but the truth hovers tantalizingly beyond our field of vision.

In this way, he illuminates the distance between seeing and understanding. If Zodiac is governed by any overriding truth, it concerns our inability (as citizens of the world, students of history, and storytellers trying to make sense of both) to collapse that distance into a definitive truth. This idea is sustained with marvelous formal discipline by the director who, in league with editor Angus Wall, compresses time and space as the investigation seeps through years of his characters’ lives, their single-minded pursuit of the Zodiac lending the film a brutally linear narrative progression.

The Zodiac killer approaches a couple having a picnic.

Zodiac was primarily shot in 1080p HD (4:4:4) on the Thomson Viper FilmStream Camera; it marked Fincher’s first time shooting digitally to such an extent — Zodiac holds the distinction of being the first digital feature from any major studio to be shot and produced without using videotape or compression in its capture or editing. (The stylized, slow-motion murder scenes that open Zodiac , however, were shot on 35mm photochemical film.)

Working almost fully digitally afforded Fincher considerable control in post-production. From recreating San Francisco using CGI to digitally adding hair to Gyllenhaal’s knuckles, he took full advantage. That the film was Fincher’s first period piece feels especially relevant in assessing the construction and clarity of Harris Savides’ digital video photography, the low-light legibility of which exists in ironic contrast to the abiding mystery of the case. Even with the vantage of digital technology allowing us to stare into the darkness more deeply and intensely than film cameras ever allowed, we never see quite enough to draw firm conclusions.

Political cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) examine one of the Zodiac’s coded messages, in the offices in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The new three-disc release also includes Fincher’s director’s cut on Blu-Ray and an additional disc of special features (all of which are ported over from the film’s previous Blu-Ray release), but it’s most notable for its 4K transfer. This features improvements in the sharpness and definition of the image and adjustments to color saturation and contrast that push the film’s palette toward an even more naturalistic and intricately detailed image, without betraying Fincher’s intended visual tone, in all its glowering textural ambience.

Sourced from a new 4K master, the new release of the film’s theatrical version, with Dolby Vision HDR and DTS-HD 5.1 audio, is particularly exciting in its upgrade of the color grade. This release benefits from BD-100 encoding (as opposed to BD-50 on the Blu-Ray); given that the recorded resolution in 1080p is about a quarter of native 4K already, improvements to image detail are subtle but striking, with slightly more pronounced gradations of shadow and inkier black levels enhancing the image’s depth and dimension. The adjustments are most welcome in how they showcase Savides’ night photography, which has never looked quite so textured and otherworldly, at once so tactile and ineluctable, as it does here.

An aerial shot of a yellow axi cab, driving down the street, nearly obscured in shadow.

Paramount’s earlier Blu-Ray release of Zodiac , it should be said, remains a breathtaking 1080p transfer of the film, delivering formidable detail, depth, and clarity of image straight from the source. There’s little argument a 4K upgrade like Zodiac , which was shot digitally, ultimately yields less transformative results than we can expect from the announced 4K transfers of Se7en , Panic Room , and Fight Club , all shot on film, which Fincher is reportedly overseeing.

And yet Zodiac remains a high point in Fincher’s filmography, and it’s presented beautifully in this release, ensuring his ferocious attention to detail and precise visual style is on full display, in reflection of the darkness that his characters push forward and through in a fruitless search for answers. Coldly, steadily, and brilliantly exploring the obsessive impulses that connect serial killers, journalists, and criminal investigators, Zodiac still looms large as a film about the existential totality of unsolved mysteries. Fittingly, given this, it has lost none of its power to entice, confound, and compel.

Zodiac is now available on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, from Paramount.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 21 Reviews
Kids Say 30 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Cynthia Fuchs , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Notorious case inspires dark, sinuous thriller.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 18+?

Drinking to drunkenness in bars (Paul and Robert favor blue drinks called "

Repeated profanity, especially "f--k," as well as "s--t," &q

Extremely bloody crime scenes; violence includes shooting, stabbing (especially

Some references by name (Folgers, the movie Bullitt ), plus background ima

Suggestion of sexual desire as first victims "park" (they're shot

Any Positive Content?

Serial killer is cruel and plainly deranged; cops and reporters argue amongst th

Parents need to know that this three-hour movie about the investigation into a string of real-life serial murders during the early 1970s is too violent and disturbing for most teens (and probably even some adults). While some violence takes place off screen, what does appear is brutal and bloody: The Zodiac shoots a couple in their car, stabs another couple in the back (the victims' pained, horrified faces are shown both times), and shoots a cabbie. Police officers and reporters discuss the deaths in some detail. Characters drink heavily and smoke frequently (one also uses hard drugs). References are made to the killer's "latent homosexuality" and a suspect's pedophilia. Language includes repeated uses of "f--k."

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking to drunkenness in bars (Paul and Robert favor blue drinks called "Aqua Velvas"); more drinking at Belli's Christmas party (he offers a "toddy"); frequent cigarette smoking; Paul looks high/wasted at work -- he snorts cocaine and keeps a full bar and other drugs in his home.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Repeated profanity, especially "f--k," as well as "s--t," "hell," "goddamn it," and other colorful language ("Sweet mother of Christ," "Jesus on crutches," "Tell him to screw," "crap," "getting your rocks off with a girl") and name-calling ("shorty" and "retard").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Extremely bloody crime scenes; violence includes shooting, stabbing (especially brutal), fighting; much discussion of means of murder, ammunition, and gun types; letters from killer describe plans to kill children on school buses (a boy hears this on TV and looks worried); mention of gas chamber; woman in prison appears with dark bruises on her arm; scary scene in basement when Robert thinks he's met the killer by accident (jump shot, dark shadows, tense music); discussion of a suspect's deviant history ("touching kids").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Some references by name (Folgers, the movie Bullitt ), plus background imagery (Coca-Cola and Campbell's soup in vending machines, Slinky on TV); Dirty Harry on movie screen.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Suggestion of sexual desire as first victims "park" (they're shot before they even kiss); Paul reports that the killer is a "latent homosexual."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Serial killer is cruel and plainly deranged; cops and reporters argue amongst themselves and become obsessed with the case to the point of ruining their home lives. Paul gives his editor the finger.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (21)
Kids say (30)

Based on 21 parent reviews

well made thriller with some confusing moments

What's the Story?

An intelligent, sinuous mystery, ZODIAC is less interested in sensational violence than in the ways that the media affects such violence. Based on the notorious, still-unsolved early-1970s Zodiac murders in the San Francisco area, the movie focuses first on efforts to figure out the murderer's motives and then on the ways that the Zodiac "imagined" himself into public consciousness by writing letters to the San Francisco Chronicle and leaving clues to taunt the police. The film begins with a murder -- the first one for which the killer took public credit. After the shooting, Zodiac calls the police and sends a letter to the Chronicle , demonstrating -- in his mind, anyway -- that he's smarter than all of them. As he uses the media to "make himself up," the movie considers the effects of the case on those who pursue him, including Inspector David Toschi ( Mark Ruffalo ) and his partner, Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards); as well as earnest cartoonist Robert Graysmith ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) and brilliantly self-destructive crime reporter Paul Avery ( Robert Downey Jr. ). They run into problems at every turn, from law enforcement officials in different jurisdictions who don't want to work together to handwriting experts, fingerprinters, and even celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli ( Brian Cox ). With egos getting in the way, only rudimentary technologies to work with, and legal impediments, no one cracks the case, and everyone loses themselves to it.

Is It Any Good?

David Fincher 's excellent movie includes several violent murder scenes (a stabbing is especially grisly). But it's more interested in the consequences of the brutality: crime scenes, investigative procedures, fear in the community. In a mess of intersecting obsessions and deceptions, Zodiac finds remarkable coherence, tracing the similar needs, means, and fictions that structure truth.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the media's relationship with serial killers. How do the killers use the media to gain attention? How do the media use the killers to gain ratings? How do viewers and readers respond to such coverage? Think about how movies portray killers and their pursuers: Unlike The Silence of the Lambs , this movie focuses on the investigation, with very little information about the killer. How does that affect the film's narrative and displays of violence? Is violence more effective when it's shown, or when it's implied? Why?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 1, 2007
On DVD or streaming : July 24, 2007
Cast : Chloe Sevigny , Jake Gyllenhaal , Mark Ruffalo
Director : David Fincher
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 165 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images.
Last updated : November 16, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Silence of the Lambs

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Cast & crew

User reviews

Not Your Average Serial Killer Movie (And That's a Good Thing)

evanston_dad
Mar 25, 2007

Interesting and well made...but like the case, frustrating.

planktonrules
Sep 6, 2021

immersive and detailed

SnoopyStyle
Jan 17, 2016

Good, but not what you'd expect

Mar 1, 2007

"This is the Zodiac speaking..."

iamkilgoretrout

As interesting and as tedious as a thirty-year unsolved case

Jul 31, 2007

The World Doesn't Work That Way!

Nov 15, 2010

Using the Facts to Create a Pleasing Crime Thriller

[email protected]
Mar 2, 2007

Terrific movie.

Sleepin_Dragon
Sep 3, 2020

Interesting story but 30 mins too long.

cynical2205
May 18, 2007

"Unraveling the Mystery"

chiragrathod19
Jul 16, 2024

Not horror, not drama, not suspense, not a thriller - classify as dull

[email protected]
Apr 19, 2008

The fear of the real and the unknown...

TheMovieMark

The Stranger Urban Americans Fear: A Killer Playing the Most Dangerous Game

classicalsteve
Apr 2, 2007

Good acting, good plot, too long

Calicodreamin
Jun 20, 2019

Fincher's best? No. But still very good

Feb 27, 2007

Overrated...

Mar 9, 2008

A great thriller about the true story of the brutal Zodiac Killer

Smells_Like_Cheese
Jul 23, 2007

Construction Watcher

Mar 16, 2007

"This Is The Zodiac Speaking"

Lechuguilla

Welcome Back, David Fincher.

Probably "too realistic" for its own good.

educallejero
Sep 18, 2019

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...odiac!

Dec 19, 2007

"Zodiac" A Favorable Sign

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